Putnam patriot., 1912-08-02
A Unique Vacation


 By Edith CruH of Thompson, a mis.
 sionary in China
 Od for the mountains of for the summer resort But how can de. scribe the trip to you in the Homeland for you have never experienced VA cation like it2 Yet l am sure you would enjoy 1t, so take your imagina- ton and come along with me.
 For weeks vacation has been in the air; do not mean only that the eSees sive heat has made the flesh long for il, !, but the planning has been uppermost in our minds. Large orders of food supplies and clothing have been ar- irving from the states, Shanghai and Hong Kong. All must be unpacked and repaeked in the langs er baskets. The trunk or suit ease is mol to be seen for our 'eNpress companies r choose 10 carry suspended from the two ends Of a pole that rests on the shoulders all our baggage. Each basket must weigh just fifty pounds so that they will bal ance. The newcomer finds quite bit of re-adjusting and weighing necessary that each "carryn shall be just the 100 lbs. More than that, the basket must be lined and covered with oiled paper, for il k sure to rain on the way. tr- less they are all properly covered and fastened the contents may prove so tempting for some ones fingers that they will never reach their destination. Do you wonder the house Is in confu- sion for days, as sugar, flour and can nsd goods are weighed and stored away in the langs; as clothing, bedding, chairs, lamps, medicine, oil stove, in fact, everything necessary for four months, is paeked2
 Do you eNclaim at the length of the vacation? Remember we never get a vacation from the language study. The ponderous books and the Chinese teacher is the most important part of the baggage In fact, as we are all young people in our party, we are go- ing away early that we may study the harder and be ready for more active work the sooner. Leisure, recreation, and rest do not enter our minds, but we krow that freedom from the tfopi- cal heat and oppressive air ot the plain must bring recreation.
 At last the household articles to be left are also packed away and locked up, the carriers are hired, the boats or lered, and we are ready to set out for lour.day.thp, distance you could ae- complish at home by steam tn few hours. But the East will move slowly and with all the inherited hustle and rush in our Western blood, we must settle back and let the Chtnaman move us Ill bis will The nearly hundred for the jetIy at S a. m. where all Is | piled into a sampan. We take another | sampan al 9.30 a. m. and cross the haT- bor to a little dilapidated river steam. CT that is to take us the first forty | miles. IL has no regular hours for leaving So We arrange our chairs on the wee upper deck and patiently wait 1 till after the noon hour for the whistle to blow. The captain says "roo m chee baggage, but we argue that there are seventeen in the party and we must have it. He had counted but four white faces in the party and mol seen the servants and teachers and the three wee children.
 As we sit waiting for the steamer tc start an apparently well-to-do "new China" man is seen coming on board with a fine new American straw hat which the breeze gently lifts and low CTS 10 the water. Instantly a cooli' springs to s sampan, reaches for th,