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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Botchan (Master Darling),
+by Kin-nosuke Natsume
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Botchan (Master Darling)
+
+Author: Kin-nosuke Natsume
+
+Translator: Yasotaro Morri
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2003 [eBook #8868]
+[Most recently updated: March 21, 2022]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8 with BOM
+
+Produced by: David Starner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOTCHAN (MASTER DARLING) ***
+
+
+
+
+BOTCHAN
+(MASTER DARLING)
+
+by The Late Mr. Kin-nosuke Natsume
+
+TRANSLATED By Yasotaro Morri 
+
+Revised by J. R. KENNEDY
+
+1919
+
+
+Contents
+
+ A NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR
+ CHAPTER I
+ CHAPTER II
+ CHAPTER III
+ CHAPTER IV
+ CHAPTER V
+ CHAPTER VI
+ CHAPTER VII
+ CHAPTER VIII
+ CHAPTER IX
+ CHAPTER X
+ CHAPTER XI
+
+
+
+
+A NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR
+
+
+No translation can expect to equal, much less to excel, the original.
+The excellence of a translation can only be judged by noting how far it
+has succeeded in reproducing the original tone, colors, style, the
+delicacy of sentiment, the force of inert strength, the peculiar
+expressions native to the language with which the original is written,
+or whatever is its marked characteristic. The ablest can do no more,
+and to want more than this will be demanding something impossible.
+Strictly speaking, the only way one can derive full benefit or
+enjoyment from a foreign work is to read the original, for any
+intelligence at second-hand never gives the kind of satisfaction which
+is possible only through the direct touch with the original. Even in
+the best translated work is probably wanted the subtle vitality natural
+to the original language, for it defies an attempt, however elaborate,
+to transmit all there is in the original. Correctness of diction may be
+there, but spontaneity is gone; it cannot be helped.
+
+The task of the translator becomes doubly hazardous in case of
+translating a European language into Japanese, or vice versa. Between
+any of the European languages and Japanese there is no visible kinship
+in word-form, significance, grammatical system, rhetorical
+arrangements. It may be said that the inspiration of the two languages
+is totally different. A want of similarity of customs, habits,
+traditions, national sentiments and traits makes the work of
+translation all the more difficult. A novel written in Japanese which
+had attained national popularity might, when rendered into English,
+lose its captivating vividness, alluring interest and lasting appeal to
+the reader.
+
+These remarks are made not in way of excuse for any faulty dictions
+that may be found in the following pages. Neither are they made out of
+personal modesty nor of a desire to add undue weight to the present
+work. They are made in the hope that whoever is good enough to go
+through the present translation will remember, before he may venture to
+make criticisms, the kind and extent of difficulties besetting him in
+his attempts so as not to judge the merit of the original by this
+translation. Nothing would afford the translator a greater pain than
+any unfavorable comment on the original based upon this translation. If
+there be any deserving merits in the following pages the credit is due
+to the original. Any fault found in its interpretation or in the
+English version, the whole responsibility is on the translator.
+
+For the benefit of those who may not know the original, it must be
+stated that “Botchan” by the late Mr. K. Natsume was an epoch-making
+piece of work. On its first appearance, Mr. Natsume’s place and name as
+the foremost in the new literary school were firmly established. He had
+written many other novels of more serious intent, of heavier thoughts
+and of more enduring merits, but it was this “Botchan” that secured him
+the lasting fame. Its quaint style, dash and vigor in its narration
+appealed to the public who had become somewhat tired of the stereotyped
+sort of manner with which all stories had come to be handled.
+
+In its simplest understanding, “Botchan” may be taken as an episode in
+the life of a son born in Tokyo, hot-blooded, simple-hearted, pure as
+crystal and sturdy as a towering rock, honest and straight to a fault,
+intolerant of the least injustice and a volunteer ever ready to
+champion what he considers right and good. Children may read it as a
+“story of man who tried to be honest.” It is a light, amusing and, at
+the name time, instructive story, with no tangle of love affairs, no
+scheme of blood-curdling scenes or nothing startling or sensational in
+the plot or characters. The story, however, may be regarded as a biting
+sarcasm on a hypocritical society in which a gang of instructors of
+dark character at a middle school in a backwoods town plays a prominent
+part. The hero of the story is made a victim of their annoying
+intrigues, but finally comes out triumphant by smashing the petty red
+tapism, knocking down the sham pretentions and by actual use of the
+fist on the Head Instructor and his henchman.
+
+The story will be found equally entertaining as a means of studying the
+peculiar traits of the native of Tokyo which are characterised by their
+quick temper, dashing spirit, generosity and by their readiness to
+resist even the lordly personage if convinced of their own justness, or
+to kneel down even to a child if they acknowledge their own wrong.
+Incidently the touching devotion of the old maid servant Kiyo to the
+hero will prove a standing reproach to the inconstant, unfaithful
+servants of which the number is ever increasing these days in Tokyo.
+The story becomes doubly interesting by the fact that Mr. K. Natsume,
+when quite young, held a position of teacher of English at a middle
+school somewhere about the same part of the country described in the
+story, while he himself was born and brought up in Tokyo.
+
+It may be added that the original is written in an autobiographical
+style. It is profusely interladed with spicy, catchy colloquials patent
+to the people of Tokyo for the equals of which we may look to the
+rattling speeches of notorious Chuck Conners of the Bowery of New York.
+It should be frankly stated that much difficulty was experienced in
+getting the corresponding terms in English for those catchy
+expressions. Strictly speaking, some of them have no English
+equivalents. Care has been exercised to select what has been thought
+most appropriate in the judgment or the translator in converting those
+expressions into English but some of them might provoke disapproval
+from those of the “cultured” class with “refined” ears. The slangs in
+English in this translation were taken from an American magazine of
+world-wide reputation editor of which was not afraid to print of “damn”
+when necessary, by scorning the timid, conventional way of putting it
+as “d—n.” If the propriety of printing such short ugly words be
+questioned, the translator is sorry to say that no means now exists of
+directly bringing him to account for he met untimely death on board the
+Lusitania when it was sunk by the German submarine.
+
+Thanks are due to Mr. J. R. Kennedy, General Manager, and Mr. Henry
+Satoh, Editor-in-Chief, both of the Kokusai Tsushin-sha (the
+International News Agency) of Tokyo and a host of personal friends of
+the translator whose untiring assistance and kind suggestions have made
+the present translation possible. Without their sympathetic interests,
+this translation may not have seen the daylight.
+
+Tokyo, September, 1918.
+
+
+
+
+BOTCHAN (MASTER DARLING)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Because of an hereditary recklessness, I have been playing always a
+losing game since my childhood. During my grammar school days, I was
+once laid up for about a week by jumping from the second story of the
+school building. Some may ask why I committed such a rash act. There
+was no particular reason for doing such a thing except I happened to be
+looking out into the yard from the second floor of the newly-built
+school house, when one of my classmates, joking, shouted at me; “Say,
+you big bluff, I’ll bet you can’t jump down from there! O, you
+chicken-heart, ha, ha!” So I jumped down. The janitor of the school had
+to carry me home on his back, and when my father saw me, he yelled
+derisively, “What a fellow you are to go and get your bones dislocated
+by jumping only from a second story!”
+
+“I’ll see I don’t get dislocated next time,” I answered.
+
+One of my relatives once presented me with a pen-knife. I was showing
+it to my friends, reflecting its pretty blades against the rays of the
+sun, when one of them chimed in that the blades gleamed all right, but
+seemed rather dull for cutting with.
+
+“Rather dull? See if they don’t cut!” I retorted.
+
+“Cut your finger, then,” he challenged. And with “Finger nothing! Here
+goes!” I cut my thumb slant-wise. Fortunately the knife was small and
+the bone of the thumb hard enough, so the thumb is still there, but the
+scar will be there until my death.
+
+About twenty steps to the east edge of our garden, there was a
+moderate-sized vegetable yard, rising toward the south, and in the
+centre of which stood a chestnut tree which was dearer to me than life.
+In the season when the chestnuts were ripe, I used to slip out of the
+house from the back door early in the morning to pick up the chestnuts
+which had fallen during the night, and eat them at the school. On the
+west side of the vegetable yard was the adjoining garden of a pawn shop
+called Yamashiro-ya. This shopkeeper’s son was a boy about 13 or 14
+years old named Kantaro. Kantaro was, it happens, a mollycoddle.
+Nevertheless he had the temerity to come over the fence to our yard and
+steal my chestnuts.
+
+One certain evening I hid myself behind a folding-gate of the fence and
+caught him in the act. Having his retreat cut off he grappled with me
+in desperation. He was about two years older than I, and, though
+weak-kneed, was physically the stronger. While I wallopped him, he
+pushed his head against my breast and by chance it slipped inside my
+sleeve. As this hindered the free action of my arm, I tried to shake
+him loose, though, his head dangled the further inside, and being no
+longer able to stand the stifling combat, he bit my bare arm. It was
+painful. I held him fast against the fence, and by a dexterous foot
+twist sent him down flat on his back. Kantaro broke the fence and as
+the ground belonging to Yamashiro-ya was about six feet lower than the
+vegetable yard, he fell headlong to his own territory with a thud. As
+he rolled off he tore away the sleeve in which his head had been
+enwrapped, and my arm recovered a sudden freedom of movement. That
+night when my mother went to Yamashiro-ya to apologize, she brought
+back that sleeve.
+
+Besides the above, I did many other mischiefs. With Kaneko of a
+carpenter shop and Kaku of a fishmarket, I once ruined a carrot patch
+of one Mosaku. The sprouts were just shooting out and the patch was
+covered with straws to ensure their even healthy growth. Upon this
+straw-covered patch, we three wrestled for fully half a day, and
+consequently thoroughly smashed all the sprouts. Also I once filled up
+a well which watered some rice fields owned by one Furukawa, and he
+followed me with kicks. The well was so devised that from a large
+bamboo pole, sunk deep into the ground, the water issued and irrigated
+the rice fields. Ignorant of the mechanical side of this irrigating
+method at that time, I stuffed the bamboo pole with stones and sticks,
+and satisfied that no more water came up, I returned home and was
+eating supper when Furukawa, fiery red with anger, burst into our house
+with howling protests. I believe the affair was settled on our paying
+for the damage.
+
+Father did not like me in the least, and mother always sided with my
+big brother. This brother’s face was palish white, and he had a
+fondness for taking the part of an actress at the theatre.
+
+“This fellow will never amount to much,” father used to remark when he
+saw me.
+
+“He’s so reckless that I worry about his future,” I often heard mother
+say of me. Exactly; I have never amounted to much. I am just as you see
+me; no wonder my future used to cause anxiety to my mother. I am living
+without becoming but a jailbird.
+
+Two or three days previous to my mother’s death, I took it into my head
+to turn a somersault in the kitchen, and painfully hit my ribs against
+the corner of the stove. Mother was very angry at this and told me not
+to show my face again, so I went to a relative to stay with. While
+there, I received the news that my mother’s illness had become very
+serious, and that after all efforts for her recovery, she was dead. I
+came home thinking that I should have behaved better if I had known the
+conditions were so serious as that. Then that big brother of mine
+denounced me as wanting in filial piety, and that I had caused her
+untimely death. Mortified at this, I slapped his face, and thereupon
+received a sound scolding from father.
+
+After the death of mother, I lived with father and brother. Father did
+nothing, and always said “You’re no good” to my face. What he meant by
+“no good” I am yet to understand. A funny dad he was. My brother was to
+be seen studying English hard, saying that he was going to be a
+businessman. He was like a girl by nature, and so “sassy” that we two
+were never on good terms, and had to fight it out about once every ten
+days. When we played a chess game one day, he placed a chessman as a
+“waiter,”—a cowardly tactic this,—and had hearty laugh on me by seeing
+me in a fix. His manner was so trying that time that I banged a
+chessman on his forehead which was injured a little bit and bled. He
+told all about this to father, who said he would disinherit me.
+
+Then I gave up myself for lost, and expected to be really disinherited.
+But our maid Kiyo, who had been with us for ten years or so, interceded
+on my behalf, and tearfully apologized for me, and by her appeal my
+father’s wrath was softened. I did not regard him, however, as one to
+be afraid of in any way, but rather felt sorry for our Kiyo. I had
+heard that Kiyo was of a decent, well-to-do family, but being driven to
+poverty at the time of the Restoration, had to work as a servant. So
+she was an old woman by this time. This old woman,—by what affinity, as
+the Buddhists say, I don’t know,—loved me a great deal. Strange,
+indeed! She was almost blindly fond of me,—me, whom mother, became
+thoroughly disgusted with three days before her death; whom father
+considered a most aggravating proposition all the year round, and whom
+the neighbors cordially hated as the local bully among the youngsters.
+I had long reconciled myself to the fact that my nature was far from
+being attractive to others, and so didn’t mind if I were treated as a
+piece of wood; so I thought it uncommon that Kiyo should pet me like
+that. Sometimes in the kitchen, when there was nobody around, she would
+praise me saying that I was straightforward and of a good disposition.
+What she meant by that exactly, was not clear to me, however. If I were
+of so good a nature as she said, I imagined those other than Kiyo
+should accord me a better treatment. So whenever Kiyo said to me
+anything of the kind, I used to answer that I did not like passing
+compliments. Then she would remark; “That’s the very reason I say you
+are of a good disposition,” and would gaze at me with absorbing
+tenderness. She seemed to recreate me by her own imagination, and was
+proud of the fact. I felt even chilled through my marrow at her
+constant attention to me.
+
+After my mother was dead, Kiyo loved me still more. In my simple 
+reasoning, I wondered why she had taken such a fancy to me. Sometimes 
+I thought it quite futile on her part, that she had better quit that 
+sort of thing, which was bad for her. But she loved me just the same. 
+Once in a while she would buy, out of her own pocket, some cakes or 
+sweetmeats for me. When the night was cold, she would secretly buy 
+some noodle powder, and bring all unawares hot noodle gruel to my bed; 
+or sometimes she would even buy a bowl of steaming noodles from the 
+peddler. Not only with edibles, but she was generous alike with socks, 
+pencils, note books, etc. And she even furnished me,—this happened 
+some time later,—with about three yen, I did not ask her for the 
+money; she offered it from her own good will by bringing it to my 
+room, saying that I might be in need of some cash. This, of course, 
+embarrassed me, but as she was so insistent I consented to borrow it. 
+I confess I was really glad of the money. I put it in a bag, and 
+carried it in my pocket. While about the house, I happened to drop the 
+bag into a cesspool. Helpless, I told Kiyo how I had lost the money, 
+and at once she fetched a bamboo stick, and said she will get it for 
+me. After a while I heard a splashing sound of water about our family 
+well, and going there, saw Kiyo washing the bag strung on the end of 
+the stick. I opened the bag and found the color of the three one-yen 
+bills turned to faint yellow and designs fading. Kiyo dried them at an 
+open fire and handed them over to me, asking if they were all right. I 
+smelled them and said; “They stink yet.”
+
+“Give them to me; I’ll get them changed.” She took those three bills,
+and,—I do not know how she went about it,—brought three yen in silver.
+I forget now upon what I spent the three yen. “I’ll pay you back soon,”
+I said at the time, but didn’t. I could not now pay it back even if I
+wished to do so with ten times the amount.
+
+When Kiyo gave me anything she did so always when both father and
+brother were out. Many things I do not like, but what I most detest is
+the monopolizing of favors behind some one else’s back. Bad as my
+relations were with my brother, still I did not feel justified in
+accepting candies or color-pencils from Kiyo without my brother’s
+knowledge. “Why do you give those things only to me and not to my
+brother also?” I asked her once, and she answered quite unconcernedly
+that my brother may be left to himself as his father bought him
+everything. That was partiality; father was obstinate, but I am sure he
+was not a man who would indulge in favoritism. To Kiyo, however, he
+might have looked that way. There is no doubt that Kiyo was blind to
+the extent of her undue indulgence with me. She was said to have come
+from a well-to-do family, but the poor soul was uneducated, and it
+could not be helped. All the same, you cannot tell how prejudice will
+drive one to the extremes. Kiyo seemed quite sure that some day I would
+achieve high position in society and become famous. Equally she was
+sure that my brother, who was spending his hours studiously, was only
+good for his white skin, and would stand no show in the future. Nothing
+can beat an old woman for this sort of thing, I tell you. She firmly
+believed that whoever she liked would become famous, while whoever she
+hated would not. I did not have at that time any particular object in
+my life. But the persistency with which Kiyo declared that I would be a
+great man some day, made me speculate myself that after all I might
+become one. How absurd it seems to me now when I recall those days. I
+asked her once what kind of a man I should be, but she seemed to have
+formed no concrete idea as to that; only she said that I was sure to
+live in a house with grand entrance hall, and ride in a private
+rikisha.
+
+And Kiyo seemed to have decided for herself to live with me when I
+became independent and occupy my own house. “Please let me live with
+you,”—she repeatedly asked of me. Feeling somewhat that I should
+eventually be able to own a house, I answered her “Yes,” as far as such
+an answer went. This woman, by the way, was strongly imaginative. She
+questioned me what place I liked,—Kojimachi-ku or Azabu-ku?—and
+suggested that I should have a swing in our garden, that one room be
+enough for European style, etc., planning everything to suit her own
+fancy. I did not then care a straw for anything like a house; so
+neither Japanese nor European style was much of use to me, and I told
+her to that effect. Then she would praise me as uncovetous and clean of
+heart. Whatever I said, she had praise for me.
+
+I lived, after the death of mother, in this fashion for five or six
+years. I had kicks from father, had rows with brother, and had candies
+and praise from Kiyo. I cared for nothing more; I thought this was
+enough. I imagined all other boys were leading about the same kind of
+life. As Kiyo frequently told me, however, that I was to be pitied, and
+was unfortunate, I imagined that that might be so. There was nothing
+that particularly worried me except that father was too tight with my
+pocket money, and this was rather hard on me.
+
+In January of the 6th year after mother’s death, father died of
+apoplexy. In April of the same year, I graduated from a middle school,
+and two months later, my brother graduated from a business college.
+Soon he obtained a job in the Kyushu branch of a certain firm and had
+to go there, while I had to remain in Tokyo and continue my study. He
+proposed the sale of our house and the realization of our property, to
+which I answered “Just as you like it.” I had no intention of depending
+upon him anyway. Even were he to look after me, I was sure of his
+starting something which would eventually end in a smash-up as we were
+prone to quarrel on the least pretext. It was because in order to
+receive his protection that I should have to bow before such a fellow,
+that I resolved that I would live by myself even if I had to do milk
+delivery. Shortly afterwards he sent for a second-hand dealer and sold
+for a song all the bric-a-bric which had been handed down from ages ago
+in our family. Our house and lot were sold, through the efforts of a
+middleman to a wealthy person. This transaction seemed to have netted a
+goodly sum to him, but I know nothing as to the detail.
+
+For one month previous to this, I had been rooming in a boarding house
+in Kanda-ku, pending a decision as to my future course. Kiyo was
+greatly grieved to see the house in which she had lived so many years
+change ownership, but she was helpless in the matter.
+
+“If you were a little older, you might have inherited this house,” she
+once remarked in earnest.
+
+If I could have inherited the house through being a little older, I
+ought to have been able to inherit the house right then. She knew
+nothing, and believed the lack of age only prevented my coming into the
+possession of the house.
+
+Thus I parted from my brother, but the disposal of Kiyo was a difficult
+proposition. My brother was, of course, unable to take her along, nor
+was there any danger of her following him so far away as Kyushu, while
+I was in a small room of a boarding house, and might have to clear out
+anytime at that. There was no way out, so I asked her if she intended
+to work somewhere else. Finally she answered me definitely that she
+would go to her nephew’s and wait until I started my own house and get
+married. This nephew was a clerk in the Court of Justice, and being
+fairly well off, had invited Kiyo before more than once to come and
+live with him, but Kiyo preferred to stay with us, even as a servant,
+since she had become well used to our family. But now I think she
+thought it better to go over to her nephew than to start a new life as
+servant in a strange house. Be that as it may, she advised me to have
+my own household soon, or get married, so she would come and help me in
+housekeeping. I believe she liked me more than she did her own kin.
+
+My brother came to me, two days previous to his departure for Kyushu,
+and giving me 600 yen, said that I might begin a business with it, or
+go ahead with my study, or spend it in any way I liked, but that that
+would be the last he could spare. It was a commendable act for my
+brother. What! about only 600 yen! I could get along without it, I
+thought, but as this unusually simple manner appealed to me, I accepted
+the offer with thanks. Then he produced 50 yen, requesting me to give
+it to Kiyo next time I saw her, which I readily complied with. Two days
+after, I saw him off at the Shimbashi Station, and have not set my eyes
+on him ever since.
+
+Lying in my bed, I meditated on the best way to spend that 600 yen. A
+business is fraught with too much trouble, and besides it was not my
+calling. Moreover with only 600 yen no one could open a business worth
+the name. Were I even able to do it, I was far from being educated, and
+after all, would lose it. Better let investments alone, but study more
+with the money. Dividing the 600 yen into three, and by spending 200
+yen a year, I could study for three years. If I kept at one study with
+bull-dog tenacity for three years, I should be able to learn something.
+Then the selection of a school was the next problem. By nature, there
+is no branch of study whatever which appeals to my taste. Nix on
+languages or literature! The new poetry was all Greek to me; I could
+not make out one single line of twenty. Since I detested every kind of
+study, any kind of study should have been the same to me. Thinking
+thus, I happened to pass front of a school of physics, and seeing a
+sign posted for the admittance of more students, I thought this might
+be a kind of “affinity,” and having asked for the prospectus, at once
+filed my application for entrance. When I think of it now, it was a
+blunder due to my hereditary recklessness.
+
+For three years I studied about as diligently as ordinary fellows, but
+not being of a particularly brilliant quality, my standing in the class
+was easier to find by looking up from the bottom. Strange, isn’t it,
+that when three years were over, I graduated? I had to laugh at myself,
+but there being no reason for complaint, I passed out.
+
+Eight days after my graduation, the principal of the school asked me to
+come over and see him. I wondered what he wanted, and went. A middle
+school in Shikoku was in need of a teacher of mathematics for forty yen
+a month, and he sounded me to see if I would take it. I had studied for
+three years, but to tell the truth, I had no intention of either
+teaching or going to the country. Having nothing in sight, however,
+except teaching, I readily accepted the offer. This too was a blunder
+due to hereditary recklessness.
+
+I accepted the position, and so must go there. The three years of my
+school life I had seen confined in a small room, but with no kick
+coming or having no rough house. It was a comparatively easy going
+period in my life. But now I had to pack up. Once I went to Kamakura on
+a picnic with my classmates while I was in the grammar school, and that
+was the first and last, so far, that I stepped outside of Tokyo since I
+could remember. This time I must go darn far away, that it beats
+Kamakura by a mile. The prospective town is situated on the coast, and
+looked the size of a needle-point on the map. It would not be much to
+look at anyway. I knew nothing about the place or the people there. It
+did not worry me or cause any anxiety. I had simply to travel there and
+that was the annoying part.
+
+Once in a while, since our house was no more, I went to Kiyo’s nephew’s
+to see her. Her nephew was unusually good-natured, and whenever I
+called upon her, he treated me well if he happened to be at home. Kiyo
+would boost me sky-high to her nephew right to my face. She went so far
+once as to say that when I had graduated from school, I would purchase
+a house somewhere in Kojimachi-ku and get a position in a government
+office. She decided everything in her own way, and talked of it aloud,
+and I was made an unwilling and bashful listener. I do not know how her
+nephew weighed her tales of self-indulgence on me. Kiyo was a woman of
+the old type, and seemed, as if it was still the days of Feudal Lords,
+to regard her nephew equally under obligation to me even as she was
+herself.
+
+After settling about my new position, I called upon her three days
+previous to my departure. She was sick abed in a small room, but, on
+seeing me she got up and immediately inquired;
+
+“Master Darling, when do you begin housekeeping?”
+
+She evidently thought as soon as a fellow finishes school, money comes
+to his pocket by itself. But then how absurd to call such a “great man”
+“Darling.” I told her simply that I should let the house proposition go
+for some time, as I had to go to the country. She looked greatly
+disappointed, and blankly smoothed her gray-haired sidelocks. I felt
+sorry for her, and said comfortingly; “I am going away but will come
+back soon. I’ll return in the vacation next summer, sure.” Still as she
+appeared not fully satisfied, I added;
+
+“Will bring you back a surprise. What do you like?”
+
+She wished to eat “sasa-ame”[1] of Echigo province. I had never heard
+of “sasa-ame” of Echigo. To begin with, the location is entirely
+different.
+
+[Footnote 1: Sasa-ame is a kind of rice-jelly wrapped with sasa, or the
+bamboo leaves, well-known as a product of Echigo province.]
+
+
+“There seems to be no ‘sasa-ame’ in the country where I’m going,” I
+explained, and she rejoined; “Then, in what direction?” I answered
+“westward” and she came back with “Is it on the other side of Hakone?”
+This give-and-take conversation proved too much for me.
+
+On the day of my departure, she came to my room early in the morning
+and helped me to pack up. She put into my carpet-bag tooth powder,
+tooth-brush and towels which she said she had bought at a dry goods
+store on her way. I protested that I did not want them, but she was
+insistent.[A] We rode in rikishas to the station. Coming up the
+platform, she gazed at me from outside the car, and said in a low
+voice;
+
+“This may be our last good-by. Take care of yourself.”
+
+Her eyes were full of tears. I did not cry, but was almost going to.
