Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/409

Rh extremely cheerful and happy under it all. He will take a lot of killing, that youth. They had there loot from the Imperial Palace at Pekin, in the form of a tame deer, given by H.M.S. Endymion. It used to follow the doctor through the wards, but ate up all the flowers everywhere and did constant mischief, so it had been relegated to an enclosure, where it seemed very happy in the company of some turkeys, with which it seemed great friends. This naval hospital—its grounds overlooking the sea and its inhabitants all seemed to me to be particularly bright and cheerful!

With the two German officers I made my first visit to a tea-house—that of the hundred and one steps, so widely known. As we arrived at the top of these steps the two little tea-house girls ran out to greet us and put coverings over our boots. As one of them—I forget her name, but she is a famous personage, known for years to people of all nations—stooped over my feet she exclaimed, “Oh, you are English”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I know by your shape,” she replied; but whether she meant the shape of my feet or my figure I don't know.

When we got inside and were sitting on the floor, as is the custom, I told her I was not English, and as she could not guess what I was, I said I was a Scotsman.

“Oh, I can sing you a Scottish song,” she said; and then she sang “Auld Lang Syne,” and “Coming thro' the Rye,” and then German, French, and English songs! This is the oldest tea-house in Yokohama, and the albums kept are full of signatures or visiting cards pasted in, and this amusing young lady had something to say about most of the people.

Of course there were the names of hundreds