A cycle of Cathay, or, China, south and north . s were two fine cedars,which attracted the eyes of officials engaged in repairing apalace. They wished them for pillars, and were about to cutthem down when the priests begged me to intercede. Inpleading for the trees I quoted an ancient poem beginning, Ft fe kail tang, Pii tsien pit fa, which answers literally to Woodman, spare that tree. Theofficials were much struck with this classic fragment in themouth of a barbarian, and promised to spare the trees; yeta few days later, when I was absent, they sent and felled the autumn I succeeded
A cycle of Cathay, or, China, south and north . s were two fine cedars,which attracted the eyes of officials engaged in repairing apalace. They wished them for pillars, and were about to cutthem down when the priests begged me to intercede. Inpleading for the trees I quoted an ancient poem beginning, Ft fe kail tang, Pii tsien pit fa, which answers literally to Woodman, spare that tree. Theofficials were much struck with this classic fragment in themouth of a barbarian, and promised to spare the trees; yeta few days later, when I was absent, they sent and felled the autumn I succeeded in securing ehgible premises,with space for school and chapel, near the Tsungli Yamen, inthe southeastern angle of the Tartar city. The previous occu-pant was a mandarin with four wives. We got the place cheapbecause one of them had hanged herself there. A mandarinof my acquaintance had six wives; I never heard that any ofthem committed suicide, but they did tear each others such cases, he said, he always turned on them the hose of 230. FIRST YEARS IX PEKING 2^1 a force-pump. The floors of our house were paved with tiles,wooden floors being a luxury unknown to northern Chinese,who, sensibly enough, carry a small floor attached to their feetin the shape of thick soles made of compressed cloth. Forus, however, the tiles were cold comfort, and while they werebeing replaced by planks we lived in one of the wings, a pairof which are provided for every respectable dwelling. One morning in October Mr. Burhngame came in with graveconcern depicted on his usually bright and cheerful face. Heinformed us that, a serious difference having arisen between theBritish minister and the Chinese government, the former hadstruck his flag and broken off communications, adding that wemight be compelled to quit Peking at an hours notice. Wehad seen the war renewed in 1859 by this same minister, ongrounds which, in the eyes of many of his own countrj-men,were utterly inadequate. We now supposed
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