+After the train had run some distance, thinking it would be all right
+now, I poked my head out of the window and looked back. She was still
+there. She looked very small.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+With a long, sonorous whistle the steamer which I was aboard came to a
+standstill, and a boat was seen making toward us from the shore. The
+man rowing the boat was stark naked, except for a piece of red cloth
+girt round his loins. A barbarous place, this! though he may have been
+excused for it in such hot weather as it was. The sun’s rays were
+strong and the water glimmered in such strange colors as to dazzle
+one’s sight if gazed at it for long. I had been told by a clerk of the
+ship that I was to get off here. The place looked like a fishing
+village about the size of Omori. Great Scott! I wouldn’t stay in such a
+hole, I thought, but I had to get out. So, down I jumped first into the
+boat, and I think five or six others followed me. After loading about
+four large boxes besides, the red-cloth rowed us ashore. When the boat
+struck the sand, I was again the first to jump out, and right away I
+accosted a skinny urchin standing nearby, asking him where the middle
+school was. The kid answered blankly that he did not know. Confound the
+dull-head! Not to know where the middle school was, living in such a
+tiny bit of a town. Then a man wearing a rig with short, queer shaped
+sleeves approached me and bade me follow. I walked after him and was
+taken to an inn called Minato-ya. The maids of the inn, who gave me a
+disagreeable impression, chorused at sight of me; “Please step inside.”
+This discouraged me in proceeding further, and I asked them, standing
+at the door-way, to show me the middle school. On being told that the
+middle school was about four miles away by rail, I became still more
+discouraged at putting up there. I snatched my two valises from the man
+with queer-shaped [B] sleeves who had guided me so far, and strode
+away. The people of the inn looked after me with a dazed expression.
+
+The station was easily found, and a ticket bought without any fuss. The
+coach I got in was about as dignified as a match-box. The train rambled
+on for about five minutes, and then I had to get off. No wonder the
+fare was cheap; it cost only three sen. I then hired a rikisha and
+arrived at the middle school, but school was already over and nobody
+was there. The teacher on night-duty was out just for a while, said the
+janitor,—the night-watch was taking life easy, sure. I thought of
+visiting the principal, but being tired, ordered the rikishaman to take
+me to a hotel. He did this with much alacrity and led me to a hotel
+called Yamashiro-ya. I felt it rather amusing to find the name
+Yamashiro-ya the same as that of Kantaro’s house.
+
+They ushered me to a dark room below the stairway. No one could stay in
+such a hot place! I said I did not like such a warm room, but the maid
+dumped my valises on the floor and left me, mumbling that all the other
+rooms were occupied. So I took the room though it took some resolution
+to stand the weltering heat. After a while the maid said the bath was
+ready, and I took one. On my way back from the bathroom, I peeped
+about, and found many rooms, which looked much cooler than mine,
+vacant. Sunnovgun! They had lied. By’m-by, she fetched my supper.
+Although the room was hot, the meal was a deal better than the kind I
+used to have in my boarding house. While waiting on me, she questioned
+me where I was from, and I said, “from Tokyo.” Then she asked; “Isn’t
+Tokyo a nice place?” and I shot back, “Bet ’tis.” About the time the
+maid had reached the kitchen, loud laughs were heard. There was nothing
+doing, so I went to bed, but could not sleep. Not only was it hot, but
+noisy,—about five times noisier than my boarding house. While snoozing,
+I dreamed of Kiyo. She was eating “sasa-ame” of Echigo province without
+taking off the wrapper of bamboo leaves. I tried to stop her, saying
+bamboo leaves may do her harm, but she replied, “O, no, these leaves
+are very helpful for the health,” and ate them with much relish.
+Astounded, I laughed “Ha, ha, ha!”—and so awoke. The maid was opening
+the outside shutters. The weather was just as clear as the previous
+day.
+
+I had heard once before that when travelling, one should give “tea
+money” to the hotel or inn where he stops; that unless this “tea money”
+is given, the hostelry would accord him rather rough treatment. It must
+have been on account of my being slow in the fork over of this “tea
+money” that they had huddled me into such a narrow, dark room. Likewise
+my shabby clothes and the carpet bags and satin umbrella must have been
+accountable for it. Took me for a piker, eh? those hayseeds! I would
+give them a knocker with “tea money.” I left Tokyo with about 30 yen in
+my pocket, which remained from my school expenses. Taking off the
+railway and steamship fare, and other incidental expenses, I had still
+about 14 yen in my pocket. I could give them all I had;—what did I
+care, I was going to get a salary now. All country folk are tight-wads,
+and one 5-yen bill would hit them square. Now watch and see. Having
+washed myself, I returned to my room and waited, and the maid of the
+night before brought in my breakfast. Waiting on me with a tray, she
+looked at me with a sort of sulphuric smile. Rude! Is any parade
+marching on my face? I should say. Even my face is far better than that
+of the maid. I intended of giving “tea money” after breakfast, but I
+became disgusted, and taking out one 5-yen bill told her to take it to
+the office later. The face of the maid became then shy and awkward.
+After the meal, I left for the school. The maid did not have my shoes
+polished.
+
+I had had vague idea of the direction of the school as I rode to it the
+previous day, so turning two or three corners, I came to the front
+gate. From the gate to the entrance the walk was paved with granite.
+When I had passed to the entrance in the rikisha, this walk made so
+outlandishly a loud noise that I had felt coy. On my way to the school,
+I met a number of the students in uniforms of cotton drill and they all
+entered this gate. Some of them were taller than I and looked much
+stronger. When I thought of teaching fellows of this ilk, I was
+impressed with a queer sort of uneasiness. My card was taken to the
+principal, to whose room I was ushered at once. With scant mustache,
+dark-skinned and big-eyed, the principal was a man who looked like a
+badger. He studiously assumed an air of superiority, and saying he
+would like to see me do my best, handed the note of appointment,
+stamped big, in a solemn manner. This note I threw away into the sea on
+my way back to Tokyo. He said he would introduce me to all my fellow
+teachers, and I was to show to each one of them the note of
+appointment. What a bother! It would be far better to stick this note
+up in the teachers’ room for three days instead of going through such a
+monkey process.
+
+The teachers would not be all in the room until the bugle for the first
+hour was sounded. There was plenty of time. The principal took out his
+watch, and saying that he would acquaint me particularly with the
+school by-and-bye, he would only furnish me now with general matters,
+and started a long lecture on the spirit of education. For a while I
+listened to him with my mind half away somewhere else, but about half
+way through his lecture, I began to realize that I should soon be in a
+bad fix. I could not do, by any means, all he expected of me. He
+expected that I should make myself an example to the students, should
+become an object of admiration for the whole school or should exert my
+moral influence, besides teaching technical knowledge in order to
+become a real educator, or something ridiculously high-sounding. No man
+with such admirable qualities would come so far away for only 40 yen a
+month! Men are generally alike. If one gets excited, one is liable to
+fight, I thought, but if things are to be kept on in the way the
+principal says, I could hardly open my mouth to utter anything, nor
+take a stroll around the place. If they wanted me to fill such an
+onerous post, they should have told all that before. I hate to tell a
+lie; I would give it up as having been cheated, and get out of this
+mess like a man there and then. I had only about 9 yen left in my
+pocket after tipping the hotel 5 yen. Nine yen would not take me back
+to Tokyo. I had better not have tipped the hotel; what a pity! However,
+I would be able to manage it somehow. I considered it better to run
+short in my return expenses than to tell a lie.
+
+“I cannot do it the way you want me to. I return this appointment.”
+
+I shoved back the note. The principal winked his badger-like eyes and
+gazed at me. Then he said;
+
+“What I have said just now is what I desire of you. I know well that
+you cannot do all I want. So don’t worry.”
+
+And he laughed. If he knew it so well already, what on earth did he
+scare me for?
+
+Meanwhile the bugle sounded, being followed by bustling noises in the
+direction of the class rooms. All the teachers would be now ready, I
+was told, and I followed the principal to the teachers’ room. In a
+spacious rectangular room, they sat each before a table lined along the
+walls. When I entered the room, they all glanced at me as if by
+previous agreement. Did they think my face was for a show? Then, as per
+instructions, I introduced myself and showed the note to each one of
+them. Most of them left their chairs and made a slight bow of
+acknowledgment. But some of the more painfully polite took the note and
+read it and respectfully returned it to me, just like the cheap
+performances at a rural show! When I came to the fifteenth, who was the
+teacher of physical training, I became impatient at repeating the same
+old thing so often. The other side had to do it only once, but my side
+had to do it fifteen times. They ought to have had some sympathy.
+
+Among those I met in the room there was Mr. Blank who was head teacher.
+Said he was a Bachelor of Arts. I suppose he was a great man since he
+was a graduate from Imperial University and had such a title. He talked
+in a strangely effeminate voice like a woman. But what surprised me
+most was that he wore a flannel shirt. However thin it might be,
+flannel is flannel and must have been pretty warm at that time of the
+year. What painstaking dress is required which will be becoming to a
+B.A.! And it was a red shirt; wouldn’t that kill you! I heard
+afterwards that he wears a red shirt all the year round. What a strange
+affliction! According to his own explanation, he has his shirts made to
+order for the sake of his health as the red color is beneficial to the
+physical condition. Unnecessary worry, this, for that being the case,
+he should have had his coat and hakama also in red. And there was one
+Mr. Koga, teacher of English, whose complexion was very pale.
+Pale-faced people are usually thin, but this man was pale and fat. When
+I was attending grammar school, there was one Tami Asai in our class,
+and his father was just as pale as this Koga. Asai was a farmer, and I
+asked Kiyo if one’s face would become pale if he took up farming. Kiyo
+said it was not so; Asai ate always Hubbard squash of “uranari” [2] and
+that was the reason. Thereafter when I saw any man pale and fat, I took
+it for granted that it was the result of his having eaten too much of
+squash of “uranari.” This English teacher was surely subsisting upon
+squash. However, what the meaning of “uranari” is, I do not know. I
+asked Kiyo once, but she only laughed. Probably she did not know. Among
+the teachers of mathematics, there was one named Hotta. This was a
+fellow of massive body, with hair closely cropped. He looked like one
+of the old-time devilish priests who made the Eizan temple famous. I
+showed him the note politely, but he did not even look at it, and
+blurted out;
+
+[Footnote 2: Means the last crop.]
+
+
+“You’re the man newly appointed, eh? Come and see me sometime, ha, ha,
+ha!”
+
+Devil take his “Ha, ha, ha!” Who would go to see a fellow so void of
+the sense of common decency! I gave this priest from this time the
+nickname of Porcupine.
+
+The Confucian teacher was strict in his manner as becoming to his
+profession. “Arrived yesterday? You must be tired. Start teaching
+already? Working hard, indeed!”—and so on. He was an old man, quite
+sociable and talkative.
+
+The teacher of drawing was altogether like a cheap actor. He wore a
+thin, flappy haori of sukiya, and, toying with a fan, he giggled;
+“Where from? eh? Tokyo? Glad to hear that. You make another of our
+group. I’m a Tokyo kid myself.”
+
+If such a fellow prided himself on being a Tokyo kid, I wished I had
+never been born in Tokyo. I might go on writing about each one of them,
+for there are many, but I stop here otherwise there will be no end to
+it.
+
+When my formal introduction was over, the principal said that I might
+go for the day, but I should make arrangements as to the class hours,
+etc., with the head teacher of mathematics and begin teaching from the
+day after the morrow. Asked who was the head teacher of mathematics, I
+found that he was no other than that Porcupine. Holy smokes! was I to
+serve under him? I was disappointed.
+
+“Say, where are you stopping? Yamashiro-ya? Well, I’ll come and talk it
+over.”
+
+So saying, Porcupine, chalk in hand, left the room to his class. That
+was rather humiliating for a head-teacher to come over and see his
+subordinate, but it was better than to call me over to him.
+
+After leaving the school, I thought of returning straight to the hotel,
+but as there was nothing to do, I decided to take in a little of the
+town, and started walking about following my nose. I saw prefectural
+building; it was an old structure of the last century. Also I saw the
+barracks; they were less imposing than those of the Azabu Regiment,
+Tokyo. I passed through the main street. The width of the street is
+about one half that of Kagurazaka, and its aspect is inferior. What
+about a castle-town of 250,000-koku Lord! Pity the fellows who get
+swell-headed in such a place as a castle-town!
+
+While I walked about musing like this, I found myself in front of
+Yamashiro-ya. The town was much narrower than I had been led to
+believe.
+
+“I think I have seen nearly all. Guess I’ll return and eat.” And I
+entered the gate. The mistress of the hotel who was sitting at the
+counter, jumped out of her place at my appearance and with “Are you
+back, Sire!” scraped the floor with her forehead. When I took my shoes
+off and stepped inside, the maid took me to an upstairs room that had
+became vacant. It was a front room of 15 mats (about 90 square feet). I
+had never before lived in so splendid a room as this. As it was quite
+uncertain when I should again be able to occupy such a room in future,
+I took off my European dress, and with only a single Japanese summer
+coat on, sprawled in the centre of the room in the shape of the
+Japanese letter “big” (arms stretched out and legs spread wide[D]). I
+found it very refreshing.
+
+After luncheon I at once wrote a letter to Kiyo. I hate most to write
+letters because I am poor at sentence-making and also poor in my stock
+of words. Neither did I have any place to which to address my letters.
+However, Kiyo might be getting anxious. It would not do to let her
+worry lest she think the steamer which I boarded had been wrecked and I
+was drowned,—so I braced up and wrote a long one. The body of the
+letter was as follows:
+
+ “Arrived yesterday. A dull place. Am sleeping in a room of 15 mats.
+ Tipped the hotel five yen as tea money. The house-wife of the hotel
+ scraped the floor with her forehead. Couldn’t sleep last night.
+ Dreamed Kiyo eat sasa-ame together with the bamboo-leaf wrappers. Will
+ return next summer. Went to the school to-day, and nicknamed all the
+ fellows. ‘Badger’ for the principal, ‘Red Shirt’ for the head-teacher,
+ ‘Hubbard Squash’ for the teacher of English, ‘Porcupine’ the teacher
+ of mathematics and ‘Clown’ for that of drawing. Will write you many
+ other things soon. Good bye.”
+
+
+When I finished writing the letter, I felt better and sleepy. So I
+slept in the centre of the room, as I had done before, in the letter
+“big” shape ([D]). No dream this time, and I had a sound sleep.
+
+“Is this the room?”—a loud voice was heard,—a voice which woke me up,
+and Porcupine entered.
+
+“How do you do? What you have to do in the school——” he began talking
+shop as soon as I got up and rattled me much. On learning my duties in
+the school, there seemed to be no difficulty, and I decided to accept.
+If only such were what was expected of me, I would not be surprised
+were I told to start not only two days hence but even from the
+following day. The talk on business over, Porcupine said that he did
+not think it was my intention to stay in such a hotel all the time,
+that he would find a room for me in a good boarding house, and that I
+should move.
+
+“They wouldn’t take in another from anybody else but I can do it right
+away. The sooner the better. Go and look at the room to-day, move
+tomorrow and start teaching from the next day. That’ll be all nice and
+settled.”
+
+He seemed satisfied by arranging all by himself. Indeed, I should not
+be able to occupy such a room for long. I might have to blow in all of
+my salary for the hotel bill and yet be short of squaring it. It was
+pity to leave the hotel so soon after I had just shone with a 5-yen
+tip. However, it being decidedly convenient to move and get settled
+early if I had to move at all, I asked Porcupine to get that room for
+me. He told me then to come over with him and see the house at any
+rate, and I did. The house was situated mid-way up a hill at the end of
+the town, and was a quiet. The boss was said to be a dealer in antique
+curios, called Ikagin, and his wife was about four years his senior. I
+learned the English word “witch” when I was in middle school, and this
+woman looked exactly like one. But as she was another man’s wife, what
+did I care if she was a witch. Finally I decided to live in the house
+from the next day. On our way back Porcupine treated me to a cup of
+ice-water. When I first met him in the school, I thought him a
+disgustingly overbearing fellow, but judging by the way he had looked
+after me so far, he appeared not so bad after all. Only he seemed, like
+me, impatient by nature and of quick-temper. I heard afterward that he
+was liked most by all the students in the school.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+My teaching began at last. When I entered the class-room and stepped
+upon the platform for the first time, I felt somewhat strange. While
+lecturing, I wondered if a fellow like me could keep up the profession
+of public instructor. The students were noisy. Once in a while, they
+would holler “Teacher!” “Teacher,”—it was “going some.” I had been
+calling others “teacher” every day so far, in the school of physics,
+but in calling others “teacher” and being called one, there is a wide
+gap of difference. It made me feel as if some one was tickling my
+soles. I am not a sneakish fellow, nor a coward; only—it’s a pity—I
+lack audacity. If one calls me “teacher” aloud, it gives me a shock
+similar to that of hearing the noon-gun in Marunouchi when I was
+hungry. The first hour passed away in a dashing manner. And it passed
+away without encountering any knotty questions. As I returned to the
+teachers’ room, Porcupine asked me how it was. I simply answered
+“well,” and he seemed satisfied.
+
+When I left the teachers’ room, chalk in hand, for the second hour
+class, I felt as if I was invading the enemy’s territory. On entering
+the room, I found the students for this hour were all big fellows. I am
+a Tokyo kid, delicately built and small, and did not appear very
+impressive even in my elevated position. If it comes to a scraping, I
+can hold my own even with wrestlers, but I had no means of appearing
+awe-inspiring[E], merely by the aid of my tongue, to so many as forty
+such big chaps before me. Believing, however, that it would set a bad
+precedent to show these country fellows any weakness, I lectured rather
+loudly and in brusque tone. During the first part the students were
+taken aback and listened literally with their mouths open. “That’s one
+on you!” I thought. Elated by my success, I kept on in this tone, when
+one who looked the strongest, sitting in the middle of the front row,
+stood up suddenly, and called “Teacher!” There it goes!—I thought, and
+asked him what it was.
+
+“A-ah sa-ay, you talk too quick. A-ah ca-an’t you make it a leetle
+slow? A-ah?” “A-ah ca-an’t you?” “A-ah?” was altogether dull.
+
+“If I talk too fast, I’ll make it slow, but I’m a Tokyo fellow, and
+can’t talk the way you do. If you don’t understand it, better wait
+until you do.”
+
+So I answered him. In this way the second hour was closed better than I
+had expected. Only, as I was about to leave the class, one of the
+students asked me, “A-ah say, won’t you please do them for me?” and
+showed me some problems in geometry which I was sure I could not solve.
+This proved to be somewhat a damper on me. But, helpless, I told him I
+could not make them out, and telling him that I would show him how next
+time, hastily got out of the room. And all of them raised “Whee—ee!”
+Some of them were heard saying “He doesn’t know much.” Don’t take a
+teacher for an encyclopaedia! If I could work out such hard questions
+as these easily, I would not be in such a backwoods town for forty yen
+a month. I returned to the teachers’ room.
+
+“How was it this time?” asked Porcupine. I said “Umh.” But not
+satisfied with “Umh” only, I added that all the students in this school
+were boneheads. He put up a whimsical face.
+
+The third and the fourth hour and the first hour in the afternoon were
+more or less the same. In all the classes I attended, I made some kind
+of blunder. I realised that the profession of teaching not quite so
+easy a calling as might have appeared. My teaching for the day was
+finished but I could not get away. I had to wait alone until three
+o’clock. I understood that at three o’clock the students of my classes
+would finish cleaning up the rooms and report to me, whereupon I would
+go over the rooms. Then I would run through the students’ roll, and
+then be free to go home. Outrageous, indeed, to keep on chained to the
+school, staring at the empty space when he had nothing more to do, even
+though he was “bought” by a salary! Other fellow teachers, however,
+meekly submitted to the regulation, and believing it not well for me,—a
+new comer—to fuss about it, I stood it. On my way home, I appealed to
+Porcupine as to the absurdity of keeping me there till three o’clock
+regardless of my having nothing to do in the school. He said “Yes” and
+laughed. But he became serious and in an advisory manner told me not to
+make many complaints about the school.
+
+“Talk to me only, if you want to. There are some queer guys around.”
+
+As we parted at the next corner, I did not have time to hear more from
+him.
+
+On reaching my room, the boss of the house came to me saying, “Let me
+serve you tea.” I expected he was going to treat me to some good tea
+since he said “Let me serve you,” but he simply made himself at home
+and drank my own tea. Judging by this, I thought he might be practising
+“Let me serve you” during my absence. The boss said that he was fond of
+antique drawings and curios and finally had decided to start in that
+business.
+
+“You look like one quite taken about art. Suppose you begin patronizing
+my business just for fun as er—connoisseur of art?”
+
+It was the least expected kind of solicitation. Two years ago, I went
+to the Imperial Hotel (Tokyo) on an errand, and I was taken for a
+locksmith. When I went to see the Daibutsu at Kamakura, having wrapped
+up myself from head to toe with a blanket, a rikisha man addressed me
+as “Gov’ner.” I have been mistaken on many occasions for as many
+things, but none so far has counted on me as a probable connoisseur of
+art. One should know better by my appearance. Any one who aspires to be
+a patron of art is usually pictured,—you may see in any drawing,—with
+either a hood on his head, or carrying a tanzaku[3] in his hand. The
+fellow who calls me a connoisseur of art and pretends to mean it, may
+be surely as crooked as a dog’s hind legs. I told him I did not like
+such art-stuff, which is usually favored by retired people. He laughed,
+and remarking that that nobody liked it at first, but once in it, will
+find it so fascinating that he will hardly get over it, served tea for
+himself and drank it in a grotesque manner. I may say that I had asked
+him the night before to buy some tea for me, but I did not like such a
+bitter, heavy kind. One swallow seemed to act right on my stomach. I
+told him to buy a kind not so bitter as that, and he answered “All
+right, Sir,” and drank another cup. The fellow seemed never to know of
+having enough of anything so long as it was another man’s. After he
+left the room, I prepared for the morrow and went to bed.
+
+[Footnote 3: A tanzaku is a long, narrow strip of stiff paper on which
+a Japanese poem is written.]
+
+
+Everyday thereafter I attended at the school and worked as per
+regulations. Every day on my return, the boss came to my room with the
+same old “Let me serve you tea.” In about a week I understood the
+school in a general way, and had my own idea as to the personality of
+the boss and his wife. I heard from one of my fellow teachers that the
+first week to one month after the receipt of the appointment worried
+them most as to whether they had been favorably received among the
+students. I never felt anything on that score. Blunders in the class
+room once in a while caused me chagrin, but in about half an hour
+everything would clear out of my head. I am a fellow who, by nature,
+can’t be worrying long about[F] anything even if I try to. I was
+absolutely indifferent as how my blunders in the class room affected
+the students, or how much further they affected the principal or the
+head-teacher. As I mentioned before, I am not a fellow of much audacity
+to speak of, but I am quick to give up anything when I see its finish.
+
+I had resolved to go elsewhere at once if the school did not suit me.
+In consequence, neither Badger nor Red Shirt wielded any influence over
+me. And still less did I feel like coaxing or coddling the youngsters
+in the class room.
+
+So far it was O.K. with the school, but not so easy as that at my
+boarding house. I could have stood it if it had been only the boss
+coming to my room after my tea. But he would fetch many things to my
+room. First time he brought in seals.[4] He displayed about ten of them
+before me and persuaded me to buy them for three yen, which was very
+cheap, he said. Did he take me for a third rate painter making a round
+of the country? I told him I did not want them. Next time he brought in
+a panel picture of flowers and birds, drawn by one Kazan or somebody.
+He hung it against the wall of the alcove and asked me if it was not
+well done, and I echoed it looked well done. Then he started lecturing
+about Kazan, that there are two Kazans, one is Kazan something and the
+other is Kazan anything, and that this picture was the work of that
+Kazan something. After this nonsensical lecture, he insisted that he
+would make it fifteen yen for me to buy it. I declined the offer saying
+that I was shy of the money.
+
+[Footnote 4: Artists have several seals of stone with which to stamp on
+the picture they draw as a guarantee of their personal work or for
+identification. The shape and kind of seals are quite a hobby among
+artists, and sales or exchange are of common occurrence.]
+
+
+“You can pay any time.” He was insistent. I settled him by telling him
+of my having no intention of purchasing it even if I had the necessary
+money. Again next time, he yanked in a big writing stone slab about the
+size of a ridge-tile.
+
+“This is a tankei,”[5] he said. As he “tankeied” two or three times, I
+asked for fun what was a tankei. Right away he commenced lecturing on
+the subject. “There are the upper, the middle and the lower stratum in
+tankei,” he said. “Most of tankei slabs to-day are made from the upper
+stratum,” he continued, “but this one is surely from the middle
+stratum. Look at this ‘gan.’[6] ’Tis certainly rare to have three
+‘gans’ like this. The ink-cake grates smoothly on it. Try it, sir,”—and
+he pushed it towards me. I asked him how much, and he answered that on
+account of its owner having brought it from China and wishing to sell
+it as soon as possible, he would make it very cheap, that I could have
+it for thirty yen. I was sure he was a fool. I seemed to be able to get
+through the school somehow, but I would soon give out if this “curio
+siege” kept on long.
+
+[Footnote 5: Tankei is the name of a place in China where a certain
+kind of stone suitable for writing purposes was produced.]
+
+
+[Footnote 6: “Gan” may be understood as a kind of natural mark on the
+stone peculiar to the stone from Tankei.]
+
+
+Shortly afterwards, I began to get sick of the school. One certain
+night, while I was strolling about a street named Omachi, I happened to
+notice a sign of noodles below of which was annotated “Tokyo” in the
+house next to the post office. I am very fond of noodles. While I was
+in Tokyo, if I passed by a noodle house and smelled the seasoning
+spices, I felt uncontrollable temptation to go inside at any cost. Up
+to this time I had forgotten the noodle on account of mathematics and
+antique curios, but since I had seen thus the sign of noodles, I could
+hardly pass it by unnoticed. So availing myself of this opportunity, I
+went in. It was not quite up to what I had judged by the sign. Since it
+claimed to follow the Tokyo style, they should have tidied up a little
+bit about the room. They did not either know Tokyo or have the means,—I
+did not know which, but the room was miserably dirty. The floor-mats
+had all seen better days and felt shaggy with sandy dust. The
+sootcovered walls defied the blackest black. The ceiling was not only
+smoked by the lamp black, but was so low as to force one involuntarily
+bend down his neck. Only the price-list, on which was glaringly written
+“Noodles” and which was pasted on the wall, was entirely new. I was
+certain that they bought an old house and opened the business just two
+or three days before. At the head of the price-list appeared “tempura”
+(noodles served with shrimp fried in batter).
