follow him further, but resolved to find some cigar ends and try my luck there.

"Being naturally rather a sharp lad, I reasoned with myself that it was only wasting good time to walk about in the gutters on the chance of finding a few stray 'ends,' and finally hit upon a plan which I put into execution before returning home—at least, to my mother's grave; that was my only home then. After the English Club at Kulangsoo had been closed at midnight, I quietly went on the broad verandah, and there found fully three catties weight of cigar-ends of the best quality. These I carefully wrapped up, and then, as the clock struck one, started for home. I was too poor to afford joss-sticks to burn at my mother's grave, so on my way through the town I picked out from various doorways the half-burned joss-sticks, some being only a little used.

"Next morning I crossed over to the Amoy side, and when the foreign hongs were swept out, I picked from the dust and refuse quite a number of cigar-ends. These, added to my others, I sold at a good price to the proprietor of the large tobacconist's shop, who had them made into cheap cigarettes and cigars for coolies. From that time forth I became a regular customer of his. I soon found by experience that even broken glass fetched at a certain place from eight to ten cash a catty, old bones from seven to ten cash, corks one cash each, spirit bottles two cents each, milk tins one cash, butter tins from four to six cash, empty cigar boxes eight cash, old newspapers three cents a catty, and kerosine tins-rare finds-ten cents each.

"It would not interest you, however," he concluded, "to relate the gradual day-by-day progress I made as an itinerant trader, that first day being the commencement of many similar ones, and the stepping-stone to years of frugal toil and drudgery. When I had saved a few dollars I went to Hong Kong and bought a couple of secondhand rickshas, which I painted and patched up like new, and loaned out to two coolies; then I bought more; afterwards a sampan, and finally a small trading junk. At the same time I bought the junk I opened a pawnshop in the Holy

wood Road, in Hong Kong. When I had established a good business there I left it in charge of a trustworthy relation, and returned here to Amoy, where I opened another shop and did well. And now, dear friend, as you know, I own a fleet of junks and several pawn-shops, besides having good capital well invested in large and prosperous shipping firms. Now let us have a nightcap,' as you foreigners call it."

So I drank to Yun Lip and his fortune, and then went home, a wiser and even a better man.

Another very dear friend of mine in Amoy is Mr. John U (or Yu), a noble young Christian who, when I first met him was a student in Foochow College. During his holidays he often came of an evening, with several other young native students, to my house, where we held literary and debating meetings. I was often charmed and impressed with the brilliant attainments and refined wit and culture of my enthusiastic guests.

Mr. U, with whom I still correspond, on leaving college obtained employment as a chemist's assistant, afterwards joining the Imperial Maritime Customs as an indoor clerk, where he still remains, making good progress. Owing to the recent death of his elder brother, the care and maintenance of his beloved family has entirely devolved upon him; and a better and more dutiful son, and a more faithful young Christian worker could hardly be found. His younger brother, now a medical student in the Hong Kong Alice Memorial Hospital, is the same; and I take this opportunity of wishing them both a good and prosperous life, blessed with old age and peaceful retirement, enhanced by the pleasing reminiscences of a well-spent life.

XVIII-AMOY AND "NAMOA" PIRATES.

PIRACY among native craft, is yet rife in China, and during

the time I was there the coast of Fuhkien was noted for piratical outrages. It was reported in the latter end of 1890 that quite a fleet of piratical junks were cruising off Foochow, and several trading vessels were boarded and looted near there.

In the month of August, 1890, three traders left Chiangchow, near Amoy, in a small junk, for the purpose of buying some pigs at a place called Hing Gwa, which is a journey of two or three days. Everything went well, and wind and weather proved favourable until passing the island of Mechew. Here early one evening they were attacked and boarded by armed pirates, who took possession of the junk, killing one man and driving two overboard. The two survivors who owned the craft pleaded hard for their lives, which, strange, to say, were spared by the pirates who-intending that they should be accorded the privilege of dying by starvationleft them on a very small out-of-the-way island, thinking, no doubt, that in a couple of days they would succumb to privation and exposure.

This was not their fate, however, for on the second or third day of their confinement a stray fishing boat, returning to Amoy, happened to see these unfortunate men and brought them back there. On their arrival they went to the Taotai, who immediately despatched the Chinese gun-boat "Hu-po" in search of the desperadoes, and the two survivors went out in her to aid the