8.  Ceylon is very rich in plants and trees.  The cocoanut palm grows almost everywhere.  On one of the rivers I saw a raft of cocoanuts.  A man swam behind it and pushed it along.

[Illustration:  {Cocoanut palm tree}]

9.  With this letter I send you a picture of a tea-garden.  Notice the men and women plucking the leaf.  Many of them come from the south of India.  Look at the white planter.  He comes, as you know, from our own country.

[Illustration:  In A Ceylon tea Plantation.]

10.  In the middle of Ceylon there are many high mountains.  The highest is called Adam’s Peak.  It stands like a great wedge high above the other hills.

11.  The people of Ceylon believe that it is a holy mountain.  They say that once upon a time Buddha climbed to the top of this mountain.  To prove that he did so they show you his footprint.  It is more than five feet long!

12.  A little temple has been built over the footprint.  Men, women, and children climb the mountain, to lay little gifts before the footprint, and to strew sweet flowers about it.  When this is done, the children kneel down and ask their parents to bless them.

13.  To-morrow I leave Ceylon on a long voyage to China.  You will not hear from me for several weeks.  I hope you are all well, and that you are still good children.—­I remain, your loving Father.

* * * * *

19.  A letter from china.

1.  My dear children,—­Three weeks have gone by since I last wrote to you.  I have made my voyage safely, and I am now in a great city of China called Canton.

2.  Ask mother to show you China on the globe.  You see at once that it is a vast country.  It is larger than the whole of Europe.  One-fourth of all the people in the world live in China.

3.  All round this city of Canton there is a high wall.  From the wall the city seems to be a beautiful place.  When, however, you enter it, you soon find that it is dirty and full of foul smells.

[Illustration:  A Chinese Street.

(From the picture by T. Hodgson Liddell, R.B.A.)]

4.  The streets are very narrow, and are always crowded with people.  Many of them are roofed in to keep them cool.  Most of them are so narrow that no carriage can pass along them.  People who wish to ride must be carried in a kind of box on the shoulders of two or more men.

[Illustration:  {Person riding in a box}]

5.  I am sure you would like to see the signboards that hang down in front of the shops.  The strange letters on them are painted in gold and in bright colours.  They look very gay indeed.

6.  The shops sell all sorts of things—­silk, books, drugs, flowers, china, and birds.  Some of the shops only sell gold and silver paper.  The Chinese burn this paper at the graves of their friends.  When they do this they think that they are sending money for their dead friends to spend in the other world.