+
+“Say, fetch me some tempura,” I ordered in a loud voice. Then three
+fellows who had been making a chewing noise together in a corner,
+looked in my direction. As the room was dark I did not notice them at
+first. But when we looked at each other, I found them all to be boys in
+our school. They “how d’ye do’d” me and I acknowledged it. That night,
+having come across the noodle after so long a time, it tasted so fine
+that I ate four bowls.
+
+The next day as I entered the class room quite unconcernedly, I saw on
+the black board written in letters so large as to take up the whole
+space; “Professor Tempura.” The boys all glanced at my face and made
+merry hee-haws at my cost. It was so absurd that I asked them if it was
+in any way funny for me to eat tempura noodle. Thereupon one of them
+said,—“But four bowls is too much.” What did they care if I ate four
+bowls or five as long as I paid it with my own money,—and speedily
+finishing up my class, I returned to the teachers’ room. After ten
+minutes’ recess, I went to the next class, and there on the black board
+was newly written quite as large as before; “Four bowls of tempura
+noodles, but don’t laugh.”
+
+The first one did not arouse any ill-temper in me, but this time it
+made me feel irritating mad. A joke carried too far becomes
+mischievous. It is like the undue jealousy of some women who, like
+coal, look black and suggest flames. Nobody likes it. These country
+simpletons, unable to differentiate upon so delicate a boundary, would
+seem to be bent on pushing everything to the limit. As they lived in
+such a narrow town where one has no more to see if he goes on strolling
+about for one hour, and as they were capable of doing nothing better,
+they were trumpeting aloud this tempura incident in quite as serious a
+manner as the Russo-Japanese war. What a bunch of miserable pups! It is
+because they are raised in this fashion from their boyhood that there
+are many punies who, like the dwarf maple tree in the flower pot,
+mature gnarled and twisted. I have no objection to laugh myself with
+others over innocent jokes. But how’s this? Boys as they are, they
+showed a “poisonous temper.” Silently erasing off “tempura” from the
+board, I questioned them if they thought such mischief interesting,
+that this was a cowardly joke and if they knew the meaning of
+“cowardice.” Some of them answered that to get angry on being laughed
+at over one’s own doing, was cowardice. What made them so disgusting as
+this? I pitied myself for coming from far off Tokyo to teach such a
+lot.
+
+“Keep your mouth shut, and study hard,” I snapped, and started the
+class. In the next class again there was written: “When one eats
+tempura noodles it makes him drawl nonsense.” There seemed no end to
+it. I was thoroughly aroused with anger, and declaring that I would not
+teach such sassies, went home straight. The boys were glad of having an
+unexpected holiday, so I heard. When things had come to this pass, the
+antique curious seemed far more preferable to the school.
+
+My return home and sleep over night greatly rounded off my rugged
+temper over the tempura affair. I went to the school, and they were
+there also. I could not tell what was what. The three days thereafter
+were pacific, and on the night of the fourth day, I went to a suburb
+called Sumida and ate “dango” (small balls made of glutinous rice,
+dressed with sugar-paste). Sumida is a town where there are
+restaurants, hot-springs bath houses and a park, and in addition, the
+“tenderloin.” The dango shop where I went was near the entrance to the
+tenderloin, and as the dango served there was widely known for its nice
+taste, I dropped in on my way back from my bath. As I did not meet any
+students this time, I thought nobody knew of it, but when I entered the
+first hour class next day, I found written on the black board; “Two
+dishes of dango—7 sen.” It is true that I ate two dishes and paid seven
+sen. Troublesome kids! I declare. I expected with certainty that there
+would be something at the second hour, and there it was; “The dango in
+the tenderloin taste fine.” Stupid wretches!
+
+No sooner I thought the dango incident closed than the red towel
+became the topic for widespread gossip. Inquiry as to the story
+revealed it to be something unusually absurd. Since my arrival here, I
+had made it a part of my routine to take in the hot springs bath every
+day. While there was nothing in this town which compared favorably with
+Tokyo, the hot springs were worthy of praise. So long as I was in the
+town, I decided that I would have a dip every day, and went there
+walking, partly for physical exercise, before my supper. And whenever I
+went there I used to carry a large-size European towel dangling from my
+hand. Added to somewhat reddish color the towel had acquired by its
+having been soaked in the hot-springs, the red color on its border,
+which was not fast enough, streaked about so that the towel now looked
+as if it were dyed red. This towel hung down from my hand on both ways
+whether afoot or riding in the train. For this reason, the students
+nicknamed me Red Towel. Honest, it is exasperating to live in a little
+town.
+
+There is some more. The bath house I patronized was a newly built
+three-story house, and for the patrons of the first class the house
+provided a bath-robe, in addition to an attendant, and the cost was
+only eight sen. On top of that, a maid would serve tea in a regular
+polite fashion. I always paid the first class. Then those gossipy
+spotters started saying that for one who made only forty yen a month to
+take a first class bath every day was extravagant. Why the devil should
+they care? It was none of their business.
+
+There is still some more. The bath-tub,—or the tank in this case,—was
+built of granite, and measured about thirty square feet. Usually there
+were thirteen or fourteen people in the tank, but sometimes there was
+none. As the water came up clear to the breast, I enjoyed, for athletic
+purposes, swimming in the tank. I delighted in swimming in this
+30-square feet tank, taking chances of the total absence of other
+people. Once, going downstairs from the third story with a light heart,
+and peeping through the entrance of the tank to see if I should be able
+to swim, I noticed a sign put up in which was boldly written: “No
+swimming allowed in the tank.” As there may not have been many who swam
+in the tank, this notice was probably put up particularly for my sake.
+After that I gave up swimming. But although I gave up swimming, I was
+surprised, when I went to the school, to see on the board, as usual,
+written: “No swimming allowed in the tank.” It seemed as if all the
+students united in tracking me everywhere. They made me sick. I was not
+a fellow to stop doing whatever I had started upon no matter what
+students might say, but I became thoroughly disgusted when I meditated
+on why I had come to such a narrow, suffocating place. And, then, when
+I returned home, the “antique curio siege” was still going on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+For us teachers there was a duty of night watch in the school, and we
+had to do it in turn. But Badger and Red Shirt were not in it. On
+asking why these two were exempt from this duty, I was told that they
+were accorded by the government treatment similar to officials of
+“Sonin” rank. Oh, fudge! They were paid more, worked less, and were
+then excused from this night watch. It was not fair. They made
+regulations to suit their convenience and seemed to regard all this as
+a matter of course. How could they be so brazen faced as this! I was
+greatly dissatisfied relative to this question, but according to the
+opinion of Porcupine, protests by a single person, with what insistency
+they may be made, will not be heard. They ought to be heard whether
+they are made by one person or by two if they are just. Porcupine
+remonstrated with me by quoting “Might is right” in English. I did not
+catch his point, so I asked him again, and he told me that it meant the
+right of the stronger. If it was the right of the stronger I had known
+it for long, and did not require Porcupine explain that to me at this
+time. The right of the stronger was a question different from that of
+the night watch. Who would agree that Badger and Red Shirt were the
+stronger? But argument or no argument, the turn of this night watch at
+last fell upon me. Being quite fastidious, I never enjoyed sound sleep
+unless I slept comfortably in my own bedding. From my childhood, I
+never stayed out overnight. When I did not find sleeping under the roof
+of my friends inviting, night watch in the school, you may be sure, was
+still worse. However repulsive, if this was a part of the forty yen a
+month, there was no alternative. I had to do it.
+
+To remain alone in the school after the faculty and students had gone
+home, was something particularly awkward. The room for the night watch
+was in the rear of the school building at the west end of the
+dormitory. I stepped inside to see how it was, and finding it squarely
+facing the setting sun, I thought I would melt. In spite of autumn
+having already set in, the hot spell still lingered, quite in keeping
+with the dilly-dally atmosphere of the country. I ordered the same kind
+of meal as served for the students, and finished my supper. The meal
+was unspeakably poor. It was a wonder they could subsist on such
+miserable stuff and keep on “roughing it” in that lively fashion. Not
+only that, they were always hungry for supper, finishing it at 4.30 in
+the afternoon. They must be heroes in a sense. I had thus my supper,
+but the sun being still high, could not go to bed yet. I felt like
+going to the hot-springs. I did not know the wrong or right of night
+watch going out, but it was oppressively trying to stand a life akin to
+heavy imprisonment. When I called at the school the first time and
+inquired about night watch, I was told by the janitor that he had just
+gone out and I thought it strange. But now by taking the turn of night
+watch myself, I could fathom the situation; it was right for any night
+watch to go out. I told the janitor that I was going out for a minute.
+He asked me “on business?” and I answered “No,” but to take a bath at
+the hot springs, and went out straight. It was too bad that I had left
+my red towel at home, but I would borrow one over there for to-day.
+
+I took plenty of time in dipping in the bath and as it became dark at
+last, I came to the Furumachi Station on a train. It was only about
+four blocks to the school; I could cover it in no time. When I started
+walking schoolwards, Badger was seen coming from the opposite
+direction. Badger, I presumed, was going to the hot springs by this
+train. He came with brisk steps, and as we passed by, I nodded my
+courtesy. Then Badger, with a studiously owlish countenance, asked:
+
+“Am I wrong to understand that you are night watch?”
+
+Chuck that “Am-I-wrong-to-understand”! Two hours ago, did he not say to
+me “You’re on first night watch to-night. Now, take care of yourself?”
+What makes one use such a roundabout, twisted way of saying anything
+when he becomes a principal? I was far from smiling.
+
+“Yes, Sir,” I said, “I’m night watch to-night, and as I am night watch
+I will return to the school and stay there overnight, sure.” With this
+parting shot, I left him where we met. Coming then to the cross-streets
+of Katamachi, I met Porcupine. This is a narrow place, I tell you.
+Whenever one ventures out, he is sure to come across some familiar
+face.
+
+“Say, aren’t you night watch?” he hallooed, and I said “Yes, I am.”
+“Tis wrong for night watch to leave his post at his pleasure,” he
+added, and to this I blurted out with a bold front; “Nothing wrong at
+all. It is wrong not to go out.”
+
+“Say, old man, your slap-dash is going to the limit. Wouldn’t look well
+for the principal or the head teacher to see you out like this.”
+
+The submissive tone of his remark was contrary to Porcupine as I had
+known him so far, so I cut him short by saying:
+
+“I have met the principal just now. Why, he approved my taking a stroll
+about the town. Said it would be hard on night watch unless he took a
+walk when it is hot.” Then I made a bee-line for the school.
+
+Soon it was night. I called the janitor to my room and had a chat for
+about two hours. I grew tired of this, and thought I would get into bed
+anyway, even if I could not sleep. I put on my night shirt, lifted the
+mosquito-net, rolled off the red blanket and fell down flat on my back
+with a bang. The making of this bumping noise when I go to bed is my
+habit from my boyhood. “It is a bad habit,” once declared a student of
+a law school who lived on the ground floor, and I on the second, when I
+was in the boarding house at Ogawa-machi, Kanda-ku, and who brought
+complaints to my room in person. Students of law schools, weaklings as
+they are, have double the ability of ordinary persons when it comes to
+talking. As this student of law dwelt long on absurd accusations, I
+downed him by answering that the noise made when I went to bed was not
+the fault of my hip, but that of the house which was not built on a
+solid base, and that if he had any fuss to make, make it to the house,
+not to me. This room for night watch was not on the second floor, so
+nobody cared how much I banged. I do not feel well-rested unless I go
+to bed with the loudest bang I can make.
+
+“This is bully!” and I straightened out my feet, when something jumped
+and clung to them. They felt coarse, and seemed not to be fleas. I was
+a bit surprised, and shook my feet inside the blanket two or three
+times. Instantly the blamed thing increased,—five or six of them on my
+legs, two or three on the thighs, one crushed beneath my hip and
+another clear up to my belly. The shock became greater. Up I jumped,
+took off the blanket, and about fifty to sixty grasshoppers flew out. I
+was more or less uneasy until I found out what they were, but now I saw
+they were grasshoppers, they set me on the war path. “You insignificant
+grasshoppers, startling a man! See what’s coming to you!” With this I
+slapped them with my pillow twice or thrice, but the objects being so
+small, the effect was out of proportion to the force with which the
+blows were administered. I adopted a different plan. In the manner of
+beating floor-mats with rolled matting at house-cleaning, I sat up in
+bed and began beating them with the pillow. Many of them flew up by the
+force of the pillow; some desperately clung on or shot against my nose
+or head. I could not very well hit those on my head with the pillow; I
+grabbed such, and dashed them on the floor. What was more provoking was
+that no matter how hard I dashed them, they landed on the mosquito-net
+where they made a fluffy jerk and remained, far from being dead. At
+last, in about half an hour the slaughter of the grasshoppers was
+ended. I fetched a broom and swept them out. The janitor came along and
+asked what was the matter.
+
+“Damn the matter! Where in thunder are the fools who keep grasshoppers
+in bed! You pumpkinhead!”
+
+The janitor answered by explaining that he did not know anything about
+it. “You can’t get away with Did-not-know,” and I followed this
+thundering by throwing away the broom. The awe-struck janitor
+shouldered the broom and faded away.
+
+At once I summoned three of the students to my room as the
+“representatives,” and six of them reported. Six or ten made no
+difference; I rolled up the sleeves of my night-shirt and fired away.
+
+“What do you mean by putting grasshoppers in my bed!”
+
+“Grasshoppers? What are they?” said one in front, in a tone
+disgustingly quiet. In this school, not only the principal, but the
+students as well, were addicted to using twisted-round expressions.
+
+“Don’t know grasshoppers! You shall see!” To my chagrin, there was
+none; I had swept them all out. I called the janitor again and told him
+to fetch those grasshoppers he had taken away. The janitor said he had
+thrown them into the garbage box, but that he would pick them out
+again. “Yes, hurry up,” I said, and he sped away. After a while he
+brought back about ten grasshoppers on a white paper, remarking:
+
+“I’m sorry, Sir. It’s dark outside and I can’t find out more. I’ll find
+some tomorrow.” All fools here, down to the janitor. I showed one
+grasshopper to the students.
+
+“This is a grasshopper. What’s the matter for as big idiots as you not
+to know a grasshopper.” Then the one with a round face sitting on the
+left saucily shot back:
+
+“A-ah say, that’s a locust, a-ah——.”
+
+“Shut up. They’re the same thing. In the first place, what do you mean
+by answering your teacher ‘A-ah say’? Ah-Say or Ah-Sing is a Chink’s
+name!”
+
+For this counter-shot, he answered:
+
+“A-ah say and Ah-Sing is different,—A-ah say.” They never got rid of
+“A-ah say.”
+
+“Grasshoppers or locusts, why did you put them into my bed? When I
+asked you to?”
+
+“Nobody put them in.”
+
+“If not, how could they get into the bed?”
+
+“Locusts are fond of warm places and probably they got in there
+respectfully by themselves.”
+
+“You fools! Grasshoppers getting into bed respectfully! I should smile
+at them getting in there respectfully! Now, what’s the reason for doing
+this mischief? Speak out.”
+
+“But there is no way to explain it because we didn’t do it.”
+
+Shrimps! If they were afraid of making a clean breast of their own
+deed, they should not have done it at all. They looked defiant, and
+appeared to insist on their innocence as long as no evidence was
+brought up. I myself did some mischief while in the middle school, but
+when the culprit was sought after, I was never so cowardly, not even
+once, to back out. What one has done, has been done; what he has not,
+has not been,—that’s the black and white of it. I, for one have been
+game and square, no matter how much mischief I might have done. If I
+wished to dodge the punishment, I would not start it. Mischief and
+punishment are bound to go together. We can enjoy mischief-making with
+some show of spirit because it is accompanied by certain consequences.
+Where does one expect to see the dastardly spirit which hungers for
+mischief-making without punishment, in vogue? The fellows who like to
+borrow money but not pay it back, are surely such as these students
+here after they are graduated. What did these fellows come to this
+middle school for, anyway? They enter a school, tattle round lies, play
+silly jokes behind some one by sneaking and cheating and get wrongly
+swell-headed when they finish the school thinking they have received an
+education. A common lot of jackasses they are.
+
+My hatred of talking with these scamps became intense, so I dismissed
+them by saying:
+
+“If you fellows have nothing to say, let it go at that. You deserve
+pity for not knowing the decent from the vulgar after coming to a
+middle school.”
+
+I am not very decent in my own language or manner, but am sure that my
+moral standard is far more decent than that of these gangs. Those six
+boys filed out leisurely. Outwardly they appeared more dignified than I
+their teacher. It was the more repulsive for their calm behavior. I
+have no temerity equal to theirs. Then I went to bed again, and found
+the inside of the net full of merry crowds of mosquitoes. I could not
+bother myself to burn one by one with a candle flame. So I took the net
+off the hooks, folded it the lengthwise, and shook it crossways, up and
+down the room. One of the rings of the net, flying round, accidentally
+hit the back of my hand, the effect of which I did not soon forget.
+When I went to bed for the third time, I cooled off a little, but could
+not sleep easily. My watch showed it was half past ten. Well, as I
+thought it over, I realized myself as having come to a dirty pit. If
+all teachers of middle schools everywhere have to handle fellows like
+these in this school, those teachers have my sympathy. It is wonderful
+that teachers never run short. I believe there are many boneheads of
+extraordinary patience; but me for something else. In this respect,
+Kiyo is worthy of admiration. She is an old woman, with neither
+education nor social position, but as a human, she does more to command
+our respect. Until now, I have been a trouble to her without
+appreciating her goodness, but having come alone to such a far-off
+country, I now appreciated, for the first time, her kindness. If she is
+fond of sasa-ame of Echigo province, and if I go to Echigo for the
+purpose of buying that sweetmeat to let her eat it, she is fully worth
+that trouble. Kiyo has been praising me as unselfish and straight, but
+she is a person of sterling qualities far more than I whom she praises.
+I began to feel like meeting her.
+
+While I was thus meditating about Kiyo, all of a sudden, on the floor
+above my head, about thirty to forty people, if I guess by the number,
+started stamping the floor with bang, bang, bang that well threatened
+to bang down the floor. This was followed by proportionately loud
+whoops. The noise surprised me, and I popped up. The moment I got up I
+became aware that the students were starting a rough house to get even
+with me. What wrong one has committed, he has to confess, or his
+offence is never atoned for. They are just to ask for themselves what
+crimes they have done. It should be proper that they repent their folly
+after going to bed and to come and beg me pardon the next morning. Even
+if they could not go so far as to apologize they should have kept
+quiet. Then what does this racket mean? Were we keeping hogs in our
+dormitory?
+
+“This crazy thing got to stop. See what you get!”
+
+I ran out of the room in my night shirt, and flew upstairs in three 
+and half steps. Then, strange to say, the thunderous rumbling, of 
+which I was sure of hearing in the act, was hushed. Not only a whisper 
+but even footsteps were not heard. This was funny. The lamp was 
+already blown out and although I could not see what was what in the 
+dark, nevertheless could tell by instinct whether there was somebody 
+around or not. In the long corridor running from the east to the west, 
+there was not hiding even a mouse. From other end of the corridor the 
+moonlight flooded in and about there it was particularly light. The 
+scene was somewhat uncanny. I have had the habit from my boyhood of 
+frequently dreaming and of flying out of bed and of muttering things 
+which nobody understood, affording everybody a hearty laugh. One 
+night, when I was sixteen or seventeen, I dreamed that I picked up a 
+diamond, and getting up, demanded of my brother who was sleeping close 
+to me what he had done with that diamond. The demand was made with 
+such force that for about three days all in the house chaffed me about 
+the fatal loss of precious stone, much to my humiliation. Maybe this 
+noise which I heard was but a dream, although I was sure it was real. 
+I was wondering thus in the middle of the corridor, when at the 
+further end where it was moonlit, a roar was raised, coming from about 
+thirty or forty throats, “One, two, three,—Whee-ee!” The roar had 
+hardly subsided, when, as before, the stamping of the floor commenced 
+with furious rhythm. Ah, it was not a dream, but a real thing!
+
+“Quit making the noise! ’Tis midnight!”
+
+I shouted to beat the band, and started in their direction. My passage
+was dark; the moonlight yonder was only my guide. About twelve feet
+past, I stumbled squarely against some hard object; ere the “Ouch!” has
+passed clear up to my head, I was thrown down. I called all kinds of
+gods, but could not run. My mind urged me on to hurry up, but my leg
+would not obey the command. Growing impatient, I hobbled on one foot,
+and found both voice and stamping already ceased and perfectly quiet.
+Men can be cowards but I never expected them capable of becoming such
+dastardly cowards as this. They challenged hogs.
+
+Now the situation having developed to this pretty mess, I would not
+give it up until I had dragged them out from hiding and forced them to
+apologize. With this determination, I tried to open one of the doors
+and examine inside, but it would not open. It was locked or held fast
+with a pile of tables or something; to my persistent efforts the door
+stood unyielding. Then I tried one across the corridor on the
+northside, but it was also locked. While this irritating attempt at
+door-opening was going on, again on the east end of the corridor the
+whooping roar and rhythmic stamping of feet were heard. The fools at
+both ends were bent on making a goose of me. I realized this, but then
+I was at a loss what to do. I frankly confess that I have not quite as
+much tact as dashing spirit. In such a case I am wholly at the mercy of
+swaying circumstances without my own way of getting through it.
+Nevertheless, I do not expect to play the part of underdog. If I
+dropped the affair then and there, it would reflect upon my dignity. It
+would be mortifying to have them think that they had one on the
+Tokyo-kid and that Tokyo-kid was wanting in tenacity. To have it on
+record that I had been guyed by these insignificant spawn when on night
+watch, and had to give in to their impudence because I could not handle
+them,—this would be an indelible disgrace on my life. Mark ye,—I am
+descendant of a samurai of the “hatamoto” class. The blood of the
+“hatamoto” samurai could be traced to Mitsunaka Tada, who in turn could
+claim still a nobler ancestor. I am different from, and nobler than,
+these manure-smelling louts. The only pity is that I am rather short of
+tact; that I do not know what to do in such a case. That is the
+trouble. But I would not throw up the sponge; not on your life! I only
+do not know how because I am honest. Just think,—if the honest does not
+win, what else is there in this world that will win? If I cannot beat
+them to-night, I will tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then the day after
+tomorrow. If not the day after tomorrow, I will sit down right here,
+get my meals from my home until I beat them.
+
+Thus resolved, I squatted in the middle of the corridor and waited for
+the dawn. Myriads of mosquitoes swarmed about me, but I did not mind
+them. I felt my leg where I hit it a while ago; it seemed bespattered
+with something greasy. I thought it was bleeding. Let it bleed all it
+cares! Meanwhile, exhausted by these unwonted affairs, I fell asleep.
+When I awoke, up I jumped with a curse. The door on my right was half
+opened, and two students were standing in front of me. The moment I
+recovered my senses from the drowsy lull, I grabbed a leg of one of
+them nearest to me, and yanked it with all my might. He fell down
+prone. Look at what you’re getting now! I flew at the other fellow, who
+was much confused; gave him vigorous shaking twice or thrice, and he
+only kept open his bewildering eyes.
+
+“Come up to my room.” Evidently they were mollycoddles, for they obeyed
+my command without a murmur. The day had become already clear.
+
+I began questioning those two in my room, but,—you cannot pound out the
+leopard’s spots no matter how you may try,—they seemed determined to
+push it through by an insistent declaration of “not guilty,” that they
+would not confess. While this questioning was going on, the students
+upstairs came down, one by one, and began congregating in my room. I
+noticed all their eyes were swollen from want of sleep.
+
+“Blooming nice faces you got for not sleeping only one night. And you
+call yourselves men! Go, wash your face and come back to hear what I’ve
+got to tell you.”
+
+I hurled this shot at them, but none of them went to wash his face. For
+about one hour, I had been talking and back-talking with about fifty
+students when suddenly Badger put in his appearance. I heard afterward
+that the janitor ran to Badger for the purpose of reporting to him that
+there was a trouble in the school. What a weak-knee of the janitor to
+fetch the principal for so trifling an affair as this! No wonder he
+cannot see better times than a janitor.
+
+The principal listened to my explanation, and also to brief remarks
+from the students. “Attend school as usual till further notice. Hurry
+up with washing your face and breakfast; there isn’t much time left.”
+So the principal let go all the students. Decidedly slow way of
+handling, this. If I were the principal, I would expel them right away.
+It is because the school accords them such luke-warm treatment that
+they get “fresh” and start “guying” the night watch.
+
+He said to me that it must have been trying on my nerves, and that I
+might be tired, and also that I need not teach that day. To this I
+replied:
+
+“No, Sir, no worrying at all. Such things may happen every night, but
+it would not disturb me in the least as long as I breathe. I will do
+the teaching. If I were not able to teach on account of lack of sleep
+for only one single night, I would make a rebate of my salary to the
+school.”
+
+I do not know how this impressed him, but he gazed at me for a while,
+and called my attention to the fact that my face was rather swollen.
+Indeed, I felt it heavy. Besides, it itched all over. I was sure the
+mosquitoes must have stung me there to their hearts’ content. I further
+added:
+
+“My face may be swollen, but I can talk all right; so I will teach;”
+thus scratching my face with some warmth. The principal smiled and
+remarked, “Well, you have the strength.” To tell the truth, he did not
+intend remark to be a compliment, but, I think, a sneer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+“Won’t you go fishing?” asked Red Shirt. He talks in a strangely
+womanish voice. One would not be able to tell whether he was a man or a
+woman. As a man he should talk like one. Is he not a college graduate?
+I can talk man-like enough, and am a graduate from a school of physics
+at that. It is a shame for a B.A. to have such a squeak.
+
+I answered with the smallest enthusiasm, whereupon he further asked me
+an impolite question if I ever did fishing. I told him not much, that I
+once caught three gibels when I was a boy, at a fishing game pond at
+Koume, and that I also caught a carp about eight inches long, at a
+similar game at the festival of Bishamon at Kagurazaka;—the carp, just
+as I was coaxing it out of the water, splashed back into it, and when I
+think of the incident I feel mortified at the loss even now. Red Shirt
+stuck out his chin and laughed “ho, ho.” Why could he not laugh just
+like an ordinary person? “Then you are not well acquainted with the
+spirit of the game,” he cried. “I’ll show you if you like.” He seemed
+highly elated.
