Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

UNOFFICIAL LETTERS OF

we might obtain a sufficient number of polistas to
carry our luggage down to Naguilian. Then the
journey was timed so that we might get down the
trail between rainstorms. We planned to start last
Monday, hoping we might get off Tuesday or
Wednesday, but it was Thursday morning before
all our polistas arrived and our horses were ready.
Even then we did not leave the sanitarium at six
o'clock, as every party should do. The nonappearance of half the polistas caused the delays. A dinner at the governor's the evening before our departure was the cause of our late start, for a young
pig had been killed to grace the feast, and Bug Tong,
factotum and chief cook, also gave a little dinner
in the kitchen to visiting polistas after we had dined.
We heard the sounds of revelry, and perceived the
odor of rice wine as we were taking leave of our
host. At all events, Bug Tong, who was sent in
quest of lost polistas, returned at nine o'clock with
the missing ones. They looked sleepy and shamefaced as they loaded up for the journey. Auria had
a chair carried by two strong fellows.
Miss Norton, a school-teacher returning to her
work in Manila after an outing in the mountains;
Morris, the guide, and I went on horseback. Miss
Norton is a sensible sort of person in general, but
she has certain habits and customs which are peculiar and original. One of these is her manner of
mounting and dismounting from a horse. She says
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