7.  Many things are also sold in the streets.  The street traders carry a bamboo pole across the shoulder.  From the ends of this pole they sling the baskets in which they carry their wares.  Many workmen ply their trades in the open street, and you are sure to see quack doctors, letter-writers, and money-changers.

8.  The Chinese do in the open street many things which we do inside our houses.  A Chinaman likes to eat his meals where every one can see him.

9.  Sometimes he will sit in front of his house and wash his feet.  Yesterday I saw a man having his tooth drawn out of doors.  A crowd stood round him, watching to see how it was done.

10.  How should you like to go for a ride in a wheelbarrow?  In China the wheelbarrow is often used for carrying people or goods from place to place.  It has a large wheel in the middle.  Round the wheel there is a platform for people or goods.

[Illustration:  {People riding in a wheelbarrow}]

11.  A broad river runs through the city.  It is crowded with boats, in which live many thousands of people.  Many of these people never go ashore at all.

12.  Over the sterns of the boats there are long baskets.  These are the backyards of the floating city.  Hens, ducks, geese, and sometimes pigs, are kept in these baskets.

[Illustration:  {A boy on a boat}]

13.  The little boys who live on the boats have a log of wood fastened to their waists.  This keeps them afloat if they fall overboard.  The little girls have no such lifebelts.  In China nobody troubles about the girls.

14.  Nearly all the boats have an eye painted on their bows.  Perhaps this seems strange to you.  The Chinese, however, say,—­

          “S’pose no got eye, no can see;
          S’pose no can see, no can walkee.”

* * * * *

20.  Chinese boys and girls.

1.  Chinese fathers and mothers are very glad when their children are boys.  In China the boys are much petted.  Their mothers give way to them, and let them do as they please.

2.  Girls, however, are not welcome.  Sometimes they are called “Not-wanted” or “Ought-to-have-been-a-boy.”

3.  A Chinese boy has always two names, sometimes four.  He has one name when he is a child, and another when he goes to school.  He has a third name when he begins to earn money.  When he dies he has a fourth name.

4.  Chinese boys are very fond of flying kites, which are shaped like fish or butterflies or dragons.  Old gentlemen are just as fond of kite-flying as boys.

5.  In China you will often see boys playing hopscotch or spinning peg-tops.  They also play shuttlecock, but they have no battledore.  They kick the shuttlecock with the sides of their feet.

6.  Chinese boys love to set off fireworks, such as crackers, wheels, and rockets.  If the fireworks make a loud noise, so much the better.