+
+Not for me! I take it this way that generally those who are fond of
+fishing or shooting have cruel hearts. Otherwise, there is no reason
+why they could derive pleasure in murdering innocent creatures. Surely,
+fish and birds would prefer living to getting killed. Except those who
+make fishing or shooting their calling, it is nonsense for those who
+are well off to say that they cannot sleep well unless they seek the
+lives of fish or birds. This was the way I looked at the question, but
+as he was a B. A. and would have a better command of language when it
+came to talking, I kept mum, knowing he would beat me in argument. Red
+Shirt mistook my silence for my surrender, and began to induce me to
+join him right away, saying he would show me some fish and I should
+come with him if I was not busy, because he and Mr. Yoshikawa were
+lonesome when alone. Mr. Yoshikawa is the teacher of drawing whom I had
+nicknamed Clown. I don’t know what’s in the mind of this Clown, but he
+was a constant visitor at the house of Red Shirt, and wherever he went,
+Clown was sure to be trailing after him. They appeared more like master
+and servant than two fellow teachers. As Clown used to follow Red Shirt
+like a shadow, it would be natural to see them go off together now, but
+when those two alone would have been well off, why should they invite
+me,—this brusque, unaesthetic fellow,—was hard to understand. Probably,
+vain of his fishing ability, he desired to show his skill, but he aimed
+at the wrong mark, if that was his intention, as nothing of the kind
+would touch me. I would not be chagrined if he fishes out two or three
+tunnies. I am a man myself and poor though I may be in the art, I would
+hook something if I dropped a line. If I declined his invitation, Red
+Shirt would suspect that I refused not because of my lack of interest
+in the game but because of my want of skill of fishing. I weighed the
+matter thus, and accepted his invitation. After the school, I returned
+home and got ready, and having joined Red Shirt and Clown at the
+station, we three started to the shore. There was only one boatman to
+row; the boat was long and narrow, a kind we do not have in Tokyo. I
+looked for fishing rods but could find none.
+
+“How can we fish without rods? How are we going to manage it?” I asked
+Clown and he told me with the air of a professional fisherman that no
+rods were needed in the deep-sea fishing, but only lines. I had better
+not asked him if I was to be talked down in this way.
+
+The boatman was rowing very slowly, but his skill was something
+wonderful. We had already come far out to sea, and on turning back, saw
+the shore minimized, fading in far distance. The five-storied pagoda of
+Tosho Temple appeared above the surrounding woods like a needle-point.
+Yonder stood Aoshima (Blue Island). Nobody was living on this island
+which a closer view showed to be covered with stones and pine trees. No
+wonder no one could live there. Red Shirt was intently surveying about
+and praising the general view as fine. Clown also termed it “an
+absolutely fine view.” I don’t know whether it is so fine as to be
+absolute, but there was no doubt as to the exhilarating air. I realized
+it as the best tonic to be thus blown by the fresh sea breeze upon a
+wide expanse of water. I felt hungry.
+
+“Look at that pine; its trunk is straight and spreads its top branches
+like an umbrella. Isn’t it a Turnersque picture?” said Red Shirt. “Yes,
+just like Turner’s,” responded Clown, “Isn’t the way it curves just
+elegant? Exactly the touch of Turner,” he added with some show of
+pride. I didn’t know what Turner was, but as I could get along without
+knowing it, I kept silent. The boat turned to the left with the island
+on the right. The sea was so perfectly calm as to tempt one to think he
+was not on the deep sea. The pleasant occasion was a credit to Red
+Shirt. As I wished, if possible, to land on the island, I asked the
+boatman if our boat could not be made to it. Upon this Red Shirt
+objected, saying that we could do so but it was not advisable to go too
+close the shore for fishing. I kept still for a while. Then Clown made
+the unlooked-for proposal that the island be named Turner Island.
+“That’s good. We shall call it so hereafter,” seconded Red Shirt. If I
+was included in that “We,” it was something I least cared for. Aoshima
+was good enough for me. “By the way, how would it look,” said Clown,
+“if we place Madonna by Raphael upon that rock? It would make a fine
+picture.”
+
+“Let’s quit talking about Madonna, ho, ho, ho,” and Red Shirt emitted a
+spooky laugh.
+
+“That’s all right. Nobody’s around,” remarked Clown as he glanced at
+me, and turning his face to other direction significantly, smiled
+devilishly. I felt sickened.
+
+As it was none of my business whether it was a Madonna or a kodanna
+(young master), they let pose there any old way, but it was vulgar to
+feign assurance that one’s subject is in no danger of being understood
+so long as others did not know the subject. Clown claims himself as a
+Yedo kid. I thought that the person called Madonna was no other than a
+favorite geisha of Red Shirt. I should smile at the idea of his gazing
+at his tootsy-wootsy standing beneath a pine tree. It would be better
+if Clown would make an oil painting of the scene and exhibit it for the
+public.
+
+“This will be about the best place.” So saying the boatman stopped
+rowing the boat and dropped an anchor.
+
+“How deep is it?” asked Red Shirt, and was told about six fathoms.
+
+“Hard to fish sea-breams in six fathoms,” said Red Shirt as he dropped
+a line into the water. The old sport appeared to expect to fetch some
+bream. Bravo!
+
+“It wouldn’t be hard for you. Besides it is calm,” Clown fawningly
+remarked, and he too dropped a line. The line had only a tiny bit of
+lead that looked like a weight. It had no float. To fish without a
+float seemed as nearly reasonable as to measure the heat without a
+thermometer, which was something impossible for me. So I looked on.
+They then told me to start, and asked me if I had any line. I told them
+I had more than I could use, but that I had no float.
+
+“To say that one is unable to fish without a float shows that he is a
+novice,” piped up Clown.
+
+“See? When the line touches the bottom, you just manage it with your
+finger on the edge. If a fish bites, you could tell in a minute. There
+it goes,” and Red Shirt hastily started taking out the line. I wondered
+what he had got, but I saw no fish, only the bait was gone. Ha, good
+for you, Gov’nur!
+
+“Wasn’t it too bad! I’m sure it was a big one. If you miss that way,
+with your ability, we would have to keep a sharper watch to-day. But,
+say, even if we miss the fish, it’s far better than staring at a float,
+isn’t it? Just like saying he can’t ride a bike without a brake.” Clown
+has been getting rather gay, and I was almost tempted to swat him. I’m
+just as good as they are. The sea isn’t leased by Red Shirt, and there
+might be one obliging bonito which might get caught by my line. I
+dropped my line then, and toyed it with my finger carelessly.
+
+After a while something shook my line with successive jerks. I thought
+it must be a fish. Unless it was something living, it would not give
+that tremulous shaking. Good! I have it, and I commenced drawing in the
+line, while Clown jibed me “What? Caught one already? Very remarkable,
+indeed!” I had drawn in nearly all the line, leaving only about five
+feet in the water. I peeped over and saw a fish that looked like a gold
+fish with stripes was coming up swimming to right and left. It was
+interesting. On taking it out of the water, it wriggled and jumped, and
+covered my face with water. After some effort, I had it and tried to
+detach the hook, but it would not come out easily. My hands became
+greasy and the sense was anything but pleasing. I was irritated; I
+swung the line and banged the fish against the bottom of the boat. It
+speedily died. Red Shirt and Clown watched me with surprise. I washed
+my hands in the water but they still smelled “fishy.” No more for me! I
+don’t care what fish I might get, I don’t want to grab a fish. And I
+presume the fish doesn’t want to be grabbed either. I hastily rolled up
+the line.
+
+“Splendid for the first honor, but that’s goruki,” Clown again made a
+“fresh” remark.
+
+“Goruki sounds like the name of a Russian literator,” said Red Shirt.
+“Yes, just like a Russian literator,” Clown at once seconded Red Shirt.
+Gorky for a Russian literator, Maruki a photographer of Shibaku, and
+komeno-naruki (rice) a life-giver, eh? This Red Shirt has a bad hobby
+of marshalling before anybody the name of foreigners. Everybody has his
+specialty. How could a teacher of mathematics like me tell whether it
+is a Gorky or shariki (rikishaman). Red Shirt should have been a little
+more considerate. And if he wants to mention such names at all, let him
+mention “Autobiography of Ben Franklin,” or “Pushing to the Front,” or
+something we all know. Red Shirt has been seen once in a while bringing
+a magazine with a red cover entitled Imperial Literature to the school
+and poring over it with reverence. I heard it from Porcupine that Red
+Shirt gets his supply of all foreign names from that magazine. Well, I
+should say!
+
+For some time, Red Shirt and Clown fished assiduously and within about
+an hour they caught about fifteen fish. The funny part of it was that
+all they caught were goruki; of sea-bream there was not a sign.
+
+“This is a day of bumper crop of Russian literature,” Red Shirt said,
+and Clown answered:
+
+“When one as skilled as you gets nothing but goruki, it’s natural for
+me to get nothing else.”
+
+The boatman told me that this small-sized fish goruki has too many tiny
+bones and tastes too poor to be fit for eating, but they could be used
+for fertilising. So Red Shirt and Clown were fishing fertilisers with
+vim and vigor. As for me, one goruki was enough and I laid down myself
+on the bottom, and looked up at the sky. This was far more dandy than
+fishing.
+
+Then the two began whispering. I could not hear well, nor did I care
+to. I was looking up at the sky and thinking about Kiyo. If I had
+enough of money, I thought, and came with Kiyo to such a picturesque
+place, how joyous it would be. No matter how picturesque the scene
+might be, it would be flat in the company of Clown or of his kind. Kiyo
+is a poor wrinkled woman, but I am not ashamed to take her to any old
+place. Clown or his likes, even in a Victoria or a yacht, or in a
+sky-high position, would not be worthy to come within her shadow. If I
+were the head teacher, and Red Shirt I, Clown would be sure to fawn on
+me and jeer at Red Shirt. They say Yedo kids are flippant. Indeed, if a
+fellow like Clown was to travel the country and repeatedly declare “I
+am a Yedo kid,” no wonder the country folk would decide that the
+flippant are Yedo kids and Yedo kids are flippant. While I was
+meditating like this, I heard suppressed laughter. Between their laughs
+they talked something, but I could not make out what they were talking
+about. “Eh? I don’t know……” “…… That’s true …… he doesn’t know …… isn’t
+it pity, though …….” “Can that be…….” “With grasshoppers …… that’s a
+fact.”
+
+I did not listen to what they were talking, but when I heard Clown say
+“grasshoppers,” I cocked my ear instinctively. Clown emphasized, for
+what reason I do not know the word “grasshopers” so that it would be
+sure to reach my ear plainly, and he blurred the rest on purpose. I did
+not move, and kept on listening. “That same old Hotta,” “that may be
+the case….” “Tempura …… ha, ha, ha ……” “…… incited ……” “…… dango also?
+……”
+
+The words were thus choppy, but judging by their saying “grasshoppers,”
+“tempura” or “dango,” I was sure they were secretly talking something
+about me. If they wanted to talk, they should do it louder. If they
+wanted to discuss something secret, why in thunder did they invite me?
+What damnable blokes! Grasshoppers or glass-stoppers, I was not in the
+wrong; I have kept quiet to save the face of Badger because the
+principal asked me to leave the matter to him. Clown has been making
+unnecessary criticisms; out with your old paint-brushes there! Whatever
+concerns me, I will settle it myself sooner or later, and they had just
+to keep off my toes. But remarks such as “the same old Hotta” or “……
+incited ……” worried me a bit. I could not make out whether they meant
+that Hotta incited me to extend the circle of the trouble, or that he
+incited the students to get at me. As I gazed at the blue sky, the
+sunlight gradually waned and chilly winds commenced stirring. The
+clouds that resembled the streaky smokes of joss sticks were slowly
+extending over a clear sky, and by degrees they were absorbed, melted
+and changed to a faint fog.
+
+“Well, let’s be going,” said Red Shirt suddenly. “Yes, this is the 
+time we were going. See your Madonna to-night?” responded Clown. “Cut 
+out nonsense …… might mean a serious trouble,” said Red Shirt who was 
+reclining against the edge of the boat, now raising himself. “O, 
+that’s all right if he hears ...,” and when Clown, so saying, turned 
+himself my way, I glared squarely in his face. Clown turned back as if 
+to keep away from a dazzling light, and with “Ha, this is going some,” 
+shrugged his shoulders and scratched his head.
+
+The boat was now being rowed shore-ward over the calm sea. “You don’t
+seem much fond of fishing,” asked Red Shirt. “No, I’d rather prefer
+lying and looking at the sky,” I answered, and threw the stub of
+cigarette I had been smoking into the water; it sizzled and floated on
+the waves parted by the oar.
+
+“The students are all glad because you have come. So we want you do
+your best.” Red Shirt this time started something quite alien to
+fishing. “I don’t think they are,” I said. “Yes; I don’t mean it as
+flattery. They are, sure. Isn’t it so, Mr. Yoshikawa?”
+
+“I should say they are. They’re crazy over it,” said Clown with an
+unctuous smile. Strange that whatever Clown says, it makes me itching
+mad. “But, if you don’t look out, there is danger,” warned Red Shirt.
+
+“I am fully prepared for all dangers,” I replied. In fact, I had made
+up my mind either to get fired or to make all the students in the
+dormitory apologize to me.
+
+“If you talk that way, that cuts everything out. Really, as a head
+teacher, I’ve been considering what is good for you, and wouldn’t like
+you to mistake it.”
+
+“The head teacher is really your friend. And I’m doing what I can for
+you, though mighty little, because you and I are Yedo kids, and I would
+like to have you stay with us as long as possible and we can help each
+other.” So said Clown and it sounded almost human. I would sooner hang
+myself than to get helped by Clown.
+
+“And the students are all glad because you had come, but there are many
+circumstances,” continued Red Shirt. “You may feel angry sometimes but
+be patient for the present, and I will never do anything to hurt your
+interests.”
+
+“You say ‘many circumstances’; what are they?”
+
+“They’re rather complicated. Well, they’ll be clear to you by and by.
+You’ll understand them naturally without my talking them over. What do
+you say, Mr. Yoshikawa?”
+
+“Yes, they’re pretty complicated; hard to get them cleared up in a
+jiffy. But they’ll become clear by-the-bye. Will be understood
+naturally without my explaining them,” Clown echoed Red Shirt.
+
+“If they’re such a bother, I don’t mind not hearing them. I only asked
+you because you sprang the subject.”
+
+“That’s right. I may seem irresponsible in not concluding the thing I
+had started. Then this much I’ll tell you. I mean no offense, but you
+are fresh from school, and teaching is a new experience. And a school
+is a place where somewhat complicated private circumstances are common
+and one cannot do everything straight and simple.”
+
+“If can’t get it through straight and simple, how does it go?”
+
+“Well, there you are so straight as that. As I was saying, you’re short
+of experience....”
+
+“I should be. As I wrote it down in my record-sheet, I’m 23 years and
+four months.”
+
+“That’s it. So you’d be done by some one in unexpected quarter.”
+
+“I’m not afraid who might do me as long as I’m honest.”
+
+“Certainly not. No need be afraid, but I do say you look sharp; your
+predecessor was done.”
+
+I noticed Clown had become quiet, and turning round, saw him at the
+stern talking with the boatman. Without Clown, I found our conversation
+running smoothly.
+
+“By whom was my predecessor done?”
+
+“If I point out the name, it would reflect on the honor of that person,
+so I can’t mention it. Besides there is no evidence to prove it and I
+may be in a bad fix if I say it. At any rate, since you’re here, my
+efforts will prove nothing if you fail. Keep a sharp look-out, please.”
+
+“You say look-out, but I can’t be more watchful than I’m now. If I
+don’t do anything wrong, after all, that’s all right isn’t it?”
+
+Red Shirt laughed. I did not remember having said anything provocative
+of laughter. Up to this very minute, I have been firm in my conviction
+that I’m right. When I come to consider the situation, it appears that
+a majority of people are encouraging others to become bad. They seem to
+believe that one must do wrong in order to succeed. If they happen to
+see some one honest and pure, they sneer at him as “Master Darling” or
+“kiddy.” What’s the use then of the instructors of ethics at grammar
+schools or middle schools teaching children not to tell a lie or to be
+honest. Better rather make a bold departure and teach at schools the
+gentle art of lying or the trick of distrusting others, or show pupils
+how to do others. That would be beneficial for the person thus taught
+and for the public as well. When Red Shirt laughed, he laughed at my
+simplicity. My word! what chances have the simple-hearted or the pure
+in a society where they are made objects of contempt! Kiyo would never
+laugh at such a time; she would listen with profound respect. Kiyo is
+far superior to Red Shirt.
+
+“Of course, that’t all right as long as you don’t do anything wrong.
+But although you may not do anything wrong, they will do you just the
+same unless you can see the wrong of others. There are fellows you have
+got to watch,—the fellows who may appear off-hand, simple and so kind
+as to get boarding house for you…… Getting rather cold. ’Tis already
+autumn, isn’t it. The beach looks beer-color in the fog. A fine view.
+Say, Mr. Yoshikawa, what do you think of the scene along the beach?……”
+This in a loud voice was addressed to Clown.
+
+“Indeed, this is a fine view. I’d get a sketch of it if I had time.
+Seems a pity to leave it there,” answered Clown.
+
+A light was seen upstairs at Minato-ya, and just as the whistle of a
+train was sounded, our boat pushed its nose deep into the sand. “Well,
+so you’re back early,” courtesied the wife of the boatman as she
+stepped upon the sand. I stood on the edge of the boat; and whoop! I
+jumped out to the beach.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+I heartily despise Clown. It would be beneficial for Japan if such a
+fellow were tied to a quernstone and dumped into the sea. As to Red
+Shirt, his voice did not suit my fancy. I believe he suppresses his
+natural tones to put on airs and assume genteel manner. He may put on
+all kinds of airs, but nothing good will come of it with that type of
+face. If anything falls in love with him, perhaps the Madonna will be
+about the limit. As a head-teacher, however, he is more serious than
+Clown. As he did not say definitely, I cannot get to the point, but it
+appears that he warned me to look-out for Porcupine as he is crooked.
+If that was the case, he should have declared it like a man. And if
+Porcupine is so bad a teacher as that, it would be better to discharge
+him. What a lack of backbone for a head teacher and a Bachelor of Arts!
+As he is a fellow so cautious as to be unable to mention the name of
+the other even in a whisper, he is surely a mollycoddle. All
+mollycoddles are kind, and that Red Shirt may be as kind as a woman.
+His kindness is one thing, and his voice quite another, and it would be
+wrong to disregard his kindness on account of his voice. But then,
+isn’t this world a funny place! The fellow I don’t like is kind to me,
+and the friend whom I like is crooked,—how absurd! Probably everything
+here goes in opposite directions as it is in the country, the contrary
+holds in Tokyo. A dangerous place, this. By degrees, fires may get
+frozen and custard pudding petrified. But it is hardly believable that
+Porcupine would incite the students, although he might do most anything
+he wishes as he is best liked among them. Instead of taking in so
+roundabout a way, in the first place, it would have saved him a lot of
+trouble if he came direct to me and got at me for a fight. If I am in
+his way, he had better tell me so, and ask me to resign because I am in
+his way. There is nothing that cannot be settled by talking it over. If
+what he says sounds reasonable, I would resign even tomorrow. This is
+not the only town where I can get bread and butter; I ought not to die
+homeless wherever I go. I thought Porcupine was a better sport.
+
+When I came here, Porcupine was the first to treat me to ice water. To
+be treated by such a fellow, even if it is so trifling a thing as ice
+water, affects my honor. I had only one glass then and had him pay only
+one sen and a half. But one sen or half sen, I shall not die in peace
+if I accept a favor from a swindler. I will pay it back tomorrow when I
+go to the school. I borrowed three yen from Kiyo. That three yen is not
+paid yet to-day, though it is five years since. Not that I could not
+pay, but that I did not want to. Kiyo never looks to my pocket thinking
+I shall pay it back by-the-bye. Not by any means. I myself do not
+expect to fulfill cold obligation like a stranger by meditating on
+returning it. The more I worry about paying it back, the more I may be
+doubting the honest heart of Kiyo. It would be the same as traducing
+her pure mind. I have not paid her back that three yen not because I
+regard her lightly, but because I regard her as part of myself. Kiyo
+and Porcupine cannot be compared, of course, but whether it be ice
+water or tea, the fact that I accept another’s favor without saying
+anything is an act of good-will, taking the other on his par value, as
+a decent fellow. Instead of chipping in my share, and settling each
+account, to receive munificence with grateful mind is an acknowledgment
+which no amount of money can purchase. I have neither title nor
+official position but I am an independent fellow, and to have an
+independent fellow kowtow to you in acknowledgment of the favor you
+extend him should be considered as far more than a return
+acknowledgment with a million yen. I made Porcupine blow one sen and a
+half, and gave him my gratitude which is more costly than a million
+yen. He ought to have been thankful for that. And then what an
+outrageous fellow to plan a cowardly action behind my back! I will give
+him back that one sen and a half tomorrow, and all will be square. Then
+I will land him one. When I thought thus far, I felt sleepy and slept
+like a log. The next day, as I had something in my mind, I went to the
+school earlier than usual and waited for Porcupine, but he did not
+appear for a considerable time. “Confucius” was there, so was Clown,
+and finally Red Shirt, but for Porcupine there was a piece of chalk on
+his desk but the owner was not there. I had been thinking of paying
+that one sen and a half as soon as I entered the room, and had brought
+the coppers to the school grasped in my hand. My hands get easily
+sweaty, and when I opened my hand, I found them wet. Thinking that
+Porcupine might say something if wet coins were given him, I placed
+them upon my desk, and cooled them by blowing in them. Then Red Shirt
+came to me and said he was sorry to detain me yesterday, thought I have
+been annoyed. I told him I was not annoyed at all, only I was hungry.
+Thereupon Red Shirt put his elbows upon the desk, brought his
+sauce-pan-like face close to my nose, and said; “Say, keep dark what I
+told you yesterday in the boat. You haven’t told it anybody, have you?”
+He seems quite a nervous fellow as becoming one who talks in a feminish
+voice. It was certain that I had not told it to anybody, but as I was
+in the mood to tell it and had already one sen and a half in my hand, I
+would be a little rattled if a gag was put on me. To the devil with Red
+Shirt! Although he had not mentioned the name “Porcupine,” he had given
+me such pointers as to put me wise as to who the objective was, and now
+he requested me not to blow the gaff!—it was an irresponsibility least
+to be expected from a head teacher. In the ordinary run of things, he
+should step into the thick of the fight between Porcupine and me, and
+side with me with all his colors flying. By so doing, he might be
+worthy the position of the head teacher, and vindicate the principle of
+wearing red shirts.
+
+I told the head teacher that I had not divulged the secret to anybody
+but was going to fight it out with Porcupine. Red Shirt was greatly
+perturbed, and stuttered out; “Say, don’t do anything so rash as that.
+I don’t remember having stated anything plainly to you about Mr.
+Hotta……. if you start a scrimmage here, I’ll be greatly embarrassed.”
+And he asked the strangely outlandish question if I had come to the
+school to start trouble? Of course not, I said, the school would not
+stand for my making trouble and pay me salary for it. Red Shirt then,
+perspiring, begged me to keep the secret as mere reference and never
+mention it. “All right, then,” I assured him, “this robs me shy, but
+since you’re so afraid of it, I’ll keep it all to myself.” “Are you
+sure?” repeated Red Shirt. There was no limit to his womanishness. If
+Red Shirt was typical of Bachelors of Arts, I did not see much in them.
+He appeared composed after having requested me to do something
+self-contradictory and wanting logic, and on top of that suspects my
+sincerity.
+
+“Don’t you mistake,” I said to myself, “I’m a man to the marrow, and
+haven’t the idea of breaking my own promises; mark that!”
+
+Meanwhile the occupants of the desks on both my sides came to the room,
+and Red Shirt hastily withdrew to his own desk. Red Shirt shows some
+air even in his walk. In stepping about the room, he places down his
+shoes so as to make no sound. For the first time I came to know that
+making no sound in one’s walk was something satisfactory to one’s
+vanity. He was not training himself for a burglar, I suppose. He should
+cut out such nonsense before it gets worse. Then the bugle for the
+opening of classes was heard. Porcupine did not appear after all. There
+was no other way but to leave the coins upon the desk and attend the
+class.
+
+When I returned to the room a little late after the first hour class,
+all the teachers were there at their desks, and Porcupine too was
+there. The moment Porcupine saw my face, he said that he was late on my
+account, and I should pay him a fine. I took out that one sen and a
+half, and saying it was the price of the ice water, shoved it on his
+desk and told him to take it. “Don’t josh me,” he said, and began
+laughing, but as I appeared unusually serious, he swept the coins back
+to my desk, and flung back, “Quit fooling.” So he really meant to treat
+me, eh?
+
+“No fooling; I mean it,” I said. “I have no reason to accept your
+treat, and that’s why I pay you back. Why don’t you take it?”
+
+“If you’re so worried about that one sen and a half, I will take it,
+but why do you pay it at this time so suddenly?”
+
+“This time or any time, I want to pay it back. I pay it back because I
+don’t like you treat me.”
+
+Porcupine coldly gazed at me and ejaculated “H’m.” If I had not been
+requested by Red Shirt, here was the chance to show up his cowardice
+and make it hot for him. But since I had promised not to reveal the
+secret, I could do nothing. What the deuce did he mean by “H’m” when I
+was red with anger.
+
+“I’ll take the price of the ice water, but I want you leave your
+boarding house.”
+
+“Take that coin; that’s all there is to it. To leave or not,—that’s my
+pleasure.”
+
+“But that is not your pleasure. The boss of your boarding house came to
+me yesterday and wanted me to tell you leave the house, and when I
+heard his explanation, what he said was reasonable. And I dropped there
+on my way here this morning to hear more details and make sure of
+everything.”
+
+What Porcupine was trying to get at was all dark to me.
