Her Majesty stood near me, and pointed to a smoked fish and wanted me to try it, as it was her favorite, and said: "Make yourselves at home. You know you have to fight your own battles here with this crowd. Of course you can come and tell me if anyone does not treat you fair." Her Majesty then went out, saying that she would walk a bit. I noticed that some of the court ladies did not look pleased, seeing that Her Majesty paid so much attention to us. I could see they were a little jealous of me, but that did not worry me in the least. After we got through our luncheon, I followed the Young Empress, for it was all so new to me, and I did not know what I must do--whether to join Her Majesty or not. After seeing that they were jealous of me, I paid strict attention to everything, so as not to make any mistake in doing my work and let them have the satisfaction of laughing at me. I would not give them the chance. I heard Her Majesty talking to the eunuchs who looked after the garden, about some branches which ought to be cut down, saying they were lazy. So we went to her. She said to us: "You see I have to look after everything myself, if not, my flowers would be ruined. I can't depend on them at all. I wonder what they are good for. They ought to look around every day and cut down the dead branches and leaves. They have not been punished for several days and they are looking forward to it." She laughed and said: "I will not disappoint them, but give them all they wish to have." I thought these people must be idiots, looking forward to a whipping, and wondered who would whip them. Her Majesty turned to me and said: "Have you ever witnessed such an operation?" I told her that I had, having seen the convicts being whipped at a Magistrate's Yamen when I was a little girl living at Shansi (on the Yangtsze). She said: "That is nothing. The convicts are not half so wicked as these eunuchs. Of course they deserve a heavier punishment when they are bad." Her Majesty said that I should learn to play dice with her, as she never had enough people to play with, so we went back to the same room where she had taken her lunch. A square table was in the middle of this large room and a little throne of Her Majesty's, facing south (her favorite direction). Her Majesty sat on her throne and said to me: "I will show you how to play this game. Do you think you know enough Chinese to read this map?" I noticed a large map, the same size as the table, and laid upon it, drawn in different colors. In the center of the map was written the direction of the game. It said: "This game is called the 'Eight Fairies Travel across the Sea.' The names are Lu Hsien, Chang Hsien, Li Hsien, Lan Hsien, Hang Hsien, Tsao Hsien and Hain Hsien. These seven were masculine fairies. Hor Hsien was the only lady fairy." This map was the map of the Chinese Empire, and the names of the different provinces were written on the drawing. There