As after July 18th the shelling ceased, and some of the enemies’ soldiers, with an eye to business, brought a few eggs to the Japanese barricade for sale, a market department was established and placed under the care of Messrs. A. D. Brent and J. M. Allardyce, where eggs could be obtained _pro rata_ for numbers of women and children in a household, compared with the supply on hand. These eggs were sold at four cents each. But often the supply only admitted of one egg being sold to a household of women or children. At other times an egg each could be obtained daily. But alas! the Chinese soldiers soon found out what their soldiers were doing, and promptly stopped it, so that after August 6th the market was obliged to close from lack of eggs. On July 20th, two days after the shelling ceased, the tsung-li-yamen sent a present to the ministers of one hundred watermelons, seventy eggplants, sixty vegetable squashes, and one hundred cucumbers. Some few of the besieged, besides the diplomats, thus obtained the first taste of fresh vegetables they had enjoyed for a month. The ministers’ request to the yamen that vegetable-venders be allowed to come to the barricades or the great gate, however, was denied, and we have since had no further supply. It is hard to know that within half a mile of us in any direction there is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, and yet, owing to the closeness of our investment by the hostile troops, we cannot obtain a cent’s worth. On August 5th, while I was standing talking with a Japanese sentry, on an outpost barricade of the Su Wang Fu, a Chinese soldier in full uniform walked quickly up the narrow lane our barricade commanded toward us. I called on the Japanese to fire on him, but he remarked: “Let him come on; he has no gun, and may want to sell something.” True enough, just before reaching us he held up his hand in front of his face to indicate that he wished to speak, and so was allowed to come around the corner of the barricade. He was a young man of not over twenty-five, but showed the marks of being a confirmed opium-eater. “I have brought you some eggs,” he remarked, hastily exposing ten of the precious ovules to view. The Jap counted out forty cents and gave him, and advised him to clear out, which he speedily did, remarking as he left: “I will lose my head if I am caught at this.” As he could buy the eggs in the market for five cents, his percentage of profit was very handsome. [Illustration: Chinese gentleman entertaining a friend with an opium pipe] After the so-called truce of July 18th, the native soldiers occupying the wall to the east of the American marines’ barricade strictly observed the terms of the truce, and never either enlarged their barricade nor fired another shot.