+
+“I don’t care a snap what the boss was damn well pleased to tell you,”
+I cried. “What do you mean by deciding everything by yourself! If there
+is any reason, tell me first. What’s the matter with you, deciding what
+the boss says is reasonable without hearing me.”
+
+“Then you shall hear,” he said. “You’re too tough and been regarded a
+nuisance over there. Say, the wife of a boarding house is a wife, not a
+maid, and you’ve been such a four-flusher as to make her wipe your
+feet.”
+
+“When did I make her wipe my feet?” I asked.
+
+“I don’t know whether you did or did not, but anyway they’re pretty
+sore about you. He said he can make ten or fifteen yen easily if he
+sell a roll of panel-picture.”
+
+“Damn the chap! Why did he take me for a boarder then!”
+
+“I don’t know why. They took you but they want you leave because they
+got tired of you. So you’d better get out.”
+
+“Sure, I will. Who’d stay in such a house even if they beg me on their
+knees. You’re insolent to have induced me to go to such a false accuser
+in the first place.”
+
+“Might be either I’m insolent or you’re tough.” Porcupine is no less
+hot-tempered than I am, and spoke with equally loud voice. All the
+other teachers in the room, surprised, wondering what has happened,
+looked in our direction and craned their necks. I was not conscious of
+having done anything to be ashamed of, so I stood up and looked around.
+Clown alone was laughing amused. The moment he met my glaring stare as
+if to say “You too want to fight?” he suddenly assumed a grave face and
+became serious. He seemed to be a little cowed. Meanwhile the bugle was
+heard, and Porcupine and I stopped the quarrel and went to the class
+rooms.
+
+In the afternoon, a meeting of the teachers was going to be held to
+discuss the question of punishment of those students in the dormitory
+who offended me the other night. This meeting was a thing I had to
+attend for the first time in my life, and I was totally ignorant about
+it. Probably it was where the teachers gathered to blow about their own
+opinions and the principal bring them to compromise somehow. To
+compromise is a method used when no decision can be delivered as to the
+right or wrong of either side. It seemed to me a waste of time to hold
+a meeting over an affair in which the guilt of the other side was plain
+as daylight. No matter who tried to twist it round, there was no ground
+for doubting the facts. It would have been better if the principal had
+decided at once on such a plain case; he is surely wanting in decision.
+If all principals are like this, a principal is a synonym of a
+“dilly-dally.”
+
+The meeting hall was a long, narrow room next to that of the principal,
+and was used for dining room. About twenty chairs, with black leather
+seat, were lined around a narrow table, and the whole scene looked like
+a restaurant in Kanda. At one end of the table the principal took his
+seat, and next to him Red Shirt. All the rest shifted for themselves,
+but the gymnasium teacher is said always to take the seat farthest down
+out of modesty. The situation was new to me, so I sat down between the
+teachers of natural history and of Confucius. Across the table sat
+Porcupine and Clown. Think how I might, the face of Clown was a
+degrading type. That of Porcupine was far more charming, even if I was
+now on bad terms with him. The panel picture which hung in the alcove
+of the reception hall of Yogen temple where I went to the funeral of my
+father, looked exactly like this Porcupine. A priest told me the
+picture was the face of a strange creature called Idaten. To-day he was
+pretty sore, and frequently stared at me with his fiery eyes rolling.
+“You can’t bulldoze me with that,” I thought, and rolled my own in
+defiance and stared back at him. My eyes are not well-shaped but their
+large size is seldom beaten by others. Kiyo even once suggested that I
+should make a fine actor because I had big eyes.
+
+“All now here?” asked the principal, and the clerk named Kawamura
+counted one, two, three and one was short. “Just one more,” said the
+clerk, and it ought to be; Hubbard Squash was not there. I don’t know
+what affinity there is between Hubbard Squash and me, but I can never
+forget his face. When I come to the teachers’ room, his face attracts
+me first; while walking out in the street, his manners are recalled to
+my mind. When I go to the hot springs, sometimes I meet him with a
+pale-face in the bath, and if I hallooed to him, he would raise his
+trembling head, making me feel sorry for him. In the school there is no
+teacher so quiet as he. He seldom, if ever, laughs or talks. I knew the
+word “gentleman” from books, and thought it was found only in the
+dictionary, but not a thing alive. But since I met Hubbard Squash, I
+was impressed for the first time that the word represented a real
+substance.
+
+As he is a man so attached to me, I had noticed his absence as soon as
+I entered the meeting hall. To tell the truth, I came to the hall with
+the intention of sitting next to him. The principal said that the
+absentee may appear shortly, and untied a package he had before him,
+taking out some hectograph sheets and began reading them. Red Shirt
+began polishing his amber pipe with a silk handkerchief. This was his
+hobby, which was probably becoming to him. Others whispered with their
+neighbors. Still others were writing nothings upon the table with the
+erasers at the end of their pencils. Clown talked to Porcupine once in
+a while, but he was not responsive. He only said “Umh” or “Ahm,” and
+stared at me with wrathful eyes. I stared back with equal ferocity.
+
+Then the tardy Hubbard Squash apologetically entered, and politely
+explained that he was unavoidably detained. “Well, then the meeting is
+called to order,” said Badger. On these sheets was printed, first the
+question of the punishment of the offending students, second that of
+superintending the students, and two or three other matters. Badger,
+putting on airs as usual, as if he was an incarnation of education,
+spoke to the following effect.
+
+“Any misdeeds or faults among the teachers or the students in this
+school are due to the lack of virtues in my person, and whenever
+anything happens, I inwardly feel ashamed that a man like me could hold
+his position. Unfortunately such an affair has taken place again, and I
+have to apologize from my heart. But since it has happened, it cannot
+be helped; we must settle it one way or other. The facts are as you
+already know, and I ask you gentlemen to state frankly the best means
+by which the affair may be settled.”
+
+When I heard the principal speak, I was impressed that indeed the
+principal, or Badger, was saying something “grand.” If the principal
+was willing to assume all responsibilities, saying it was his fault or
+his lack of virtues, it would have been better stop punishing the
+students and get himself fired first. Then there will be no need of
+holding such thing as a meeting. In the first place, just consider it
+by common sense. I was doing my night duty right, and the students
+started trouble. The wrong doer is neither the principal nor I. If
+Porcupine incited them, then it would be enough to get rid of the
+students and Porcupine. Where in thunder would be a peach of damfool
+who always swipes other people’s faults and says “these are mine?” It
+was a stunt made possible only by Badger. Having made such an illogical
+statement, he glanced at the teachers in a highly pleased manner. But
+no one opened his mouth. The teacher of natural history was gazing at
+the crow which had hopped on the roof of the nearby building. The
+teacher of Confucius was folding and unfolding the hectograph sheet.
+Porcupine was still staring at me. If a meeting was so nonsensical an
+affair as this, I would have been better absent taking a nap at home.
+
+I became irritated, and half raised myself, intending to make a
+convincing speech, but just then Red Shirt began saying something and I
+stopped. I saw him say something, having put away his pipe, and wiping
+his face with a striped silk handkerchief. I’m sure he copped that
+handkerchief from the Madonna; men should use white linen. He said:
+
+“When I heard of the rough affairs in the dormitory, I was greatly
+ashamed as the head teacher of my lack of discipline and influence.
+When such an affair takes place there is underlying cause somewhere.
+Looking at the affair itself, it may seem that the students were wrong,
+but in a closer study of the facts, we may find the responsibility
+resting with the School. Therefore, I’m afraid it might affect us badly
+in the future if we administer too severe a punishment on the strength
+of what has been shown on the surface. As they are youngsters, full of
+life and vigor, they might half-consciously commit some youthful
+pranks, without due regard as to their good or bad. As to the mode of
+punishment itself, I have no right to suggest since it is a matter
+entirely in the hand of the principal, but I should ask, considering
+these points, that some leniency be shown toward the students.”
+
+Well, as Badger, so was Red Shirt. He declares the “Rough Necks” among
+the students is not their fault but the fault of the teachers. A crazy
+person beats other people because the beaten are wrong. Very grateful,
+indeed. If the students were so full of life and vigor, shovel them out
+into the campus and let them wrestle their heads off. Who would have
+grasshoppers put into his bed unconsciously! If things go on like this,
+they may stab some one asleep, and get freed as having done the deed
+unconsciously.
+
+Having figured it out in this wise, I thought I would state my own
+views on the matter, but I wanted to give them an eloquent speech and
+fairly take away their breath. I have an affection of the windpipe
+which clog after two or three words when I am excited. Badger and Red
+Shirt are below my standing in their personality, but they were skilled
+in speech-making, and it would not do to have them see my awkwardness.
+I’ll make a rough note of composition first, I thought, and started
+mentally making a sentence, when, to my surprise, Clown stood up
+suddenly. It was unusual for Clown to state his opinion. He spoke in
+his flippant tone:
+
+“Really the grasshopper incident and the whoop-la affair are peculiar
+happenings which are enough to make us doubt our own future. We
+teachers at this time must strive to clear the atmosphere of the
+school. And what the principal and the head teacher have said just now
+are fit and proper. I entirely agree with their opinions. I wish the
+punishment be moderate.”
+
+In what Clown had said there were words but no meaning. It was a
+juxtaposition of high-flown words making no sense. All that I
+understood was the words, “I entirely agree with their opinions.”
+
+Clown’s meaning was not clear to me, but as I was thoroughly angered, I
+rose without completing my rough note.
+
+“I am entirely opposed to…….” I said, but the rest did not come at
+once. “…….I don’t like such a topsy-turvy settlement,” I added and the
+fellows began laughing. “The students are absolutely wrong from the
+beginning. It would set a bad precedent if we don’t make them apologize
+……. What do we care if we kick them all out ……. darn the kids trying to
+guy a new comer…….” and I sat down. Then the teacher of natural history
+who sat on my right whined a weak opinion, saying “The students may be
+wrong, but if we punish them too severely, they may start a reaction
+and would make it rather bad. I am for the moderate side, as the head
+teacher suggested.” The teacher of Confucius on my left expressed his
+agreement with the moderate side, and so did the teacher of history
+endorse the views of the head teacher. Dash those weak-knees! Most of
+them belonged to the coterie of Red Shirt. It would make a dandy school
+if such fellows run it. I had decided in my mind that it must be either
+the students apologize to me or I resign, and if the opinion of Red
+Shirt prevailed, I had determined to return home and pack up. I had no
+ability of out-talking such fellows, or even if I had, I was in no
+humor to keeping their company for long. Since I don’t expect to remain
+in the school, the devil may take care of the rest. If I said anything,
+they would only laugh; so I shut my mouth tight.
+
+Porcupine, who up to this time had been listening to the others, stood
+up with some show of spirit. Ha, the fellow was going to endorse the
+views of Red Shirt, eh? You and I got to fight it out anyway, I
+thought, so do any way you darn please. Porcupine spoke in a thunderous
+voice:
+
+“I entirely differ from the opinions of the head teacher and other
+gentlemen. Because, viewed from whatever angle, this incident cannot be
+other than an attempt by those fifty students in the dormitory to make
+a fool of a new teacher. The head teacher seems to trace the cause of
+the trouble to the personality of that teacher himself, but, begging
+his pardon, I think he is mistaken. The night that new teacher was on
+night duty was not long after his arrival, not more than twenty days
+after he had come into contact with the students. During those short
+twenty days, the students could have no reason to criticise his
+knowledges or his person. If he was insulted for some cause which
+deserved insult, there may be reasons in our considering the act of the
+students, but if we show undue leniency toward the frivolous students
+who would insult a new teacher without cause, it would affect the
+dignity of this school. The spirit of education is not only in
+imparting technical knowledges, but also in encouraging honest,
+ennobling and samurai-like virtues, while eliminating the evil tendency
+to vulgarity and roughness. If we are afraid of reaction or further
+trouble, and satisfy ourselves with make-shifts, there is no telling
+when we can ever get rid of this evil atmosphere[G]. We are here to
+eradicate this very evil. If we mean to countenance it, we had better
+not accepted our positions here. For these reasons, I believe it proper
+to punish the students in the dormitory to the fullest extent and also
+make them apologize to that teacher in the open.”
+
+All were quiet. Red Shirt again began polishing his pipe. I was greatly
+elated. He spoke almost what I had wanted to. I’m such a simple-hearted
+fellow that I forgot all about the bickerings with Porcupine, and
+looked at him with a grateful face, but he appeared to take no notice
+of me.
+
+After a while, Porcupine again stood up, and said. “I forgot to mention
+just now, so I wish to add. The teacher on night duty that night seems
+to have gone to the hot springs during his duty hours, and I think it a
+blunder. It is a matter of serious misconduct to take the advantage of
+being in sole charge of the school, to slip out to a hot springs. The
+bad behavior of the students is one thing; this blunder is another, and
+I wish the principal to call attention of the responsible person to
+that matter.”
+
+A strange fellow! No sooner had he backed me up than he began talking
+me down. I knew the other night watch went out during his duty hours,
+and thought it was a custom, so I went as far out as to the hot springs
+without considering the situation seriously. But when it was pointed
+out like this, I realised that I had been wrong. Thereupon I rose again
+and said; “I really went to the hot springs. It was wrong and I
+apologize.” Then all again laughed. Whatever I say, they laugh. What a
+lot of boobs! See if you fellows can make a clean breast of your own
+fault like this! You fellows laugh because you can’t talk straight.
+
+After that the principal said that since it appeared that there will be
+no more opinions, he will consider the matter well and administer what
+he may deem a proper punishment. I may here add the result of the
+meeting. The students in the dormitory were given one week’s
+confinement, and in addition to that, apologized to me. If they had not
+apologized, I intended to resign and go straight home, but as it was it
+finally resulted in a bigger and still worse affair, of which more
+later. The principal then at the meeting said something to the effect
+that the manners of the students should be directed rightly by the
+teachers’ influence, and as the first step, no teacher should
+patronize, if possible, the shops where edibles and drinks were served,
+excepting, however, in case of farewell party or such social
+gatherings. He said he would like no teacher to go singly to eating
+houses of lower kind—for instance, noodle-house or dango shop…. And
+again all laughed. Clown looked at Porcupine, said “tempura” and winked
+his eyes, but Porcupine regarded him in silence. Good!
+
+My “think box” is not of superior quality, so things said by Badger
+were not clear to me, but I thought if a fellow can’t hold the job of
+teacher in a middle school because he patronizes a noodle-house or
+dango shop, the fellow with bear-like appetite like me will never be
+able to hold it. If it was the case, they ought to have specified when
+calling for a teacher one who does not eat noodle and dango. To give an
+appointment without reference to the matter at first, and then to
+proclaim that noodle or dango should not be eaten was a blow to a
+fellow like me who has no other petty hobby. Then Red Shirt again
+opened his mouth.
+
+“Teachers of the middle school belong to the upper class of society and
+they should not be looking after material pleasures only, for it would
+eventually have effect upon their personal character. But we are human,
+and it would be intolerable in a small town like this to live without
+any means of affording some pleasure to ourselves, such as fishing,
+reading literary products, composing new style poems, or haiku
+(17-syllable poem). We should seek mental consolation of higher order.”
+
+There seemed no prospect that he would quit the hot air. If it was a
+mental consolation to fish fertilisers on the sea, have goruki for
+Russian literature, or to pose a favorite geisha beneath pine tree, it
+would be quite as much a mental consolation to eat dempura noodle and
+swallow dango. Instead of dwelling on such sham consolations, he would
+find his time better spent by washing his red shirts. I became so
+exasperated that I asked; “Is it also a mental consolation to meet the
+Madonna?” No one laughed this time and looked at each other with queer
+faces, and Red Shirt himself hung his head, apparently embarrassed.
+Look at that! A good shot, eh? Only I was sorry for Hubbard Squash who,
+having heard the remark, became still paler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+That very night I left the boarding house. While I was packing up, the
+boss came to me and asked if there was anything wrong in the way I was
+treated. He said he would be pleased to correct it and suit me if I was
+sore at anything. This beats me, sure. How is it possible for so many
+boneheads to be in this world! I could not tell whether they wanted me
+to stay or get out. They’re crazy. It would be disgrace for a Yedo kid
+to fuss about with such a fellow; so I hired a rikishaman and speedily
+left the house.
+
+I got out of the house all right, but had no place to go. The
+rikishaman asked me where I was going. I told him to follow me with his
+mouth shut, then he shall see and I kept on walking. I thought of going
+to Yamashiro-ya to avoid the trouble of hunting up a new boarding
+house, but as I had no prospect of being able to stay there long, I
+would have to renew the hunt sooner or later, so I gave up the idea. If
+I continued walking this way, I thought I might strike a house with the
+sign of “boarders taken” or something similar, and I would consider the
+first house with the sign the one provided for me by Heaven. I kept on
+going round and round through the quiet, decent part of the town when I
+found myself at Kajimachi. This used to be former samurai quarters
+where one had the least chance of finding any boarding house, and I was
+going to retreat to a more lively part of the town when a good idea
+occurred to me. Hubbard Squash whom I respected lived in this part of
+the town. He is a native of the town, and has lived in the house
+inherited from his great grandfather. He must be, I thought, well
+informed about nearly everything in this town. If I call on him for his
+help, he will perhaps find me a good boarding house. Fortunately, I
+called at his house once before, and there was no trouble in finding it
+out. I knocked at the door of a house, which I knew must be his, and a
+woman about fifty years old with an old fashioned paper-lantern in
+hand, appeared at the door. I do not despise young women, but when I
+see an aged woman, I feel much more solicitous. This is probably
+because I am so fond of Kiyo. This aged lady, who looked well-refined,
+was certainly mother of Hubbard Squash whom she resembled. She invited
+me inside, but I asked her to call him out for me. When he came I told
+him all the circumstances, and asked him if he knew any who would take
+me for a boarder. Hubbard Squash thought for a moment in a sympathetic
+mood, then said there was an old couple called Hagino, living in the
+rear of the street, who had asked him sometime ago to get some boarders
+for them as there are only two in the house and they had some vacant
+rooms. Hubbard Squash was kind enough to go along with me and find out
+if the rooms were vacant. They were.
+
+From that night I boarded at the house of the Haginos. What surprised
+me was that on the day after I left the house of Ikagin, Clown stepped
+in and took the room I had been occupying. Well used to all sorts of
+tricks and crooks as I might have been, this audacity fairly knocked me
+off my feet. It was sickening.
+
+I saw that I would be an easy mark for such people unless I brace up
+and try to come up, or down, to their level. It would be a high time
+indeed for me to be alive if it were settled that I would not get three
+meals a day without living on the spoils of pick pockets. Nevertheless,
+to hang myself,—healthy and vigorous as I am,—would be not only
+inexcusable before my ancestors but a disgrace before the public. Now I
+think it over, it would have been better for me to have started
+something like a milk delivery route with that six hundred yen as
+capital, instead of learning such a useless stunt as mathematics at the
+School of Physics. If I had done so, Kiyo could have stayed with me,
+and I could have lived without worrying about her so far a distance
+away. While I was with her I did not notice it, but separated thus I
+appreciated Kiyo as a good-natured old woman. One could not find a
+noble natured woman like Kiyo everywhere. She was suffering from a
+slight cold when I left Tokyo and I wondered how she was getting on
+now? Kiyo must have been pleased when she received the letter from me
+the other day. By the way, I thought it was the time I was in receipt
+of answer from her. I spent two or three days with things like this in
+my mind. I was anxious about the answer, and asked the old lady of the
+house if any letter came from Tokyo for me, and each time she would
+appear sympathetic and say no. The couple here, being formerly of
+samurai class, unlike the Ikagin couple, were both refined. The old
+man’s recital of “utai” in a queer voice at night was somewhat telling
+on my nerves, but it was much easier on me as he did not frequent my
+room like Ikagin with the remark of “let me serve you tea.”
+
+The old lady once in a while would come to my room and chat on many
+things. She questioned me why I had not brought my wife with me. I
+asked her if I looked like one married, reminding her that I was only
+twenty four yet. Saying “it is proper for one to get married at twenty
+four” as a beginning, she recited that Mr. Blank married when he was
+twenty, that Mr. So-and-So has already two children at twenty two, and
+marshalled altogether about half a dozen examples,—quite a damper on my
+youthful theory. I will then get married at twenty four, I said, and
+requested her to find me a good wife, and she asked me if I really
+meant it.
+
+“Really? You bet! I can’t help wanting to get married.”
+
+“I should suppose so. Everybody is just like that when young.” This
+remark was a knocker; I could not say anything to that.
+
+“But I’m sure you have a Madam already. I have seen to that with my own
+eyes.”
+
+“Well, they are sharp eyes. How have you seen it?”
+
+“How? Aren’t you often worried to death, asking if there’s no letter
+from Tokyo?”
+
+“By Jupiter! This beats me!”
+
+“Hit the mark, haven’t I?”
+
+“Well, you probably have.”
+
+“But the girls of these days are different from what they used to be
+and you need a sharp look-out on them. So you’d better be careful.”
+
+“Do you mean that my Madam in Tokyo is behaving badly?”
+
+“No, your Madam is all right.”
+
+“That makes me feel safe. Then about what shall I be careful?”
+
+“Yours is all right. Though yours is all right…….”
+
+“Where is one not all right?”
+
+“Rather many right in this town. You know the daughter of the Toyamas?
+
+“No, I do not.”
+
+“You don’t know her yet? She is the most beautiful girl about here. She
+is so beautiful that the teachers in the school call her Madonna. You
+haven’t heard that?
+
+“Ah, the Madonna! I thought it was the name of a geisha.”
+
+“No, Sir. Madonna is a foreign word and means a beautiful girl, doesn’t
+it?”
+
+“That may be. I’m surprised.”
+
+“Probably the name was given by the teacher of drawing.”
+
+“Was it the work of Clown?”
+
+“No, it was given by Professor Yoshikawa.”
+
+“Is that Madonna not all right?”
+
+“That Madonna-san is a Madonna not all right.”
+
+“What a bore! We haven’t any decent woman among those with nicknames
+from old days. I should suppose the Madonna is not all right.”
+
+“Exactly. We have had awful women such as O-Matsu the Devil or Ohyaku
+the Dakki.
+
+“Does the Madonna belong to that ring?”
+
+“That Madonna-san, you know, was engaged to Professor Koga,—who brought
+you here,—yes, was promised to him.”
+
+“Ha, how strange! I never knew our friend Hubbard Squash was a fellow
+of such gallantry. We can’t judge a man by his appearance. I’ll be a
+bit more careful.”
+
+“The father of Professor Koga died last year,—up to that time they had
+money and shares in a bank and were well off,—but since then things
+have grown worse, I don’t know why. Professor Koga was too
+good-natured, in short, and was cheated, I presume. The wedding was
+delayed by one thing or another and there appeared the head teacher who
+fell in love with the Madonna head over heels and wanted to marry 
+her.”
+
+“Red Shirt? He ought be hanged. I thought that shirt was not an
+ordinary kind of shirt. Well?”
+
+“The head teacher proposed marriage through a go-between, but the
+Toyamas could not give a definite answer at once on account of their
+relations with the Kogas. They replied that they would consider the
+matter or something like that. Then Red Shirt-san worked up some ways
+and started visiting the Toyamas and has finally won the heart of the
+Miss. Red Shirt-san is bad, but so is Miss Toyama; they all talk bad of
+them. She had agreed to be married to Professor Koga and changed her
+mind because a Bachelor of Arts began courting her,—why, that would be
+an offense to the God of To-day.”
+
+“Of course. Not only of To-day but also of tomorrow and the day after;
+in fact, of time without end.”
+
+“So Hotta-san a friend of Koga-san, felt sorry for him and went to the
+head teacher to remonstrate with him. But Red Shirt-san said that he
+had no intention of taking away anybody who is promised to another. He
+may get married if the engagement is broken, he said, but at present he
+was only being acquainted with the Toyamas and he saw nothing wrong in
+his visiting the Toyamas. Hotta-san couldn’t do anything and returned.
+Since then they say Red Shirt-san and Hotta-san are on bad terms.”
+
+“You do know many things, I should say. How did you get such details?
+I’m much impressed.”
+
+“The town is so small that I can know everything.”
+
+Yes, everything seems to be known more than one cares. Judging by her
+way, this woman probably knows about my tempura and dango affairs. Here
+was a pot that would make peas rattle! The meaning of the Madonna, the
+relations between Porcupine and Red Shirt became clear and helped me a
+deal. Only what puzzled me was the uncertainty as to which of the two
+was wrong. A fellow simple-hearted like me could not tell which side he
+should help unless the matter was presented in black and white.
+
+“Of Red Shirt and Porcupine, which is a better fellow?”
+
+“What is Porcupine, Sir?”
+
+“Porcupine means Hotta.”
+
+“Well, Hotta-san is physically strong, as strength goes, but Red
+Shirt-san is a Bachelor of Arts and has more ability. And Red Shirt-san
+is more gentle, as gentleness goes, but Hotta-san is more popular among
+the students.”
+
+“After all, which is better?”
+
+“After all, the one who gets a bigger salary is greater, I suppose?”
+
+There was no use of going on further in this way, and I closed the
+talk.
+
+Two or three days after this, when I returned from the school, the old 
+lady with a beaming smile, brought me a letter, saying, “Here you are 
+Sir, at last. Take your time and enjoy it.” I took it up and found it 
+was from Kiyo. On the letter were two or three retransmission slips, 
+and by these I saw the letter was sent from Yamashiro-ya to the 
+Ikagins, then to the Haginos. Besides, it stayed at Yamashiro-ya for 
+about one week; even letters seemed to stop in a hotel. I opened it, 
+and it was a very long letter.
+
+“When I received the letter from my Master Darling, I intended to write
+an answer at once. But I caught cold and was sick abed for about one
+week and the answer was delayed for which I beg your pardon. I am not
+well-used to writing or reading like girls in these days, and it
+required some efforts to get done even so poorly written a letter as
+this. I was going to ask my nephew to write it for me, but thought it
+inexcusable to my Master Darling when I should take special pains for
+myself. So I made a rough copy once, and then a clean copy. I finished
+the clean copy, in two days, but the rough copy took me four days. It
+may be difficult for you to read, but as I have written this letter
+with all my might, please read it to the end.”
