The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

DISCOMFORTS OF PONY-RIDING. 381
FORTUNE-TELLING BY DISSECTING CHINESE CHARACTERS.
" Well, tills is not going to the Great Wall. "We went ont of Pekin by
tlie north gate, and into a country that was flat and dusty. Fred's pony
was not very good-natured, and every little while took it into his head to
balance himself on the tip of his tail. This was not the kind of riding we
had bargained for, as it made tlie travel rather wearisome, and interfered
with the progress of the whole caravan. We thought the pony would behave
himself after a little fatigue had cooled his temper ; but the more we
went on, the worse he became. When we were about ten miles out, he ran
away, and went tearing through a cotton-field as though he owned it, and
he ended by pitching his rider over his head across a small ditch.
" Then we found how lucky it was we had brought along a mule litter,
as Fred rode in it the rest of the day. Next morning he made our guide
change ponies with him. In half an hour the guide was in a mud
puddle, and saying something in Chinese that had a very bad sound, but
it didn't help dry his clothes in the least. On the whole, we got along
very well with the ponies in the north of China, when we remember the
Ijad reputation tliey have and the things that most travellers say about
them.
" We stopped at the village of Sha-ho, about twenty miles from Pekin ;
and as Ave had started a little late, and it was near sunset, we concluded to
spend the night there. There was not much to see at the village, except a