"Why, he ran right across our bows.

Oh, never mind him! I daresay he wanted washing.

I don't care.

Of course, I shouldn't have liked it if he had been drowned." Ten minutes later we were close in to the wharf, and Smith exclaimed-- "I say, why don't we get that interpreter chap to take us all round the place ?" "Don't know where he lives," said Barkins, "or it wouldn't be a bad plan." "I know," I cried.
"How do you know ?" "He showed me when he was on board, through the little glass he wanted to sell you." "Why, you couldn't see through that cheap thing, could you ?" "Yes, quite plain.

It's just there, close to the warehouses, with a signboard out." "So it is," cried Smith, shading his eyes; and he read aloud from a red board with gilt letters thereon-- Ching Englis' spoken Interpret Fancee shop Just then the boat glided up against the wood piles; we sprang out on to the wharf, ordered the men back, and stood for two minutes watching them well on their return for fear of any evasions, and then found ourselves in the midst of a dense crowd of the lower-class Chinese, in their blue cotton blouses and trousers, thick white-soled shoes, and every man with his long black pigtail hanging down between his shoulders.
These men seemed to look upon us as a kind of exhibition, as they pressed upon us in a semicircle; and I was beginning to think that we should end by being thrust off into the water, when there was a burst of angry shouting, a pair of arms began to swing about, and the owner of the "fancee shop," whose acquaintance we had made on board, forced his way to our side, turned his back upon us, and uttered, a few words which had the effect of making the crowd shrink back a little.
Then turning to us, he began, in his highly-pitched inquiring tone--"You wantee Ching?
You wantee eat, dlink, smoke?
Ching talkee muchee Englis'.