The house-servants in China are all men, but Cantonese women are employed as nurses for children, and also as waiting-maids for the ladies. The enervating influence of the climate obliges Western women to take life easily; and being obliged to drop most of their active pursuits, they usually are greatly dependent upon the services of these women. The Chinese _Amahs_--as these nurses and waiting-maids are called--often have bright and genial faces; and when introduced into a household where all the servants wear the grave and stolid faces of Chinamen, are a great relief to the every-day picture of domestic life. We found the men-servants very respectful and obliging, and not only as conscious of kind and fair dealing, but quite as grateful for it as the human race are generally. The Chinese are a patient, persevering, and industrious people, but they have not the appearance of a cheerful race. The respectable serving-women, with whom I came in contact, seemed more cheerful than the men, but even among them I rarely met with a joyous face. This, however, may in a great measure be owing to there being no day of rest like our Sabbath, and therefore no cessation from their daily toil, except on the occasion of some heathen festival. The children of the boat-people learn to work as soon as they can handle an oar; and those of the landsmen whenever their little forms have acquired strength sufficient to bear the bamboo shoulder-piece, and the little buckets of water, or small packages that pend from either end. I have rarely seen young children, or even men, bear such heavy burdens as they are accustomed to carry in China. The river at Whampoa,--always teeming with boat-life,--frequently presented sad objects of suffering poverty. I saw, however, among these boat-people many neat, comfortable, and apparently happy families.[18]