great, for he is far from congenial companionship. The tragedies
of life are particularly heavy at such an isolated post.
Mr. Laughlin showed me the house where his wife's body lay
for a month after her death in May, 1899. Then, with his
nine-year old daughter, he took the body in a house-boat down
the Grand Canal to Chin-kiang, a journey of sixteen days.
What a heart-breaking journey it must have been as the clumsy
boat crept slowly along the sluggish canal and the silent stars
looked down on the lonely husband beside the coffin of his
beloved wife. Yet he bravely returned to Chining-chou and
while I travelled on, he remained with only Dr. Lyon for a
companion. I was sorry to part with them for we had shared
many long-to-be-remembered experiences, while at that time
there was believed to be no small risk in remaining at such an
isolated post. But Dr. Johnson and I had to go, and so early
on the morning of June 17, we bade the brave fellows an affectionate
good-bye and left them in that far interior city, standing
at the East Gate till we were out of sight.

Fortunately, the day was fine for rain would have made the
flat, black soil almost impassible. But as it was, we had a
comfortable, dustless ride of sixty li to Yen-chou-fu, a city of
unusually massive walls, whose 60,000 people are reputed to be
the most fiercely anti-foreign in Shantung. Comparatively few
foreigners had been seen in this region and many of them had
been mobbed. The Roman Catholic priests, who are the only
missionaries here, have repeatedly been attacked, while an English
traveller was also savagely assaulted by these turbulent conservatives.
But the Roman Catholics with characteristic determination
fought it out, the German consul coming from