Excerpt from The Home of the Dragon: A Tonquinese Idyll, Told in Seven Chapters How well I remember this first meal Ican see the flowers in the centre of the table now - big yellow double marigolds and little pink roses laid out in fanciful pattern round a sugar loaf shape. When I pulled one of the flowers out I found that it had no stem, but was stuck into a mould of river mud! The table was laid very correctly; the two house-boys stood near the dresser, looking very decorative in their white clothes and black turbans. I found that instead of a napkin I had a pillowslip under my bread. It was delightful, so deliciously unexpected. Then, let me see, we had oxtail soup, then fish, and the boy had put two red hibiscus blossoms where once had been the eyes. Then a dish of wild ducks, and roast chicken and salad. It does not seem entertaining to you, my gentle reader, this quoting of a menu? But with me it is different. Let me but smell the odour of one of these dishes, or see a big patch of sun shine on a whitewashed wall, or feel the fanning of some scented summer breeze, or hear the squeaking of a wheelbarrow, and I am back once more in yonder sunny clime. Let me but smell, feel, hear one of these things to-day, and, quitting this chilly north, I roam about at large. I first go back to the old house standing in the sunshine by the river. The green shutters are closed. I walk about on the verandah and wave my hand to our neighbour; the ribbons of her light wrapper are fluttering in the Wind, but she cannot see me. Then through space (for I despise the staircase) into the Court. The dogs are all asleep I cannot resist the temptation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.