+
+This was the introductory part of the letter in which, about four feet
+long, were written a hundred and one things. Well, it was difficult to
+read. Not only was it poorly written but it was a sort of juxtaposition
+of simple syllables that racked one’s brain to make it clear where it
+stopped or where it began. I am quick-tempered and would refuse to read
+such a long, unintelligible letter for five yen, but I read this
+seriously from the first to the last. It is a fact that I read it
+through. My efforts were mostly spent in untangling letters and
+sentences; so I started reading it over again. The room had become a
+little dark, and this rendered it harder to read it; so finally I
+stepped out to the porch where I sat down and went over it carefully.
+The early autumn breeze wafted through the leaves of the banana trees,
+bathed me with cool evening air, rustled the letter I was holding and
+would have blown it clear to the hedge if I let it go. I did not mind
+anything like this, but kept on reading.
+
+“Master Darling is simple and straight like a split bamboo by
+disposition,” it says, “only too explosive. That’s what worries me. If
+you brand other people with nicknames you will only make enemies of
+them; so don’t use them carelessly; if you coin new ones, just tell
+them only to Kiyo in your letters. The countryfolk are said to be bad,
+and I wish you to be careful not have them do you. The weather must be
+worse than in Tokyo, and you should take care not to catch cold. Your
+letter is too short that I can’t tell how things are going on with you.
+Next time write me a letter at least half the length of this one.
+Tipping the hotel with five yen is all right, but were you not short of
+money afterward? Money is the only thing one can depend upon when in
+the country and you should economize and be prepared for rainy days.
+I’m sending you ten yen by postal money order. I have that fifty yen my
+Master Darling gave me deposited in the Postal Savings to help you
+start housekeeping when you return to Tokyo, and taking out this ten, I
+have still forty yen left,—quite safe.”
+
+I should say women are very particular on many things.
+
+When I was meditating with the letter flapping in my hand on the porch,
+the old lady opened the sliding partition and brought in my supper.
+
+“Still poring over the letter? Must be a very long one, I imagine,” she
+said.
+
+“Yes, this is an important letter, so I’m reading it with the wind
+blowing it about,” I replied—the reply which was nonsense even for
+myself,—and I sat down for supper. I looked in the dish on the tray,
+and saw the same old sweet potatoes again to-night. This new boarding
+house was more polite and considerate and refined than the Ikagins, but
+the grub was too poor stuff and that was one drawback. It was sweet
+potato yesterday, so it was the day before yesterday, and here it is
+again to-night. True, I declared myself very fond of sweet potatoes,
+but if I am fed with sweet potatoes with such insistency, I may soon
+have to quit this dear old world. I can’t be laughing at Hubbard
+Squash; I shall become Sweet Potato myself before long. If it were Kiyo
+she would surely serve me with my favorite sliced tunny or fried
+kamaboko, but nothing doing with a tight, poor samurai. It seems best
+that I live with Kiyo. If I have to stay long in the school, I believe
+I would call her from Tokyo. Don’t eat tempura, don’t eat dango, and
+then get turned yellow by feeding on sweet potatoes only, in the
+boarding house. That’s for an educator, and his place is really a hard
+one. I think even the priests of the Zen sect are enjoying better feed.
+I cleaned up the sweet potatoes, then took out two raw eggs from the
+drawer of my desk, broke them on the edge of the rice bowl, to tide it
+over. I have to get nourishment by eating raw eggs or something, or how
+can I stand the teaching of twenty one hours a week?
+
+I was late for my bath to-day on account of the letter from Kiyo. But I
+would not like to drop off a single day since I had been there
+everyday. I thought I would take a train to-day, and coming to the
+station with the same old red towel dangling out of my hand, I found
+the train had just left two or three minutes ago, and had to wait for
+some time. While I was smoking a cigarette on a bench, my friend
+Hubbard Squash happened to come in. Since I heard the story about him
+from the old lady my sympathy for him had become far greater than ever.
+His reserve always appeared to me pathetic. It was no longer a case of
+merely pathetic; more than that. I was wishing to get his salary
+doubled, if possible, and have him marry Miss Toyama and send them to
+Tokyo for about one month on a pleasure trip. Seeing him, therefore, I
+motioned him to a seat beside me, addressing him cheerfully:
+
+“Hello[H], going to bath? Come and sit down here.”
+
+Hubbard Squash, appearing much awe-struck, said; “Don’t mind me, Sir,”
+and whether out of polite reluctance or I don’t know what, remained
+standing.
+
+“You have to wait for a little while before the next train starts; sit
+down; you’ll be tired,” I persuaded him again. In fact, I was so
+sympathetic for him that I wished to have him sit down by me somehow.
+Then with a “Thank you, Sir,” he at last sat down. A fellow like Clown,
+always fresh, butts in where he is not wanted; or like Porcupine
+swaggers about with a face which says “Japan would be hard up without
+me,” or like Red Shirt, self-satisfied in the belief of being the
+wholesaler of gallantry and of cosmetics. Or like Badger who appears to
+say; “If ‘Education’ were alive and put on a frockcoat, it would look
+like me.” One and all in one way or other have bravado, but I have
+never seen any one like this Hubbard Squash, so quiet and resigned,
+like a doll taken for a ransom. His face is rather swollen but for the
+Madonna to cast off such a splendid fellow and give preference to Red
+Shirt, was frivolous beyond my understanding. Put how many dozens of
+Red Shirt you like together, it will not make one husband of stuff to
+beat Hubbard Squash.
+
+“Is anything wrong with you? You look quite fatigued,” I asked.
+
+“No, I have no particular ailments…….”
+
+“That’s good. Poor health is the worst thing one can get.”
+
+“You appear very strong.”
+
+“Yes, I’m thin, but never got sick. That’s something I don’t like.”
+
+Hubbard Squash smiled at my words. Just then I heard some young girlish
+laughs at the entrance, and incidentally looking that way, I saw a
+“peach.” A beautiful girl, tall, white-skinned, with her head done up
+in “high-collared” style, was standing with a woman of about forty-five
+or six, in front of the ticket window. I am not a fellow given to
+describing a belle, but there was no need to repeat asserting that she
+was beautiful. I felt as if I had warmed a crystal ball with perfume
+and held it in my hand. The older woman was shorter, but as she
+resembled the younger, they might be mother and daughter. The moment I
+saw them, I forgot all about Hubbard Squash, and was intently gazing at
+the young beauty. Then I was a bit startled to see Hubbard Squash
+suddenly get up and start walking slowly toward them. I wondered if she
+was not the Madonna. The three were courtesying in front of the ticket
+window, some distance away from me, and I could not hear what they were
+talking about.
+
+The clock at the station showed the next train to start in five
+minutes. Having lost my partner, I became impatient and longed for the
+train to start as soon as possible, when a fellow rushed into the
+station excited. It was Red Shirt. He had on some fluffy clothes,
+loosely tied round with a silk-crepe girdle, and wound to it the same
+old gold chain. That gold chain is stuffed. Red Shirt thinks nobody
+knows it and is making a big show of it, but I have been wise. Red
+Shirt stopped short, stared around, and then after bowing politely to
+the three still in front of the ticket window, made a remark or two,
+and hastily turned toward me. He came up to me, walking in his usual
+cat’s style, and hallooed.
+
+“You too going to bath? I was afraid of missing the train and hurried
+up, but we have three or four minutes yet. Wonder if that clock is
+right?”
+
+He took out his gold watch, and remarking it wrong about two minutes
+sat down beside me. He never turned toward the belle, but with his chin
+on the top of a cane, steadily looked straight before him. The older
+woman would occasionally glance toward Red Shirt, but the younger kept
+her profile away. Surely she was the Madonna.
+
+The train now arrived with a shrill whistle and the passengers hastened
+to board. Red Shirt jumped into the first class coach ahead of all. One
+cannot brag much about boarding the first class coach here. It cost
+only five sen for the first and three sen for the second to Sumida;
+even I paid for the first and a white ticket. The country fellows,
+however, being all close, seemed to regard the expenditure of the extra
+two sen a serious matter and mostly boarded the second class. Following
+Red Shirt, the Madonna and her mother entered the first class. Hubbard
+Squash regularly rides in the second class. He stood at the door of a
+second class coach and appeared somewhat hesitating, but seeing me
+coming, took decisive steps and jumped into the second. I felt sorry
+for him—I do not know why—and followed him into the same coach. Nothing
+wrong in riding on the second with a ticket for the first, I believe.
+
+At the hot springs, going down from the third floor to the bath room in
+bathing gown, again I met Hubbard Squash. I feel my throat clogged up
+and unable to speak at a formal gathering, but otherwise I am rather
+talkative; so I opened conversation with him. He was so pathetic and my
+compassion was aroused to such an extent that I considered it the duty
+of a Yedo kid to console him to the best of my ability. But Hubbard
+Squash was not responsive. Whatever I said, he would only answer “eh?”
+or “umh,” and even these with evident effort. Finally I gave up my
+sympathetic attempt and cut off the conversation.
+
+I did not meet Red Shirt at the bath. There are many bath rooms, and
+one does not necessarily meet the fellows at the same bath room though
+he might come on the same train. I thought it nothing strange. When I
+got out of the bath, I found the night bright with the moon. On both
+sides of the street stood willow trees which cast their shadows on the
+road. I would take a little stroll, I thought. Coming up toward north,
+to the end of the town, one sees a large gate to the left. Opposite the
+gate stands a temple and both sides of the approach to the temple are
+lined with houses with red curtains. A tenderloin inside a temple gate
+is an unheard-of phenomenon. I wanted to go in and have a look at the
+place, but for fear I might get another kick from Badger, I passed it
+by. A flat house with narrow lattice windows and black curtain at the
+entrance, near the gate, is the place where I ate dango and committed
+the blunder. A round lantern with the signs of sweet meats hung outside
+and its light fell on the trunk of a willow tree close by. I hungered
+to have a bite of dango, but went away forbearing.
+
+To be unable to eat dango one is so fond of eating, is tragic. But to
+have one’s betrothed change her love to another, would be more tragic.
+When I think of Hubbard Squash, I believe that I should not complain
+if I cannot eat dango or anything else for three days. Really there is
+nothing so unreliable a creature as man. As far as her face goes, she
+appears the least likely to commit so stony-hearted an act as this. But
+the beautiful person is cold-blooded and Koga-san who is swollen like a
+pumpkin soaked in water, is a gentleman to the core,—that’s where we
+have to be on the look-out. Porcupine whom I had thought candid was
+said to have incited the students and he whom then I regarded an
+agitator, demanded of the principal a summary punishment of the
+students. The disgustingly snobbish Red Shirt is unexpectedly
+considerate and warns me in ways more than one, but then he won the
+Madonna by crooked means. He denies, however, having schemed anything
+crooked about the Madonna, and says he does not care to marry her
+unless her engagement with Koga is broken. When Ikagin beat me out of
+his house, Clown enters and takes my room. Viewed from any angle, man
+is unreliable. If I write these things to Kiyo, it would surprise her.
+She would perhaps say that because it is the west side of Hakone that
+the town had all the freaks and crooks dumped in together.[7]
+
+[Footnote 7: An old saying goes that east of the Hakone pass, there are
+no apparitions or freaks.]
+
+
+I do not by nature worry about little things, and had come so far
+without minding anything. But hardly a month had passed since I came
+here, and I have begun to regard the world quite uneasily. I have not
+met with any particularly serious affairs, but I feel as if I had grown
+five or six years older. Better say “good by” to this old spot soon and
+return to Tokyo, I thought. While strolling thus thinking on various
+matters, I had passed the stone bridge and come up to the levy of the
+Nozeri river. The word river sounds too big; it is a shallow stream of
+about six feet wide. If one goes on along the levy for about twelve
+blocks, he reaches the Aioi village where there is a temple of Kwanon.
+
+Looking back at the town of the hot springs, I see red lights gleaming
+amid the pale moon beams. Where the sound of the drum is heard must be
+the tenderloin. The stream is shallow but fast, whispering incessantly.
+When I had covered about three blocks walking leisurely upon the bank,
+I perceived a shadow ahead. Through the light of the moon, I found
+there were two shadows. They were probably village youngsters returning
+from the hot springs, though they did not sing, and were exceptionally
+quiet for that.
+
+I kept on walking, and I was faster than they. The two shadows became
+larger. One appeared like a woman. When I neared them within about
+sixty feet, the man, on hearing my footsteps, turned back. The moon was
+shining from behind me. I could see the manner of the man then and
+something queer struck me. They resumed their walk as before. And I
+chased them on a full speed. The other party, unconscious, walked
+slowly. I could now hear their voice distinctly. The levy was about six
+feet wide, and would allow only three abreast. I easily passed them,
+and turning back gazed squarely into the face of the man. The moon
+generously bathed my face with its beaming light. The fellow uttered a
+low “ah,” and suddenly turning sideway, said to the woman “Let’s go
+back.” They traced their way back toward the hot springs town.
+
+Was it the intention of Red Shirt to hush the matter up by pretending
+ignorance, or was it lack of nerve? I was not the only fellow who
+suffered the consequence of living in a small narrow town.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+On my way back from the fishing to which I was invited by Red Shirt,
+and since then, I began to suspect Porcupine. When the latter wanted me
+to get out of Ikagin’s house on sham pretexts, I regarded him a
+decidedly unpleasant fellow. But as Porcupine, at the teachers’
+meeting, contrary to my expectation, stood firmly for punishing the
+students to the fullest extent of the school regulations, I thought it
+queer. When I heard from the old lady about Porcupine volunteering
+himself for the sake of Hubbard Squash to stop Red Shirt meddling with
+the Madonna, I clapped my hands and hoorayed for him. Judging by these
+facts, I began to wonder if the wrong-doer might be not Porcupine, but
+Red Shirt the crooked one. He instilled into my head some flimsy
+hearsay plausibly and in a roundabout-way. At this juncture I saw Red
+Shirt taking a walk with the Madonna on the levy of the Nozeri river,
+and I decided that Red Shirt may be a scoundrel. I am not sure of his
+being really scoundrel at heart, but at any rate he is not a good
+fellow. He is a fellow with a double face. A man deserves no confidence
+unless he is as straight as the bamboo. One may fight a straight
+fellow, and feel satisfied. We cannot lose sight of the fact that Red
+Shirt or his kind who is kind, gentle, refined, and takes pride in his
+pipe had to be looked sharp, for I could not be too careful in getting
+into a scrap with the fellow of this type. I may fight, but I would not
+get square games like the wrestling matches at the Wrestling
+Amphitheatre in Tokyo. Come to think of it, Porcupine who turned
+against me and startled the whole teachers’ room over the amount of one
+sen and a half is far more like a man. When he stared at me with owlish
+eyes at the teachers’ meeting, I branded him as a spiteful guy, but as
+I consider the matter now, he is better than the feline voice of Red
+Shirt. To tell the truth, I tried to get reconciled with Porcupine, and
+after the meeting, spoke a word or two to him, but he shut up like a
+clam and kept glaring at me. So I became sore, and let it go at that.
+
+Porcupine has not spoken to me since. The one sen and a half which I
+paid him back upon the desk, is still there, well covered with dust. I
+could not touch it, nor would Porcupine take it. This one sen and a
+half has become a barrier between us two. We two were cursed with this
+one sen and a half. Later indeed I got sick of its sight that I hated
+to see it.
+
+While Porcupine and I were thus estranged, Red Shirt and I continued
+friendly relations and associated together. On the day following my
+accidental meeting with him near the Nozeri river, for instance, Red
+Shirt came to my desk as soon as he came to the school, and asked me
+how I liked the new boarding house. He said we would go together for
+fishing Russian literature again, and talked on many things. I felt a
+bit piqued, and said, “I saw you twice last night,” and he answered,
+“Yes, at the station. Do you go there at that time every day? Isn’t it
+late?” I startled him with the remark; “I met you on the levy of the
+Nozeri river too, didn’t I?” and he replied, “No, I didn’t go in that
+direction. I returned right after my bath.”
+
+What is the use of trying to keep it dark. Didn’t we meet actually face
+to face? He tells too many lies. If one can hold the job of a head
+teacher and act in this fashion, I should be able to run the position
+of Chancellor of a university. From this time on, my confidence in Red
+Shirt became still less. I talk with Red Shirt whom I do not trust, and
+I keep silent with Porcupine whom I respect. Funny things do happen in
+this world.
+
+One day Red Shirt asked me to come over to his house as he had
+something to tell me, and much as I missed the trip to the hot springs,
+I started for his house at about 4 o’clock. Red Shirt is single, but in
+keeping with the dignity of a head teacher, he gave up the boarding
+house life long ago, and lives in a fine house. The house rent, I
+understood, was nine yen and fifty sen. The front entrance was so
+attractive that I thought if one can live in such a splendid house at
+nine yen and a half in the country, it would be a good game to call
+Kiyo from Tokyo and make her heart glad. The younger brother of Red
+Shirt answered my bell. This brother gets his lessons on algebra and
+mathematics from me at the school. He stands no show in his school
+work, and being a “migratory bird” is more wicked than the native boys.
+
+I met Red Shirt. Smoking the same old unsavory amber pipe, he said
+something to the following effect:
+
+“Since you’ve been with us, our work has been more satisfactory than it
+was under your predecessor, and the principal is very glad to have got
+the right person in the right place. I wish you to work as hard as you
+can, for the school is depending upon you.”
+
+“Well, is that so. I don’t think I can work any harder than now…….”
+
+“What you’re doing now is enough. Only don’t forget what I told you the
+other day.”
+
+“Meaning that one who helps me find a boarding house is dangerous?”
+
+“If you state it so baldly, there is no meaning to it……. But that’s all
+right,…… I believe you understand the spirit of my advice. And if you
+keep on in the way you’re going to-day …… We have not been blind …… we
+might offer you a better treatment later on if we can manage it.”
+
+“In salary? I don’t care about the salary, though the more the better.”
+
+“And fortunately there is going to be one teacher transferred,……
+however, I can’t guarantee, of course, until I talk it over with the
+principal …… and we might give you something out of his salary.”
+
+“Thank you. Who is going to be transferred?”
+
+“I think I may tell you now; ’tis going to be announced soon. Koga is
+the man.”
+
+“But isn’t Koga-san a native of this town?”
+
+“Yes, he is. But there are some circumstances …… and it is partly by
+his own preference.”
+
+“Where is he going?”
+
+“To Nobeoka in Hiuga province. As the place is so far away, he is going
+there with his salary raised a grade higher.”
+
+“Is some one coming to take his place?”
+
+“His successor is almost decided upon.”
+
+“Well, that’s fine, though I’m not very anxious to have my salary
+raised.”
+
+“I’m going to talk to the principal about that anyway. And, we may have
+to ask you to work more some time later …… and the principal appears to
+be of the same opinion……. I want you to go[I] ahead with that in your
+mind.”
+
+“Going to increase my working hours?”
+
+“No. The working hours may be reduced……”
+
+“The working hours shortened and yet work more? Sounds funny.”
+
+“It does sound funny …… I can’t say definitely just yet …… it means
+that we may have to ask you to assume more responsibility.”
+
+I could not make out what he meant. To assume more responsibility 
+might mean my appointment to the senior instructor of mathematics, but 
+Porcupine is the senior instructor and there is no danger of his 
+resigning. Besides, he is so very popular among the students that his 
+transfer or discharge would be inadvisable. Red Shirt always misses 
+the point. And though he did not get to the point, the object of my 
+visit was ended. We talked a while on sundry matters, Red Shirt 
+proposing a farewell dinner party for Hubbard Squash, asking me if I 
+drink liquor and praising Hubbard Squash as an amiable gentleman, etc. 
+Finally he changed the topic and asked me if I take an interest in 
+“haiku.”[8] Here is where I beat it, I thought, and, saying “No, I 
+don’t, good by,” hastily left the house. The “haiku” should be a 
+diversion of Baseo[9] or the boss of a barbershop. It would not do for 
+the teacher of mathematics to rave over the old wooden bucket and the 
+morning glory.[10]
+
+[Footnote 8: The 17-syllable poem.]
+
+
+[Footnote 9: A famous composer of the poem.]
+
+
+[Footnote 10: There is a well-known 17-syllable poem describing the
+scene of morning glories entwining around the wooden bucket.]
+
+
+I returned home and thought it over. Here is a man whose mental process
+defies a layman’s understanding. He is going to court hardships in a
+strange part of the country in preference of his home and the school
+where he is working,—both of which should satisfy most anybody,—because
+he is tired of them. That may be all right if the strange place happens
+to be a lively metropolis where electric cars run,—but of all places,
+why Nobeoka in Hiuga province? This town here has a good steamship
+connection, yet I became sick of it and longed for home before one
+month had passed. Nobeoka is situated in the heart of a most
+mountainous country. According to Red Shirt, one has to make an all-day
+ride in a wagonette to Miyazaki, after he had left the vessel, and from
+Miyazaki another all-day ride in a rikisha to Nobeoka. Its name alone
+does not commend itself as civilized. It sounds like a town inhabited
+by men and monkeys in equal numbers. However sage-like Hubbard Squash
+might be I thought he would not become a friend of monkeys of his own
+choice. What a curious slant!
+
+Just then the old lady brought in my supper—“Sweet potatoes again?” I
+asked, and she said, “No, Sir, it is tofu to-night.” They are about the
+same thing.
+
+“Say, I understand Koga-san is going to Nobeoka.”
+
+“Isn’t it too bad?”
+
+“Too bad? But it can’t be helped if he goes there by his own
+preference.”
+
+“Going there by his own preference? Who, Sir?”
+
+“Who? Why, he! Isn’t Professor Koga going there by his own choice?”
+
+“That’s wrong Mr. Wright, Sir.”
+
+“Ha, Mr. Wright, is it? But Red Shirt told me so just now. If that’s
+wrong Mr. Wright, then Red Shirt is blustering Mr. Bluff.”
+
+“What the head-teacher says is believable, but so Koga-san does not
+wish to go.”
+
+“Our old lady is impartial, and that is good. Well, what’s the matter?”
+
+“The mother of Koga-san was here this morning, and told me all the
+circumstances.”
+
+“Told you what circumstances?”
+
+“Since the father of Koga-san died, they have not been quite well off
+as we might have supposed, and the mother asked the principal if his
+salary could not be raised a little as Koga-san has been in service for
+four years. See?”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“The principal said that he would consider the matter, and she felt
+satisfied and expected the announcement of the increase before long.
+She hoped for its coming this month or next. Then the principal called
+Koga-san to his office one day and said that he was sorry but the
+school was short of money and could not raise his salary. But he said
+there is an opening in Nobeoka which would give him five yen extra a
+month and he thought that would suit his purpose, and the principal had
+made all arrangements and told Koga-san he had better go…….”
+
+“That wasn’t a friendly talk but a command. Wasn’t it?”
+
+“Yes, Sir, Koga-san told the principal that he liked to stay here
+better at the old salary than go elsewhere on an increased salary,
+because he has his own house and is living with his mother. But the
+matter has all been settled, and his successor already appointed and it
+couldn’t be helped, said the principal.”
+
+“Hum, that’s a jolly good trick, I should say. Then Koga-san has no
+liking to go there? No wonder I thought it strange. We would have to go
+a long way to find any blockhead to do a job in such a mountain village
+and get acquainted with monkeys for five yen extra.”
+
+“What is a blockhead, Sir?”
+
+“Well, let go at that. It was all the scheme of Red Shirt. Deucedly
+underhand scheme, I declare. It was a stab from behind. And he means to
+raise my salary by that; that’s not right. I wouldn’t take that raise.
+Let’s see if he can raise it.”
+
+“Is your salary going to be raised, Sir?”
+
+“Yes, they said they would raise mine, but I’m thinking of refusing
+it.”
+
+“Why do you refuse?”
+
+“Why or no why, it’s going to be refused. Say, Red Shirt is a fool; he
+is a coward.”
+
+“He may be a coward, but if he raises your salary, it would be best for
+you to make no fuss, but accept it. One is apt to get grouchy when
+young, but will always repent when he is grown up and thinks that it
+was pity he hadn’t been a little more patient. Take an old woman’s
+advice for once, and if Red Shirt-san says he will raise your salary,
+just take it with thanks.”
+
+“It’s none of business of you old people.”
+
+The old lady withdrew in silence. The old man is heard singing “utai”
+in the off-key voice. “Utai,” I think, is a stunt which purposely makes
+a whole show a hard nut to crack by giving to it difficult tunes,
+whereas one could better understand it by reading it. I cannot fathom
+what is in the mind of the old man who groans over it every night
+untired. But I’m not in a position to be fooling with “utai.” Red Shirt
+said he would have my salary raised, and though I did not care much
+about it, I accepted it because there was no use of leaving the money
+lying around. But I cannot, for the love of Mike, be so inconsiderate
+as to skin the salary of a fellow teacher who is being transferred
+against his will. What in thunder do they mean by sending him away so
+far as Nobeoka when the fellow prefers to remain in his old position?
+Even Dazai-no-Gonnosutsu did not have to go farther than about Hakata;
+even Matagoro Kawai [11] stopped at Sagara. I shall not feel satisfied
+unless I see Red Shirt and tell him I refuse the raise.
+
+[Footnote 11: The persons in exile, well-known in Japanese history.]
+
+
+I dressed again and went to his house. The same younger brother of Red
+Shirt again answered the bell, and looked at me with eyes which plainly
+said, “You here again?” I will come twice or thrice or as many times as
+I want to if there is business. I might rouse them out of their beds at
+midnight;—it is possible, who knows. Don’t mistake me for one coming to
+coax the head teacher. I was here to give back my salary. The younger
+brother said that there is a visitor just now, and I told him the front
+door will do; won’t take more than a minute, and he went in. Looking
+about my feet, I found a pair of thin, matted wooden clogs, and I heard
+some one in the house saying, “Now we’re banzai.” I noticed that the
+visitor was Clown. Nobody but Clown could make such a squeaking voice
+and wear such clogs as are worn by cheap actors.
+
+After a while Red Shirt appeared at the door with a lamp in his hand,
+and said, “Come in; it’s no other than Mr. Yoshikawa.”
