Reader, for your sake I refrain from a description. But may I, for
perhaps your sake too, if you would wander hither ere the charm of
things as they were in the beginning is still unrobbed and unmolested,
give you some few impressions of a little of the life--grave, gay, but
never unhappy--which I spent with my excellent co-voyager, The Other
Man.
It is a part of wisdom, when starting any journey, not to look forward
to the end with too much eagerness: hear my gentle whisper that you may
never get there, and if you do, congratulate yourself; interest yourself
in the progress of the journey, for the present only is yours. Each day
has its tasks, its rapids, its perils, its glories, its fascinations,
its surprises, and--if you will live as we did, its _curry and rice_.
Then, if you are traveling with a companion, remember that it is better
to yield a little than to quarrel a great deal. Most disagreeable and
undignified is it anywhere to get into the habit of standing up for what
people are pleased to call their little rights, but nowhere more so than
on the Upper Yangtze houseboat, under the gaze of a Yangtze crew. Life
is really too short for continual bickering, and to my way of thinking
it is far quieter, happier, more prudent and productive of more peace,
if one could yield a little of those precious little rights than to
incessantly squabble to maintain them.
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