“That’s the breath of the Orient,” smiled Jack, not inclined to continue in the vein in which the conversation had started.

“I don’t know why the breath of the Orient should differ from the breath of the Occident,” replied Frank, well pleased at the change of subject.  “It wouldn’t, if the natives of the far East would put bathtubs in their houses and garbage cans on the street comers.”

“Well, there certainly is an odor about the East,” grinned Jack.  “Perhaps it is the hot weather.”

“Hot weather has nothing to do with the sanitary conditions of this part of the world,” Frank went on.  “Peking is in the latitude of Philadelphia, or New York.  You wouldn’t think so to hear people talk about the Orient back home, but you’ll change your mind if you don’t get out of this before winter sets in.”

“Somehow I never associated cold weather with the East,” Jack said.

“Why,” Frank continued, “this river freezes over about the middle of December and they run sledges on the ice until the middle of March.  In summer it is often 106 above zero, while in the winter it drops to about 6 degrees below.  If the natives were half civilized, you might get the idea that you were in Ohio, because of the fields of corn.”

“We don’t know much about China, do we?” mused Jack.

This was Frank’s opportunity.  Before reaching the coast he had spent many hours studying up on the history of the strange land he was about to visit.  His father was owner and editor of one of the most powerful newspapers in New York City, and the boy had had plenty of inspiration for historical research from the time he was old enough to read.  His father’s library had supplied him with all the facilities necessary to the carrying out of his inclination, and his travels with the Boy Scouts had brought him into contact with many of the countries whole history he had studied so enthusiastically.

Now he saw an opportunity of talking China to Jack, and started in at once.  Jack listened eagerly, for, while interested in the past of the strange land, he was too busy a young man to spend much time in any library.  His father was one of the leading corporation lawyers in New York, but the boy’s inclinations pointed to mining as a future profession—­when he had investigated the wilds of the world!

“We don’t know much about China,” Frank began, “because for centuries China has shunned what we call civilization.  This is said to be the most ancient and populous nation in the world, although it seems to me that history goes back farther on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates than on the western shore of the Yellow Sea.

“The authentic history of China goes back 2207 years before the birth of Christ, while Egyptian records and the data found along the Euphrates and the Tigris point to a much older organization of men into communities.  However, it is said by some that Fuh-hi founded the Chinese empire eight hundred years before the date given, when Yu the Great began to make history.