Kiukiang, China,

June 10th, 1875

My Dear Sister Rose:

Your letter of Apr. 16th came a few days ago. It found me enjoying my usual health, and prosecuting my usual labors. My life has become such a humdrum sort of affair that I have scarcely anything to write about in my letters any more. I thought I would relieve the monotony this week by taking a trip in the Mission Boat to the village of Shaw-ho, about 12 miles S.W. of Kiukiang, and spend a few hours there in selling books. To-day was the day selected, and as our new physician Dr. Tarbell and his wife, and Miss Hoag, had never taken a sail in the boat yet, I thought it might be made a pleasure excursion for them. They were very glad to accept my offer, and after breakfast we went on board, taking provisions enough for the rest of the day. There was no breeze when we started, but we were stupid enough to imagine that a favorable one would spring up to oblige us. We were as badly disappointed as people ever are under the circumstances, and a sadder failure than ours has seldom befallen a pleasure excursion. Leaving the Yangtze river at the upper end of the Foreign Concession, we turned into a narrow stream called the Leung Kai Ho, lined on both sides with junks and sampans (Chinese skiffs). Following its tortuous course a mile or so, we emerged into the lake which it was necessary for us to cross on our way to Shaw-ho. But there was no perceptible breeze, and the boat was too large for three men to row fast; so our progress was hardly anything worth speaking of. At 10 o'clock we were still in sight of Kiukiang, and it was evident we could not reach our destination. So we concluded to row across to the other side where there was a clump of trees, and go on shore for dinner. But the sun beat down very hot on our boat, and Mrs. Tarbell took a very severe sick headache. Miss Hoag was also quite unwell, and we thought the best thing for us to do was to turn around and make for home as fast as we could. Mrs. Tarbell kept vomiting as if she were seasick, and still that sun beat down upon us, and still that breeze refused to blow. We were two hours and more on the way back, and as we came into the Leung Kai Ho again a very nice wind sprang up for us. The ladies also felt so well that we concluded to take a sail up the river and not let the whole trip prove a fizzle. The breeze answered us very well until we got fairly out into the current, when it died away and left us floating helplessly down the river, past the Concession and the city of Kiukiang. This liked to have proved the most serious part of the joke for us; but we were lucky enough to manage to work our boat in alongside the bund and get on shore. Half an hour after we reached home, a magnificent breeze sprang up, which would have taken us almost anywhere that we wanted to go. But such is human life.

Dr. Tarbell is from Lynn, Mass., but hails originally from Maine, and is a regular type of the Down East Yankee. He can tell a story in a capital way, and has a ...........