Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/240

176 of approaching spring, irrigated fields filled the valley bottom, wild-duck circled overhead, and cranes stood demurely and contentedly in the soaking paddy-fields.

Once again I found myself indebted to the members of the Bible Christian Mission, for I received a warm welcome and a cordial invitation from Mr and Mrs Dymond. There was no great stock of foreign goods to be seen in the town, Indian yarn constituting the chief article of consumption in this category, a good deal of weaving being carried on in the district. Here, too, as at Chao-t'ung, the spirit of reform stalked abroad. Celebrations had been held at the time of the edict promising a Constitution, and political speeches had been made. The humiliating treatment of the Chinese in America was graphically, if not too accurately, described, and one young student, fresh from the modern college at Yün-nan Fu, roundly denounced the corruption of the local yamen! Verily the old order changeth.

On the 13th I left Tung-ch'uan Fu and marched for twenty miles over fairly level