I shall not in the least go about to extenuate the Latitude of it: or to stint it only to the Produćtion of Weeds, of Thorns, Thisiles, and other the less useful Kinds of Plants

YANG SHU-TIEN and I boarded the plane after our arrival in Canton and reached Kuei-lin in the afternoon about three o'clock. Ho Li-chih, from the local China Travel Service, took us to the Kuei-lin Hotel, passing on the way an old wall said to be part of a mansion erected for a prince of the T'ang period. Not far from the old wall, a large, flourishing banyan tree had been left in the middle of the road. Kuei-lin has a subtropical climate and in the early summer everywhere is filled with green tree and red blossoms.

Why do I overlive? Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out to deathless pain?

'Try a Wienerschnitzel, Darcy,' I suggested. 'It's the nearest thing to steak they do. They don't have the beef in Germany.' […]