SCENE IN A CHINESE TEMPLE.
"Oh yes," Frank responded. "We were at Peking, which is, I think, only eight hundred miles from Kiachta. We went from Peking to the Great Wall of China, so that we were less than seven hundred miles from the point where you called on the Sargootchay. You can learn about our journey in 'The Boy Travellers in Japan and China.'"
"I shall read the book with great pleasure," was the reply, "now that I have met the youths whose travels are described in it. As you have seen the Chinese at home, and know their manners and customs, I won't take your time by telling you what I saw in Mai-mai-chin, which is just like any other Chinese city in nearly every respect.
"I may add that it is said to be the cleanest town in all China. It is only half a mile square, carefully laid out, and its streets are swept daily. Only the merchants and their employés, with a small garrison of soldiers, are allowed to live there, and consequently there is no poor population such as you always find in the other cities of the Empire."
"That must be a great relief," Fred remarked. "Wherever we went in China we saw so much degradation and suffering that it destroyed a great deal of the pleasure of the journey."
"I didn't see a beggar in Mai-mai-chin," continued Mr. Hegeman, "nor anybody who looked like one. There were plenty of laborers employed in handling the tea and other merchandise, but they all appeared to be well cared for. Outside the town there was quite a camp of Mongolians with their camel-trains, which are employed in the transportation of goods across the great desert of Gobi.
"The Sargootchay invited me to dinner, and I went there with the Governor of Kiachta and some of his officers. The Sargootchay was polite, and we tried to talk, but had a good deal of difficulty in doing so on account of the numerous translations.