My husband cabled me to take a larger vessel, a United States army transport which left Hong Kong about the same time we did, but I was comfortably located with my family on the little Kasuga Maru ; the transfer of baggage was a troublesome task; and I figured that as long as the Kasuga Maru had been afloat in south seas for a good many years, she might be trusted to keep afloat for a few days longer.

We caught the calm between two storms. The sea had been beaten down by torrential rains; and while great, smooth waves rose under us and sent us rolling in a sickening zigzag all the way across, there was in them no threat of destruction, and I really began to feel that the China Sea had been maligned.

A feeling of intense curiosity got me out of my stateroom bright and early on the morning of our arrival in Manila.