+
+“This is good enough,” I said, “it won’t take long.” I looked at his
+face which was the color of a boiled lobster. He seemed to have been
+drinking with Clown.
+
+“You told me that you would raise my salary, but I’ve changed my mind,
+and have come here to decline the offer.”
+
+Red Shirt, thrusting out the lamp forward, and intently staring at me,
+was unable to answer at the moment. He appeared blank. Did he think it
+strange that here was one fellow, only one in the world, who does not
+want his salary raised, or was he taken aback that I should come back
+so soon even if I wished to decline it, or was it both combined, he
+stood there silent with his mouth in a queer shape.
+
+“I accepted your offer because I understood that Mr. Koga was being
+transferred by his own preference…….”
+
+“Mr. Koga is really going to be transferred by his own preference.”
+
+“No, Sir. He would like to stay here. He doesn’t mind his present
+salary if he can stay.”
+
+“Have you heard it from Mr. Koga himself?”
+
+“No, not from him.”
+
+“Then, from who?”
+
+“The old lady in my boarding house told me what she heard from the
+mother of Mr. Koga.”
+
+“Then the old woman in your boarding house told you so?”
+
+“Well, that’s about the size of it.”
+
+“Excuse me, but I think you are wrong. According to what you say, it
+seems as if you believe what the old woman in the boarding house tells
+you, but would not believe what your head teacher tells you. Am I right
+to understand it that way?”
+
+I was stuck. A Bachelor of Arts is confoundedly good in oratorical
+combat. He gets hold of unexpected point, and pushes the other
+backward. My father used to tell me that I am too careless and no good,
+and now indeed I look that way. I ran out of the house on the moment’s
+impulse when I heard the story from the old lady, and in fact I had not
+heard the story from either Hubbard Squash or his mother. In
+consequence, when I was challenged in this Bachelor-of-Arts fashion, it
+was a bit difficult to defend myself.
+
+I could not defend his frontal attack, but I had already declared in my
+mind a lack of confidence on Red Shirt. The old lady in the boarding
+house may be tight and a grabber, I do not doubt it, but she is a woman
+who tells no lie. She is not double faced like Red Shirt. I was
+helpless, so I answered.
+
+“What you say might be right,—anyway, I decline the raise.”
+
+“That’s still funnier. I thought your coming here now was because you
+had found a certain reason for which you could not accept the raise.
+Then it is hard to understand to see you still insisting on declining
+the raise in spite of the reason having been eradicated by my
+explanation.”
+
+“It may be hard to understand, but anyway I don’t want it.”
+
+“If you don’t like it so much, I wouldn’t force it on you. But if you
+change your mind within two or three hours with no particular reason,
+it would affect your credit in future.”
+
+“I don’t care if it does affect it.”
+
+“That can’t be. Nothing is more important than credit for us.
+Supposing, the boss of the boarding house…….”
+
+“Not the boss, but the old lady.”
+
+“Makes no difference,—suppose what the old woman in the boarding house
+told you was true, the raise of your salary is not to be had by
+reducing the income of Mr. Koga, is it? Mr. Koga is going to Nobeoka;
+his successor is coming. He comes on a salary a little less than that
+of Mr. Koga, and we propose to add the surplus money to your salary,
+and you need not be shy. Mr. Koga will be promoted; the successor is to
+start on less pay, and if you could be raised, I think everything be
+satisfactory to all concerned. If you don’t like it, that’s all right,
+but suppose you think it over once more at home?”
+
+My brain is not of the best stuff, and if another fellow flourishes his
+eloquence like this, I usually think, “Well, perhaps I was wrong,” and
+consider myself defeated, but not so to-night. From the time I came to
+this town I felt prejudiced against Red Shirt. Once I had thought of
+him in a different light, taking him for a fellow kind-hearted and
+feminished. His kindness, however, began to look like anything but
+kindness, and as a result, I have been getting sick of him. So no
+matter how he might glory himself in logical grandiloquence, or how he
+might attempt to out-talk me in a head-teacher-style, I don’t care a
+snap. One who shines in argument is not necessarily a good fellow,
+while the other who is out-talked is not necessarily a bad fellow,
+either. Red Shirt is very, very reasonable as far as his reasoning
+goes, but however graceful he may appear, he cannot win my respect. If
+money, authority or reasoning can command admiration, loansharks,
+police officers or college professors should be liked best by all. I
+cannot be moved in the least by the logic by so insignificant a fellow
+as the head teacher of a middle school. Man works by preference, not by
+logic.
+
+“What you say is right, but I have begun to dislike the raise, so I
+decline. It will be the same if I think it over. Good by.” And I left
+the house of Red Shirt. The solitary milky way hung high in the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+When I went to the school, in the morning of the day the farewell
+dinner party was to be held, Porcupine suddenly spoke to me;
+
+“The other day I asked you to quit the Ikagins because Ikagin begged of
+me to have you leave there as you were too tough, and I believed him.
+But I heard afterward that Ikagin is a crook and often passes imitation
+of famous drawings for originals. I think what he told me about you
+must be a lie. He tried to sell pictures and curios to you, but as you
+shook him off, he told some false stories on you. I did very wrong by
+you because I did not know his character, and wish you would forgive
+me.” And he offered me a lengthy apology.
+
+Without saying a word, I took up the one sen and a half which was lying
+on the desk of Porcupine, and put it into my purse. He asked me in a
+wondering tone, if I meant to take it back. I explained, “Yes. I didn’t
+like to have you treat me and expected to pay this back at all hazard,
+but as I think about it, I would rather have you treated me after all;
+so I’m going to take it back.”
+
+Porcupine laughed heartily and asked me why I had not taken it back
+sooner. I told him that I wanted to more than once, in fact, but
+somehow felt shy and left it there. I was sick of that one sen and a
+half these days that I shunned the sight of it when I came to the
+school, I said. He said “You’re a deucedly unyielding sport,” and I
+answered “You’re obstinate.” Then ensued the following give-and-take
+between us two;
+
+“Where were you born anyway?”
+
+“I’m a Yedo kid.”
+
+“Ah, a Yedo kid, eh? No wonder I thought you a pretty stiff neck.”
+
+“And you?”
+
+“I’m from Aizu.”
+
+“Ha, Aizu guy, eh? You’ve got reason to be obstinate. Going to the
+farewell dinner to-day?”
+
+“Sure. You?”
+
+“Of course I am. I intend to go down to the beach to see Koga-san off
+when he leaves.”
+
+“The farewell dinner should be a big blow-out. You come and see. I’m
+going to get soused to the neck.”
+
+“You get loaded all you want. I quit the place right after I finish my
+plates. Only fools fight booze.”
+
+“You’re a fellow who picks up a fight too easy. It shows up the
+characteristic of the Yedo kid well.”
+
+“I don’t care. Say, before you go to the farewell dinner, come to see
+me. I want to tell you something.”
+
+Porcupine came to my room as promised. I had been in full sympathy with
+Hubbard Squash these days, and when it came to his farewell dinner, my
+pity for him welled up so much that I wished I could go to Nobeoka for
+him myself. I thought of making a parting address of burning eloquence
+at the dinner to grace the occasion, but my speech which rattles off
+like that of the excited spieler of New York would not become the
+place. I planned to take the breath out of Red Shirt by employing
+Porcupine who has a thunderous voice. Hence my invitation to him before
+we started for the party.
+
+I commenced by explaining the Madonna affair, but Porcupine, needless
+to say, knew more about it than I. Telling about my meeting Red Shirt
+on the Nozeri river, I called him a fool. Porcupine then said; “You
+call everybody a fool. You called me a fool to-day at the school. If
+I’m a fool, Red Shirt isn’t,” and insisted that he was not in the same
+group with Red Shirt. “Then Red Shirt may be a four-flusher,” I said
+and he approved this new alias with enthusiasm. Porcupine is physically
+strong, but when it comes to such terms, he knows less than I do. I
+guess all Aizu guys are about the same.
+
+Then, when I disclosed to him about the raise of my salary and the
+advance hint on my promotion by Red Shirt, Porcupine pished, and said,
+“Then he means to discharge me.” “Means to discharge you? But you mean
+to get discharged?” I asked. “Bet you, no. If I get fired, Red Shirt
+will have to go with me,” he remarked with a lordly air. I insisted on
+knowing how he was going to get Red Shirt kicked out with him, and he
+answered that he had not thought so far yet. Yes, Porcupine looks
+strong, but seems to be possessed of no abundance of brain power. I
+told him about my refusal of the raise of my salary, and the Gov’nur
+was much pleased, praising me with the remark, “That’s the stuff for
+Yedo kids.”
+
+“If Hubbard Squash does not like to go down to Nobeoka, why didn’t you
+do something to enable him remain here,” I asked, and Porcupine said
+that when he heard the story from Hubbard Squash, everything had been
+settled already, but he had asked the principal twice and Red Shirt
+once to have the transfer order cancelled, but to no purpose. Porcupine
+bitterly condemned Hubbard Squash for being too good-natured. If
+Hubbard Squash, he said, had either flatly refused or delayed the
+answer on the pretext of considering it, when Red Shirt raised the
+question of transfer, it would have been better for him. But he was
+fooled by the oily tongue of Red Shirt, had accepted the transfer
+outright, and all efforts by Porcupine who was moved by the tearful
+appeal of the mother, proved unavailing.
+
+I said; “The transfer of Koga is nothing but a trick of Red Shirt to
+cop the Madonna by sending Hubbard Squash away.”
+
+“Yes,” said Porcupine. “That must be. Red Shirt looks gentle, but 
+plays nasty tricks. He is a sonovagun for when some one finds fault 
+with him, he has excuses prepared already. Nothing but a sound 
+thumping will be effective for fellows like him.”
+
+He rolled up his sleeves over his plump arms as he spoke. I asked him,
+by the way, if he knew jiujitsu, because his arms looked powerful. Then
+he put force in his forearm, and told me to touch it. I felt its
+swelled muscle which was hard as the pumic stone in the public
+bathhouse.
+
+I was deeply impressed by his massive strength, and asked him if he
+could not knock five or six of Red Shirt in a bunch. “Of course,” he
+said, and as he extended and bent back the arm, the lumpy muscle rolled
+round and round, which was very amusing. According to the statement of
+Porcupine himself, this muscle, if he bends the arm back with force,
+would snap a paper-string wound around it twice. I said I might do the
+same thing if it were a paper-string, and he challenged me. “No, you
+can’t,” he said. “See if you can.” As it would not look well if I
+failed, I did not try.
+
+“Say, after you have drunk all you want to-night at the dinner, take a
+fall out of Red Shirt and Clown, eh?” I suggested to him for fun.
+Porcupine thought for a moment and said, “Not to-night, I guess.” I
+wanted to know why, and he pointed out that it would be bad for Koga.
+
+“Besides, if I’m going to give it to them at all, I’ve to get them red
+handed in their dirty scheme, or all the blame will be on me,” he added
+discretely. Even Porcupine seems to have wiser judgment than I.
+
+“Then make a speech and praise Mr. Koga sky-high. My speech becomes
+sort of jumpy, wanting dignity. And at any formal gathering, I get
+lumpy in my throat, and can’t speak. So I leave it to you,” I said.
+
+“That’s a strange disease. Then you can’t speak in the presence of
+other people? It would be awkward, I suppose,” he said, and I told him
+not quite as much awkward as he might think.
+
+About then, the time for the farewell dinner party arrived, and I went
+to the hall with Porcupine. The dinner party was to be held at
+Kashin-tei which is said to be the leading restaurant in the town, but
+I had never been in the house before. This restaurant, I understood,
+was formerly the private residence of the chief retainer of the daimyo
+of the province, and its condition seemed to confirm the story. The
+residence of a chief retainer transformed into a restaurant was like
+making a saucepan out of warrior’s armor.
+
+When we two came there, about all of the guests were present. They
+formed two or three groups in the spacious room of fifty mats. The
+alcove in this room, in harmony with its magnificence, was very large.
+The alcove in the fifteen-mat room which I occupied at Yamashiro-ya
+made a small showing beside it. I measured it and found it was twelve
+feet wide. On the right, in the alcove, there was a seto-ware flower
+vase, painted with red designs, in which was a large branch of pine
+tree. Why the pine twigs, I did not know, except that they are in no
+danger of withering for many a month to come, and are economical. I
+asked the teacher of natural history where that seto-ware flower vase
+is made. He told me it was not a seto-ware but an imari. Isn’t imari
+seto-ware? I wondered audibly, and the natural history man laughed. I
+heard afterward that we call it a seto-ware because it is made in Seto.
+I’m a Yedo kid, and thought all china was seto-wares. In the center of
+the alcove was hung a panel on which were written twenty eight letters,
+each letter as large as my face. It was poorly written; so poorly
+indeed that I enquired of the teacher of Confucius why such a poor work
+be hung in apparent show of pride. He explained that it was written by
+Kaioku a famous artist in the writing, but Kaioku or anyone else, I
+still declare the work poorly done.
+
+By and by, Kawamura, the clerk, requested all to be seated. I chose one
+in front of a pillar so I could lean against it. Badger sat in front of
+the panel of Kaioku in Japanese full dress. On his left sat Red Shirt
+similarly dressed, and on his right Hubbard Squash, as the guest of
+honor, in the same kind of dress. I was dressed in a European suit, and
+being unable to sit down, squatted on my legs at once. The teacher of
+physical culture next to me, though in the same kind of rags as mine,
+sat squarely in Japanese fashion. As a teacher of his line he appeared
+to have well trained himself. Then the dinner trays were served and the
+bottles placed beside them. The manager of the day stood up and made a
+brief opening address. He was followed by Badger and Red Shirt. These
+two made farewell addresses, and dwelt at length on Hubbard Squash
+being an ideal teacher and gentleman, expressing their regret, saying
+his departure was a great loss not only to the school but to them in
+person. They concluded that it could not be helped, however, since the
+transfer was due to his own earnest desire and for his own convenience.
+They appeared to be ashamed not in the least by telling such a lie at a
+farewell dinner. Particularly, Red Shirt, of these three, praised
+Hubbard Squash in lavish terms. He went so far as to declare that to
+lose this true friend was a great personal loss to him. Moreover, his
+tone was so impressive in its same old gentle tone that one who listens
+to him for the first time would be sure to be misled. Probably he won
+the Madonna by this same trick. While Red Shirt was uttering his
+farewell buncomb, Porcupine who sat on the other side across me, winked
+at me. As an answer of this, I “snooked” at him.
+
+No sooner had Red Shirt sat down than Porcupine stood up, and highly
+rejoiced, I clapped hands. At this Badger and others glanced at me, and
+I felt that I blushed a little.
+
+“Our principal and other gentlemen,” he said, “particularly the head
+teacher, expressed their sincere regret at Mr. Koga’s transfer. I am of
+a different opinion, and hope to see him leave the town at the earliest
+possible moment. Nobeoka is an out-of-the-way, backwoods town, and
+compared with this town, it may have more material inconveniences, but
+according to what I have heard, Nobeoka is said to be a town where the
+customs are simple and untainted, and the teachers and students still
+strong in the straightforward characteristics of old days. I am
+convinced that in Nobeoka there is not a single high-collared guy who
+passes round threadbare remarks, or who with smooth face, entraps
+innocent people. I am sure that a man like Mr. Koga, gentle and honest,
+will surely be received with an enthusiastic welcome there. I heartily
+welcome this transfer for the sake of Mr. Koga. In concluding, I hope
+that when he is settled down at Nobeoka, he will find a lady qualified
+to become his wife, and form a sweet home at an early date and
+incidentally let the inconstant, unchaste sassy old wench die ashamed
+…… a’hum, a’hum!”
+
+He coughed twice significantly and sat down. I thought of clapping my
+hands again, but as it would draw attention, I refrained. When
+Porcupine finished his speech, Hubbard Squash arose politely, slipped
+out of his seat, went to the furthest end of the room, and having bowed
+to all in a most respectful manner, acknowledged the compliments in the
+following way;
+
+“On the occasion of my going to Kyushu for my personal convenience, I
+am deeply impressed and appreciate the way my friends have honored me
+with this magnificent dinner……. The farewell addresses by our principal
+and other gentlemen will be long held in my fondest recollection……. I
+am going far away now, but I hope my name be included in the future as
+in the past in the list of friends of the gentlemen here to-night.”
+
+Then again bowing, he returned to his seat. There was no telling how
+far the “good-naturedness” of Hubbard Squash might go. He had
+respectfully thanked the principal and the head teacher who had been
+fooling him. And it was not a formal, cut-and-dried reply he made,
+either; by his manner, tone and face, he appeared to have been really
+grateful from his heart. Badger and Red Shirt should have blushed when
+they were addressed so seriously by so good a man as Hubbard Squash,
+but they only listened with long faces.
+
+After the exchange of addresses, a sizzling sound was heard here and
+there, and I too tried the soup which tasted like anything but soup.
+There was kamaboko in the kuchitori dish, but instead of being snow
+white as it should be, it looked grayish, and was more like a poorly
+cooked chikuwa. The sliced tunny was there, but not having been sliced
+fine, passed the throat like so many pieces of chopped raw tunny. Those
+around me, however, ate with ravenous appetite. They have not tasted, I
+guess, the real Yedo dinner.
+
+Meanwhile the bottles began passing round, and all became more or less
+“jacked up.” Clown proceeded to the front of the principal and
+submissively drank to his health. A beastly fellow, this! Hubbard
+Squash made a round of all the guests, drinking to their health. A very
+onerous job, indeed. When he came to me and proposed my health, I
+abandoned the squatting posture and sat up straight.
+
+“Too bad to see you go away so soon. When are you going? I want to see
+you off at the beach,” I said.
+
+“Thank you, Sir. But never mind that. You’re busy,” he declined. He
+might decline, but I was determined to get excused for the day and give
+him a rousing send-off.
+
+Within about an hour from this, the room became pretty lively.
+
+“Hey, have another, hic; ain’t goin’, hic, have one on me?” One or two
+already in a pickled state appeared on the scene. I was little tired,
+and going out to the porch, was looking at the old fashioned garden by
+the dim star light, when Porcupine came.
+
+“How did you like my speech? Wasn’t it grand, though!” he remarked in a
+highly elated tone. I protested that while I approved 99 per cent. of
+his speech, there was one per cent. that I did not. “What’s that one
+per cent?” he asked.
+
+“Well, you said,…… there is not a single high-collared guy who with
+smooth face entraps innocent people…….”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“A ‘high-collared guy’ isn’t enough.”
+
+“Then what should I say?”
+
+“Better say,—‘a high-collared guy; swindler, bastard, super-swanker,
+doubleface, bluffer, totempole, spotter, who looks like a dog as he
+yelps.’”
+
+“I can’t get my tongue to move so fast. You’re eloquent. In the first
+place, you know a great many simple words. Strange that you can’t make
+a speech.”
+
+“I reserve these words for use when I chew the rag. If it comes to
+speech-making, they don’t come out so smoothly.”
+
+“Is that so? But they simply come a-running. Repeat that again for me.”
+
+“As many times as you like. Listen,—a high-collared guy, swindler,
+bastard, super-swanker …”
+
+While I was repeating this, two shaky fellows came out of the room
+hammering the floor.
+
+“Hey, you two gents, if won’t do to run away. Won’t let you off while
+I’m here. Come and have a drink. Bastard? That’s fine. Bastardly fine.
+Now, come on.”
+
+And they pulled Porcupine and me away. These two fellows really had
+come to the lavatory, but soaked as they were, in booze bubbles, they
+apparently forgot to proceed to their original destination, and were
+pulling us hard. All booze fighters seem to be attracted by whatever
+comes directly under their eyes for the moment and forget what they had
+been proposing to do.
+
+“Say, fellows, we’ve got bastards. Make them drink. Get them loaded.
+You gents got to stay here.”
+
+And they pushed me who never attempted to escape against the wall.
+Surveying the scene, I found there was no dish in which any edibles
+were left. Some one had eaten all his share, and gone on a foraging
+expedition. The principal was not there,—I did not know when he left.
+
+At that time, preceded by a coquetish voice, three or four geishas
+entered the room. I was a bit surprised, but having been pushed against
+the wall, I had to look on quietly. At the instant, Red Shirt who had
+been leaning against a pillar with the same old amber pipe stuck into
+his mouth with some pride, suddenly got up and started to leave the
+room. One of the geishas who was advancing toward him smiled and
+courtesied at him as she passed by him. The geisha was the youngest and
+prettiest of the bunch. They were some distance away from me and I
+could not see very well, but it seemed that she might have said “Good
+evening.” Red Shirt brushed past as if unconscious, and never showed
+again. Probably he followed the principal.
+
+The sight of the geishas set the room immediately in a buzz and it
+became noisy as they all raised howls of welcome. Some started the game
+of “nanko” with a force that beat the sword-drawing practice. Others
+began playing morra, and the way they shook their hands, intently
+absorbed in the game, was a better spectacle than a puppet show.
+
+One in the corner was calling “Hey, serve me here,” but shaking the
+bottle, corrected it to “Hey, fetch me more sake.” The whole room
+became so infernally noisy that I could scarcely stand it. Amid this
+orgy, one, like a fish out of water, sat down with his head bowed. It
+was Hubbard Squash. The reason they have held this farewell dinner
+party was not in order to bid him a farewell, but because they wanted
+to have a jolly good time for themselves with John Barleycorn. He had
+come to suffer only. Such a dinner party would have been better had it
+not been started at all.
+
+After a while, they began singing ditties in outlandish voices. One of
+the geishas came in front of me, and taking up a samisen, asked me to
+sing something. I told her I didn’t sing, but I’d like to hear, and she
+droned out:
+
+“If one can go round and meet the one he wants, banging gongs and drums
+…… bang, bang, bang, bang, bing, shouting after wandering Santaro,
+there is some one I’d like to meet by banging round gongs and drums ……
+bang, bang, bang, bang, b-i-n-g.”
+
+She dashed this off in two breaths, and sighed, “O, dear!” She should
+have sung something easier.
+
+Clown who had come near us meanwhile, remarked in his flippant tone:
+
+“Hello, dear Miss Su-chan, too bad to see your beau go away so soon.”
+The geisha pouted, “I don’t know.” Clown, regardless, began imitating
+“gidayu” with a dismal voice,—“What a luck, when she met her sweet
+heart by a rare chance….”
+
+The geisha slapped the lap of Clown with a “Cut that out,” and Clown
+gleefully laughed. This geisha is the one who made goo-goo eyes[J] at
+Red Shirt. What a simpleton, to be pleased by the slap of a geisha,
+this Clown. He said:
+
+“Say, Su-chan, strike up the string. I’m going to dance the
+Kiino-kuni.” He seemed yet to dance.
+
+On other side of the room, the old man of Confucius, twisting round his
+toothless mouth, had finished as far as “…… dear Dembei-san” and is
+asking a geisha who sat in front of him to couch him for the rest. Old
+people seem to need polishing up their memorizing system. One geisha is
+talking to the teacher of natural history:
+
+“Here’s the latest. I’ll sing it. Just listen. ‘Margaret, the
+high-collared head with a white ribbon; she rides on a bike, plays a
+violin, and talks in broken English,—I am glad to see you.’” Natural
+history appears impressed, and says;
+
+“That’s an interesting piece. English in it too.”
+
+Porcupine called “geisha, geisha,” in a loud voice, and commanded;
+“Bang your samisen; I’m going to dance a sword-dance.”
+
+His manner was so rough that the geishas were startled and did not
+answer. Porcupine, unconcerned, brought out a cane, and began
+performing the sword-dance in the center of the room. Then Clown,
+having danced the Kii-no-kuni, the Kap-pore[K] and the Durhma-san on
+the Shelf, almost stark-naked, with a palm-fibre broom, began
+turkey-trotting about the room, shouting “The Sino-Japanese
+negotiations came to a break…….” The whole was a crazy sight.
+
+I had been feeling sorry for Hubbard Squash, who up to this time had
+sat up straight in his full dress. Even were this a farewell dinner
+held in his honor, I thought he was under no obligation to look
+patiently in a formal dress at the naked dance. So I went to him and
+persuaded him with “Say, Koga-san, let’s go home.” Hubbard Squash said
+the dinner was in his honor, and it would be improper for him to leave
+the room before the guests. He seemed to be determined to remain.
+
+“What do you care!” I said, “If this is a farewell dinner, make it like
+one. Look at those fellows; they’re just like the inmates of a lunatic
+asylum. Let’s go.”
+
+And having forced hesitating Hubbard Squash to his feet, we were just
+leaving the room, when Clown, marching past, brandishing the broom, saw
+us.
+
+“This won’t do for the guest of honor to leave before us,” he hollered,
+“this is the Sino-Japanese negotiations. Can’t let you off.” He
+enforced his declaration by holding the broom across our way. My temper
+had been pretty well aroused for some time, and I felt impatient.
+
+“The Sino-Japanese negotiation, eh? Then you’re a Chink,” and I whacked
+his head with a knotty fist.
+
+This sudden blow left Clown staring blankly speechless for a second or
+two; then he stammered out:
+
+“This is going some! Mighty pity to knock my head. What a blow on this
+Yoshikawa! This makes the Sino-Japanese negotiations the sure stuff.”
+
+While Clown was mumbling these incoherent remarks, Porcupine, believing
+some kind of row had been started, ceased his sword-dance and came
+running toward us. On seeing us, he grabbed the neck of Clown and
+pulled him back.
+
+“The Sino-Japane……ouch!……ouch! This is outrageous,” and Clown writhed
+under the grip of Porcupine who twisted him sideways and threw him down
+on the floor with a bang. I do not know the rest. I parted from Hubbard
+Squash on the way, and it was past eleven when I returned home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+The town is going to celebrate a Japanese victory to-day, and there is
+no school. The celebration is to be held at the parade ground, and
+Badger is to take out all the students and attend the ceremony. As one
+of the instructors, I am to go with them. The streets are everywhere
+draped with flapping national flags almost enough to dazzle the eyes.
+There were as many as eight hundred students in all, and it was
+arranged, under the direction of the teacher of physical culture to
+divide them into sections with one teacher or two to lead them. The
+arrangement itself was quite commendable, but in its actual operation
+the whole thing went wrong. All students are mere kiddies who, ever too
+fresh, regard it as beneath their dignity not to break all regulations.
