Aunt Alice had departed New York on Washington’s Birthday and it was over three long months before the ship sighted land. Then it was the rather grim and forbidding bulk of Christmas Island that met their eyes rather than the soft and familiar outlines of a Cape Cod shore. Like many another traveller since, they must have felt that the magic of “Christmas” was a mis-nomer. But there were other lands ahead, all with surprises of their own. At Java Head a wild and noisy lot of nearly-naked, native traders swarmed aboard the vessel with live chickens and fresh fruit to sell and once the girls had conquered their fears at the strangeness of them they were full of gratitude for the change in bill-of-fare. The “Obed Baxter” arrived at Shanghai on June 25, four months out of New York. The tumult and confusions of that port would have been startling in any case for the Cape Cod wife and her two small daughters but it was made more trying by the fact that the Captain’s sudden illness sent him to a hospital and left his family alone. Cape Cod spunk showed itself then as it would be called upon to show itself on many another occasion. Mrs. Baxter gathered her two children and secured quarters at one of the hotels of the city. From there they visited the hospital and found time to do some sight seeing as well. What an experience it must have been, with the mother called upon to act fearlessly in order to conceal her worst fears from the children! And all in a land that was many thousands of miles from the peaceful Main Street of South Dennis and full of strange sights, sounds and smells. As they walked the streets a horde of beggars, chattering fearfully, tore at their clothes and pushed against them so that it took the greatest control not to show fear. On one occasion the first mate became so infuriated at being jostled about that he pushed a Chinaman backwards. The coolie fell into a boat, broke his neck and died, and the mate was arrested and sent to prison. While awaiting trial he contracted the dreaded cholera that raged throughout the city and died. Now the father-Captain was ill and his First Mate dead, and the three Cape women were more alone than ever.