Where did it go?

It seemed to slip down over the edge of the world.  To-morrow morning, if you are up early, you will see it come back again on the other side.  As it goes away from us to-night, it is coming to somebody who lives far away, round the other side of the world.  While we had the sunshine, she had night; and now, when night is coming to us, it is morning for her.

I think men have always felt like following the sun to the unknown West, beyond its golden gate of setting day, and perhaps that has led many a wanderer on his path of discovery.  Let us follow the sun over the rolling earth.

The sun has gone; shall we go, too, and take a peep round there to see who is having morning now?

The long, bright sunbeams are sliding over the tossing ocean, and sparkling on the blue water of a river upon which are hundreds of boats.  The boats are not like those which we see here, with white sails or long oars.  They are clumsy, square-looking things, without sails, and they have little sheds or houses built upon them.  We will look into one, and see what is to be seen.

There is something like a little yard built all around this boat; in it are ducks,—­more ducks than you can well count.  This is their bedroom, where they sleep at night; but now it is morning, and they are all stirring,—­waddling about as well as they can in the crowd, and quacking with most noisy voices.  They are waking up Kang-hy, their master, who lives in the middle of the boat; and out he comes from the door of his odd house, and out comes little Pen-se, his daughter, who likes to see the ducks go for their breakfast.

The father opens a gate or door in the basket-work fence of the ducks’ house, and they all crowd and hurry to reach the water again, after staying all night shut up in this cage.  There they go, tumbling and diving.  Each must have a thorough bath first of all; then the old drake leads the way, and they swim off in the bright water along the shore for a hundred yards, and then among the marshes, where they will feed all day, and come back at night when they hear the shrill whistle of Kang-hy calling them to come home and go to bed.

Pen-se and her father will go in to breakfast now, under the bamboo roof which slides over the middle part of the boat, or can be pushed back if they desire.  As Kang-hy turns to go in, and takes off his bamboo hat, the sun shines on his bare, shaved head, where only one lock of hair is left; that is braided into a long, thick tail, and hangs far down his back.  He is very proud of it, and nothing would induce him to have it cut off.  Now it hangs down over his loose blue nankeen jacket, but when he goes to work he will twist it round upon the crown of his head, and tuck the end under the coil to keep it out of the way.  Isn’t this a funny way for a man to wear his hair?  Pen-se has hers still in little soft curls, but by and by it will be braided, and at last fastened up into a high knot on the top of her head, as her mother’s is.  Her little brother Lin already has his head shaved almost bare, and waits impatiently for the time when his single lock of hair will be long enough to braid.