J. M. Alvey

“ It don't matter whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in power, there's no place like the U. S. A. Confound these outlandish, God-forsaken, evil-smelling places, where all the pests and misery of the world are bred. Dick's got bubonic plague, or the beri-beri or some such fool thing."
Joe told us that Dick got over the first attack in a few hours, but two weeks later on the first night out at sea on the way home he had the second, and it was worse than the first. After that they became more frequent and more violent, and Dick was wasting away and poor Joe's heart was breaking. ”

“ The hall, the parlors, the dining-room were all empty, but in the little passage that runs from the dining-room to the kitchen I thought I heard a footstep. I was sure I did. I stood and listened. And then somebody sneezed. I pulled the swinging door open. There stood my uncle in his nightshirt.
"God bless my soul!" he said. "I was about to shoot you."
"You're catching cold," I told him. "Go to bed. What are you tramping around here for this hour of the night?" ”

“ About midnight he rested easier, and Joe, my uncle and I sat down to the untasted dinner.
"A month ago, in China," said Joe, "we went up into the mountains one day, to a temple where a horrible old creature sat on the floor with incense burning all around him. He was a magician, or priest, or soothsayer or something, and had power with the Chinese gods. But Dick laughed at him and said the poor Chinamen were suckers to fall for his line. ”

“ AFTER sunset—say about an hour after, when the shadows have had time to stretch out to their full length, and before the moon has risen—the road that winds down from Monk's Head Ridge is as lonesome and "creepy" a place as I have ever known. ”

“ We'll have your lover overhauled and in A 1 shape in a jiffy. It may take a month to get real sick in China, but that's China. You're home now, my dear, and it don't take all day to get a pain in the tummy here, nor all night to get over it. ”