In six days bang would fall the knife, and
their heads would roll at the feet of the executioners at Yuen-nan-fu.
Coming into Ch'u-hsiong-fu[AJ]--the stage is what the men call 90 li, but
it is not more than 70--I was brought to an insignificant wayside place
where the innkeeper upbraided my boy for endeavoring to allow me to pass
without wetting a cup at his bonny hostelry. Had I done so, I should
have avouched myself utterly indifferent to reputation as a traveler.
But I did not stay the night here. I passed on through the town to a new
building, an inn, into which I peered inquiringly. A well-dressed lad
came courteously forward, in his bowing and scraping seeming to say,
"Good sir, we most willingly embrace the opportunity of being honored
with your noble self and your retinue under our poor roof. Long since
have we known your excellent qualities; long have we wished to have you
with us. We can have no reserve towards a person of your open and noble
nature. The frankness of your humor delights us. Disburden yourself, O
great brother, here and at once of your paraphernalia."
I stayed, and was charged more for lodging than at any other place in
all my wanderings in China.
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