Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 64 (Color Image)

0064	Among the Celestials : vol.1

40 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. II.

bare inside, and with stiff, simple furniture.

Under such hard conditions, with such plain

surroundings, and shut off for ever from inter-

course with the civilised world, it might be

supposed that these missionaries would be dull,

stern, perhaps morbid men. But they were

precisely the contrary. They had a fund of

simple joviality, and were hearty and full of

spirits. They spoke now and then with a sigh

of " la belle France," but they were evidently

thoroughly happy in their lives, and devoted to

their work.

From these simple hospitable mission stations

we made our way to Sansing. Every day now

the weather was becoming colder, and at one

place we were delayed for a day by a very

heavy snowstorm. We had to hurry along,

for the missionaries had assured us that in

winter the thermometer fell to over 4o below

zero Fahrenheit, and had showed us a thermo-

meter which they had used, on which they had

seen the mercury fall to — 47° Centigrade. The

country we passed through was now hilly, and

covered with copses of wood oak and birch.

We might have been passing through an

English county ; and on the edges of these

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books