CHAPTER III.

SHOPPING IN JINRIKSHAS.


"I feel very much like a baby in a baby carriage," observed Miss Helen
Campbell as Mr. Campbell almost lifted her into the graceful little
two-wheeled vehicle. "And is that poor soul going to turn into a horse
and pull me?" she demanded.

"You aren't such a heavy load," replied her cousin. "I doubt if the S. P.
C. A. would get excited over it. I am only sorry you have to be alone,
but I suppose those four inseparables are paired off as usual. Billie
with Nancy and Mary with Elinor."

"Indeed, I much prefer to be alone," said Miss Campbell. "Then I can hold
on with both hands in case I am upset backwards."

"You never will be. They will treat you like spun glass. You will take
good care of the ladies, Komatsu," he said to the 'riksha man who,
leaning against the garden wall, resembled a bronze figure, brown and
muscular.

"Gracious lady of fearing not need," answered Komatsu with an
ingratiating smile as he stepped between the shafts of the 'riksha.

"It is impossible to tell how much English they know and how much they
don't know," Mr. Campbell confided to his relative in a low voice. "They
never ask twice and they always make some kind of an out at a reply. But