+This rendered the provision of teachers among them practically useless.
+They would start marching songs without being told to, and if they
+ceased the marching songs, they would raise devilish shouts without
+cause. Their behavior would have done credit to the gang of tramps
+parading the streets demanding work. When they neither sing nor shout,
+they tee-hee and giggle. Why they cannot walk without these disorder,
+passes my understanding, but all Japanese are born with their mouths
+stuck out, and no kick will ever be strong enough to stop it. Their
+chatter is not only of simple nature, but about the teachers when their
+back is turned. What a degraded bunch! I made the students apologize to
+me on the dormitory affair, and considered the incident closed. But I
+was mistaken. To borrow the words of the old lady in the boarding
+house, I was surely wrong Mr. Wright. The apology they offered was not
+prompted by repentance in their hearts. They had kowtowed as a matter
+of form by the command of the principal. Like the tradespeople who bow
+their heads low but never give up cheating the public, the students
+apologize but never stop their mischiefs. Society is made up, I think
+it probable, of people just like those students. One may be branded
+foolishly honest if he takes seriously the apologies others might
+offer. We should regard all apologies a sham and forgiving also as a
+sham; then everything would be all right. If one wants to make another
+apologize from his heart, he has to pound him good and strong until he
+begs for mercy from his heart.
+
+As I walked along between the sections, I could hear constantly the
+voices mentioning “tempura” or “dango.” And as there were so many of
+them, I could not tell which one mentioned it. Even if I succeeded in
+collaring the guilty one I was sure of his saying, “No, I didn’t mean
+you in saying tempura or dango. I fear you suffer from nervousness and
+make wrong inferences.” This dastardly spirit has been fostered from
+the time of the feudal lords, and is deep-rooted. No amount of teaching
+or lecturing will cure it. If I stay in a town like this for one year
+or so, I may be compelled to follow their example, who knows,—clean and
+honest though I have been. I do not propose to make a fool of myself by
+remaining quiet when others attempt to play games on me, with all their
+excuses ready-made. They are men and so am I—students or kiddies or
+whatever they may be. They are bigger than I, and unless I get even
+with them by punishment, I would cut a sorry figure. But in the attempt
+to get even, if I resort to ordinary means, they are sure to make it a
+boomerang. If I tell them, “You’re wrong,” they will start an eloquent
+defence, because they are never short of the means of sidestepping.
+Having defended themselves, and made themselves appear suffering
+martyrs, they would begin attacking me. As the incident would have been
+started by my attempting to get even with them, my defence would not be
+a defence until I can prove their wrong. So the quarrel, which they had
+started, might be mistaken, after all, as one begun by me. But the more
+I keep silent the more they would become insolent, which, speaking
+seriously, could not be permitted for the sake of public morale. In
+consequence, I am obliged to adopt an identical policy so they cannot
+catch men in playing it back on them. If the situation comes to that,
+it would be the last day of the Yedo kid. Even so, if I am to be
+subjected to these pin-pricking[L] tricks, I am a man and got to risk
+losing off the last remnant of the honor of the Yedo kid. I became more
+convinced of the advisability of returning to Tokyo quickly and living
+with Kiyo. To live long in such a countrytown would be like degrading
+myself for a purpose. Newspaper delivering would be preferable to being
+degraded so far as that.
+
+I walked along with a sinking heart, thinking like this, when the head
+of our procession became suddenly noisy, and the whole came to a full
+stop. I thought something has happened, stepped to the right out of the
+ranks, and looked toward the direction of the noise. There on the
+corner of Otemachi, turning to Yakushimachi, I saw a mass packed full
+like canned sardines, alternately pushing back and forth. The teacher
+of physical culture came down the line hoarsely shouting to all to be
+quiet. I asked him what was the matter, and he said the middle school
+and the normal had come to a clash at the corner.
+
+The middle school and the normal, I understood, are as much friendly as
+dogs and monkeys. It is not explained why but their temper was
+hopelessly crossed, and each would try to knock the chip off the
+shoulder of the other on all occasions. I presume they quarrel so much
+because life gets monotonous in this backwoods town. I am fond of
+fighting, and hearing of the clash, darted forward to make the most of
+the fun. Those foremost in the line are jeering, “Get out of the way,
+you country tax!”[12] while those in the rear are hollowing “Push them
+out!” I passed through the students, and was nearing the corner, when I
+heard a sharp command of “Forward!” and the line of the normal school
+began marching on. The clash which had resulted from contending for the
+right of way was settled, but it was settled by the middle school
+giving way to the normal. From the point of school-standing the normal
+is said to rank above the middle.
+
+[Footnote 12: The normal school in the province maintains the students
+mostly on the advance-expense system, supported by the country tax.]
+
+
+The ceremony was quite simple. The commander of the local brigade read
+a congratulatory address, and so did the governor, and the audience
+shouted banzais. That was all. The entertainments were scheduled for
+the afternoon, and I returned home once and started writing to Kiyo an
+answer which had been in my mind for some days. Her request had been
+that I should write her a letter with more detailed news; so I must get
+it done with care. But as I took up the rolled letter-paper, I did not
+know with what I should begin, though I have many things to write
+about.
+
+Should I begin with that? That is too much trouble. Or with this? It is
+not interesting. Isn’t there something which will come out smoothly, I
+reflected, without taxing my head too much, and which will interest
+Kiyo. There seemed, however, no such item as I wanted. I grated the
+ink-cake, wetted the writing brush, stared at the letter-paper—stared
+at the letter-paper, wetted the writing brush, grated the ink-cake—and,
+having repeated the same thing several times, I gave up the letter
+writing as not in my line, and covered the lid of the stationery box.
+To write a letter was a bother. It would be much simpler to go back to
+Tokyo and see Kiyo. Not that I am unconcerned about the anxiety of
+Kiyo, but to get up a letter to please the fancy of Kiyo is a harder
+job than to fast for three weeks.
+
+I threw down the brush and letter-paper, and lying down with my bent
+arms as a pillow, gazed at the garden. But the thought of the letter to
+Kiyo would come back in my mind. Then I thought this way; If I am
+thinking of her from my heart, even at such a distance, my sincerity
+would find responsive appreciation in Kiyo. If it does find response,
+there is no need of sending letters. She will regard the absence of
+letters from me as a sign of my being in good health. If I write in
+case of illness or when something unusual happens, that will be
+sufficient.
+
+The garden is about thirty feet square, with no particular plants
+worthy of name. There is one orange tree which is so tall as to be seen
+above the board fence from outside. Whenever I returned from the school
+I used to look at this orange tree. For to those who had not been
+outside of Tokyo, oranges on the tree are rather a novel sight. Those
+oranges now green will ripen by degrees and turn to yellow, when the
+tree would surely be beautiful. There are some already ripened. The old
+lady told me that they are juicy, sweet oranges. “They will all soon be
+ripe, and then help yourself to all you want,” she said. I think I will
+enjoy a few every day. They will be just right in about three weeks. I
+do not think I will have to leave the town in so short a time as three
+weeks.
+
+While my attention was centered on the oranges, Porcupine[M] came in.
+
+“Say, to-day being the celebration[N] of victory, I thought I would get
+something good to eat with you, and bought some beef.”
+
+So saying, he took out a package covered with a bamboo-wrapper, and
+threw it down in the center of the room. I had been denied the pleasure
+of patronizing the noodle house or dango shop, on top of getting sick
+of the sweet potatoes and tofu, and I welcomed the suggestion with
+“That’s fine,” and began cooking it with a frying pan and some sugar
+borrowed from the old lady.
+
+Porcupine, munching the beef to the full capacity of his mouth, asked
+me if I knew Red Shirt having a favorite geisha. I asked if that was
+not one of the geishas who came to our dinner the other night, and he
+answered, “Yes, I got the wind of the fact only recently; you’re
+sharp.”
+
+“Red Shirt always speaks of refinement of character or of mental
+consolation, but he is making a fool of himself by chasing round a
+geisha. What a dandy rogue. We might let that go if he wouldn’t make
+fuss about others making fools of themselves. I understand through the
+principal he stopped your going even to noodle houses or dango shops as
+unbecoming to the dignity of the school, didn’t he?”
+
+“According to his idea, running after a geisha is a mental consolation
+but tempura or dango is a material pleasure, I guess. If that’s mental
+consolation, why doesn’t the fool do it above board? You ought to see
+the jacknape skipping out of the room when the geisha came into it the
+other night,—I don’t like his trying to deceive us, but if one were to
+point it out for him, he would deny it or say it was the Russian
+literature or that the haiku is a half-brother of the new poetry, and
+expect to hush it up by twaddling soft nonsense. A weak-knee like him
+is not a man. I believe he lived the life of a court-maid in former
+life. Perhaps his daddy might have been a kagema at Yushima in old
+days.”
+
+“What is a kagema?”
+
+“I suppose something very unmanly,—sort of emasculated chaps. Say, that
+part isn’t cooked enough. It might give you tape worm.”
+
+“So? I think it’s all right. And, say, Red Shirt is said to frequent
+Kadoya at the springs town and meet his geisha there, but he keeps it
+in dark.”
+
+“Kadoya? That hotel?”
+
+“Also a restaurant. So we’ve got to catch him there with his geisha and
+make it hot for him right to his face.”
+
+“Catch him there? Suppose we begin a kind of night watch?”
+
+“Yes, you know there is a rooming house called Masuya in front of
+Kadoya. We’ll rent one room upstairs of the house, and keep peeping
+through a loophole we could make in the shoji.”
+
+“Will he come when we keep peeping at him?”
+
+“He may. We will have to do it more than one night. Must expect to keep
+it up for at least two weeks.”
+
+“Say, that would make one pretty well tired, I tell you. I sat up every
+night for about one week attending my father when he died, and it left
+me thoroughly down and out for some time afterward.”
+
+“I don’t care if I do get tired some. A crook like Red Shirt should not
+go unpunished that way for the honor of Japan, and I am going to
+administer a chastisement in behalf of heaven.”
+
+“Hooray! If things are decided upon that way, I am game. And we are
+going to start from to-night?”
+
+“I haven’t rented a room at Masuya yet, so can’t start it to-night.”
+
+“Then when?”
+
+“Will start before long. I’ll let you know, and want you help me.”
+
+“Right-O. I will help you any time. I am not much myself at scheming,
+but I am IT when it comes to fighting.”
+
+While Porcupine and I were discussing the plan of subjugating Red
+Shirt, the old lady appeared at the door, announcing that a student was
+wanting to see Professor Hotta. The student had gone to his house, but
+seeing him out, had come here as probable to find him. Porcupine went
+to the front door himself, and returning to the room after a while,
+said:
+
+“Say, the boy came to invite us to go and see the entertainment of the
+celebration. He says there is a big bunch of dancers from Kochi to
+dance something, and it would be a long time before we could see the
+like of it again. Let’s go.”
+
+Porcupine seemed enthusiastic over the prospect of seeing that dance,
+and induced me to go with him. I have seen many kinds of dance in
+Tokyo. At the annual festival of the Hachiman Shrine, moving stages
+come around the district, and I have seen the Shiokumi and almost any
+other variety. I was little inclined to see that dance by the sturdy
+fellows from Tosa province, but as Porcupine was so insistent, I
+changed my mind and followed him out. I did not know the student who
+came to invite Porcupine, but found he was the younger brother of Red
+Shirt. Of all students, what a strange choice for a messenger!
+
+The celebration ground was decorated, like the wrestling amphitheater
+at Ryogoku during the season, or the annual festivity of the Hommonji
+temple, with long banners planted here and there, and on the ropes that
+crossed and recrossed in the mid-air were strung the colors of all
+nations, as if they were borrowed from as many nations for the occasion
+and the large roof presented unusually cheerful aspect. On the eastern
+corner there was built a temporary stage upon which the dance of Koehi
+was to be performed. For about half a block, with the stage on the
+right, there was a display of flowers and plant settings arranged on
+shelves sheltered with reed screens. Everybody was looking at the
+display seemingly much impressed, but it failed to impress me. If
+twisted grasses or bamboos afforded so much pleasure, the gallantry of
+a hunchback or the husband of a wrong pair should give as much pleasure
+to their eyes.
+
+In the opposite direction, aerial bombs and fire works were steadily
+going on. A balloon shot out on which was written “Long Live the
+Empire!” It floated leisurely over the pine trees near the castle
+tower, and fell down inside the compound of the barracks. Bang! A black
+ball shot up against the serene autumn sky; burst open straight above
+my head, streams of luminous green smoke ran down in an umbrella-shape,
+and finally faded. Then another balloon. It was red with “Long Live the
+Army and Navy” in white. The wind slowly carried it from the town
+toward the Aioi village. Probably it would fall into the yard of Kwanon
+temple there.
+
+At the formal celebration this morning there were not quite so many as
+here now. It was surging mass that made me wonder how so many people
+lived in the place. There were not many attractive faces among the
+crowd, but as far as the numerical strength went, it was a formidable
+one. In the meantime that dance had begun. I took it for granted that
+since they call it a dance, it would be something similar to the kind
+of dance by the Fujita troupe, but I was greatly mistaken.
+
+Thirty fellows, dressed up in a martial style, in three rows of ten
+each, stood with glittering drawn swords. The sight was an eye-opener,
+indeed. The space between the rows measured about two feet, and that
+between the men might have been even less. One stood apart from the
+group. He was similarly dressed but instead of a drawn sword, he
+carried a drum hung about his chest. This fellow drawled out signals
+the tone of which suggested a mighty easy-life, and then croaking a
+strange song, he would strike the drum. The tune was outlandishly
+unfamiliar. One might form the idea by thinking it a combination of the
+Mikawa Banzai and the Fudarakuya.
+
+The song was drowsy, and like syrup in summer is dangling and slovenly.
+He struck the drum to make stops at certain intervals. The tune was
+kept with regular rhythmical order, though it appeared to have neither
+head nor tail. In response to this tune, the thirty drawn swords flash,
+with such dexterity and speed that the sight made the spectator almost
+shudder. With live men within two feet of their position, the sharp
+drawn blades, each flashing them in the same manner, they looked as if
+they might make a bloody mess unless they were perfectly accurate in
+their movements. If it had been brandishing swords alone without moving
+themselves, the chances of getting slashed or cut might have been less,
+but sometimes they would turn sideways together, or clear around, or
+bend their knees. Just one second’s difference in the movement, either
+too quick or too late, on the part of the next fellow, might have meant
+sloughing off a nose or slicing off the head of the next fellow. The
+drawn swords moved in perfect freedom, but the sphere of action was
+limited to about two feet square, and to cap it all, each had to keep
+moving with those in front and back, at right and left, in the same
+direction at the same speed. This beats me! The dance of the Shiokumi
+or the Sekinoto would make no show compared with this! I heard them say
+the dance requires much training, and it could not be an easy matter to
+make so many dancers move in a unison like this. Particularly difficult
+part in the dance was that of the fellow with drum stuck to his chest.
+The movement of feet, action of hands, or bending of knees of those
+thirty fellows were entirely directed by the tune with which he kept
+them going. To the spectators this fellow’s part appeared the easiest.
+He sang in a lazy tune, but it was strange that he was the fellow who
+takes the heaviest responsibility.
+
+While Porcupine and I, deeply impressed, were looking at the dance with
+absorbing interest, a sudden hue and cry was raised about half a block
+off. A commotion was started among those who had been quietly enjoying
+the sights and all ran pell-mell in every direction. Some one was heard
+saying “fight!” Then the younger brother of Red Shirt came running
+forward through the crowd.
+
+“Please, Sir,” he panted, “a row again! The middles are going to get
+even with the normals and have just begun fighting. Come quick, Sir!”
+And he melted somewhere into the crowd.
+
+“What troublesome brats! So they’re at it again, eh? Why can’t they
+stop it!”
+
+Porcupine, as he spoke, dashed forward, dodging among the running
+crowd. He meant, I think, to stop the fight, because he could not be an
+idle spectator once he was informed of the fact. I of course had no
+intention of turning tail, and hastened on the heels of Porcupine. The
+fight was in its fiercest. There were about fifty to sixty normals, and
+the middles numbered by some ninety. The normals wore uniform, but the
+middles had discarded their uniform and put on Japanese civilian
+clothes, which made the distinction between the two hostile camps easy.
+But they were so mixed up, and wrangling with such violence, that we
+did not know how and where we could separate them.
+
+Porcupine, apparently at a loss what to do, looked at the wild scene
+awhile, then turned to me, saying:
+
+“Let’s jump in and separate them. It will be hell if cops get on them.”
+
+I did not answer, but rushed to the spot where the scuffle appeared
+most violent.
+
+“Stop there! Cut this out! You’re ruining the name of the school! Stop
+this, dash you!”
+
+Shouting at the top of my voice, I attempted to penetrate the line
+which seemed to separate the hostile sides, but this attempt did not
+succeed. When about ten feet into the turmoil, I could neither advance
+nor retreat. Right in my front, a comparatively large normal was
+grappling with a middle about sixteen years of ago.
+
+“Stop that!”
+
+I grabbed the shoulder of the normal and tried to force them apart when
+some one whacked my feet. On this sudden attack, I let go the normal
+and fell down sideways. Some one stepped on my back with heavy shoes.
+With both hands and knees upon the ground, I jumped up and the fellow
+on my back rolled off to my right. I got up, and saw the big body of
+Porcupine about twenty feet away, sandwiched between the students,
+being pushed back and forth, shouting, “Stop the fight! Stop that!”
+
+“Say, we can’t do anything!” I hollered at him, but unable to hear, I
+think, he did not answer.
+
+A pebble-stone whiffled through the air and hit squarely on my cheek
+bone; the same moment some one banged my back with a heavy stick from
+behind.
+
+“Profs mixing in!” “Knock them down!” was shouted.
+
+“Two of them; big one and small. Throw stones at them!” Another shout.
+
+“Drat you fresh jackanapes!” I cried as I wallopped the head of a
+normal nearby. Another stone grazed my head, and passed behind me. I
+did not know what had become of Porcupine, I could not find him. Well,
+I could not help it but jumped into the teapot to stop the tempest. I
+wasn’t[O] a Hottentot to skulk away on being shot at with
+pebble-stones. What did they think I was anyway! I’ve been through all
+kinds of fighting in Tokyo, and can take in all fights one may care to
+give me. I slugged, jabbed and banged the stuffing out of the fellow
+nearest to me. Then some one cried, “Cops! Cops! Cheese it! Beat it!”
+At that moment, as if wading through a pond of molasses, I could hardly
+move, but the next I felt suddenly released and both sides scampered
+off simultaneously. Even the country fellows do creditable work when it
+comes to retreating, more masterly than General Kuropatkin, I might
+say.
+
+I searched for Porcupine who, I found his overgown torn to shreds, was
+wiping his nose. He bled considerably, and his nose having swollen was
+a sight. My clothes were pretty well massed with dirt, but I had not
+suffered quite as much damage as Porcupine. I felt pain in my cheek and
+as Porcupine said, it bled some.
+
+About sixteen police officers arrived at the scene but, all the
+students having beat it in opposite directions, all they were able to
+catch were Porcupine and me. We gave them our names and explained the
+whole story. The officers requested us to follow them to the police
+station which we did, and after stating to the chief of police what had
+happened, we returned home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The next morning on awakening I felt pains all over my body, due, I
+thought, to having had no fight for a long time. This is not creditable
+to my fame as regards fighting, so I thought while in bed, when the old
+lady brought me a copy of the Shikoku Shimbun. I felt so weak as to
+need some effort even reaching for the paper. But what should be man so
+easily upset by such a trifling affair,—so I forced myself to turn in
+bed, and, opening its second page, I was surprised. There was the whole
+story of the fight of yesterday in print. Not that I was surprised by
+the news of the fight having been published, but it said that one
+teacher Hotta of the Middle School and one certain saucy Somebody,
+recently from Tokyo, of the same institution, not only started this
+trouble by inciting the students, but were actually present at the
+scene of the trouble, directing the students and engaged themselves
+against the students of the Normal School. On top of this, something of
+the following effect was added.
+
+“The Middle School in this prefecture has been an object of admiration
+by all other schools for its good and ideal behavior. But since this
+long-cherished honor has been sullied by these two irresponsible
+persons, and this city made to suffer the consequent indignity, we have
+to bring the perpetrators to full account. We trust that before we take
+any step in this matter, the authorities will have those ‘toughs’
+properly punished, barring them forever from our educational circles.”
+
+All the types were italicized, as if they meant to administer
+typographical chastisement upon us. “What the devil do I care!” I
+shouted, and up I jumped out of bed. Strange to say, the pain in my
+joints became tolerable.
+
+I rolled up the newspaper and threw it into the garden. Not satisfied,
+I took that paper to the cesspool and dumped it there. Newspapers tell
+such reckless lies. There is nothing so adept, I believe, as the
+newspaper in circulating lies. It has said what I should have said. And
+what does it mean by “one saucy Somebody who is recently from Tokyo?”
+Is there any one in this wide world with the name of Somebody? Don’t
+forget, I have a family and personal name of my own which I am proud
+of. If they want to look at my family-record, they will bow before
+every one of my ancestors from Mitsunaka Tada down. Having washed my
+face, my cheek began suddenly smarting. I asked the old lady for a
+mirror, and she asked if I had read the paper of this morning. “Yes,” I
+said, “and dumped it in the cesspool; go and pick it up if you want
+it,”—and she withdrew with a startled look. Looking in the mirror, I
+saw bruises on my cheek. Mine is a precious face to me. I get my face
+bruised, and am called a saucy Somebody as if I were nobody. That is
+enough.
+
+It will be a reflection on my honor to the end of my days if it is said
+that I shunned the public gaze and kept out of the school on account of
+the write-up in the paper. So, after the breakfast, I attended the
+school ahead of all. One after the other, all coming to the school
+would grin at my face. What is there to laugh about! This face is my
+own, gotten up, I am sure, without the least obligation on their part.
+By and by, Clown appeared.
+
+“Ha, heroic action yesterday. Wounds of honor, eh?”
+
+He made this sarcastic remark, I suppose, in revenge for the knock he
+received on his head from me at the farewell dinner.
+
+“Cut out nonsense; you get back there and suck your old drawing
+brushes!” Then he answered “that was going some,” and enquired if it
+pained much?
+
+“Pain or no pain, this is my face. That’s none of your business,” I
+snapped back in a furious temper. Then Clown took his seat on the other
+side, and still keeping his eye on me, whispered and laughed with the
+teacher of history next to him.
+
+Then came Porcupine. His nose had swollen and was purple,—it was a
+tempting object for a surgeon’s knife. His face showed far worse (is it
+my conceit that make this comparison?) than mine. I and Porcupine are
+chums with desks next to each other, and moreover, as ill-luck would
+have it, the desks are placed right facing the door. Thus were two
+strange faces placed together. The other fellows, when in want of
+something to divert them, would gaze our way with regularity. They say
+“too bad,” but they are surely laughing in their minds as “ha, these
+fools!” If that is not so, there is no reason for their whispering
+together and grinning like that. In the class room, the boys clapped
+their hands when I entered; two or three of them banzaied. I could not
+tell whether it was an enthusiastic approval or open insult. While I
+and Porcupine were thus being made the cynosures of the whole school,
+Red Shirt came to me as usual.
+
+“Too bad, my friend; I am very sorry indeed for you gentlemen,” he said
+in a semi-apologetic manner. “I’ve talked with the principal in regard
+to the story in the paper, and have arranged to demand that the paper
+retract the report, so you needn’t worry on that score. You were
+plunged into the trouble because my brother invited Mr. Hotta, and I
+don’t know how I can apologize you. I’m going to do my level best in
+this matter; you gentlemen please depend on that.” At the third hour
+recess the principal came out of his room, and seemed more or less
+perturbed, saying, “The paper made a bad mess of it, didn’t it? I hope
+the matter will not become serious.”
+
+As to anxiety, I have none. If they propose to relieve me, I intend to
+tender my resignation before I get fired,—that’s all. However, if I
+resign with no fault on my part, I would be simply giving the paper
+advantage. I thought it proper to make the paper take back what it had
+said, and stick to my position. I was going to the newspaper office to
+give them a piece of my mind on my way back but having been told that
+the school had already taken steps to have the story retracted, I did
+not.
+
+Porcupine and I saw the principal and Red Shirt at a convenient hour,
+giving them a faithful version of the incident. The principal and Red
+Shirt agreed that the incident must have been as we said and that the
+paper bore some grudge against the school and purposely published such
+a story. Red Shirt made a round of personal visits on each teacher in
+the room, defending and explaining our action in the affair.
+Particularly he dwelt upon the fact that his brother invited Porcupine
+and it was his fault. All teachers denounced the paper as infamous and
+agreed that we two deserved sympathy.
+
+On our way home, Porcupine warned me that Red Shirt smelt suspicious,
+and we would be done unless we looked out. I said he had been smelling
+some anyway,—it was not necessarily so just from to-day. Then he said
+that it was his trick to have us invited and mixed in the fight
+yesterday,—“Aren’t you on to that yet?” Well, I was not. Porcupine was
+quite a Grobian but he was endowed, I was impressed, with a better
+brain than I.
+
+“He made us mix into the trouble, and slipped behind and contrived to
+have the paper publish the story. What a devil!”
+
+“Even the newspaper in the band wagon of Red Shirt? That surprises me.
+But would the paper listen to Red Shirt so easily?”
+
+“Wouldn’t it, though. Darn easy thing if one has friends in the
+paper.”[P]
+
+“Has he any?”
+
+“Suppose he hasn’t, still that’s easy. Just tell lies and say such and
+such are facts, and the paper will take it up.”
+
+“A startling revelation, this. If that was really a trick of Red Shirt,
+we’re likely to be discharged on account of this affair.”
+
+“Quite likely we may be discharged.”
+
+“Then I’ll tender my resignation tomorrow, and back to Tokyo I go. I am
+sick of staying in such a wretched hole.”
+
+“Your resignation wouldn’t make Red Shirt squeal.”
+
+“That’s so. How can he be made to squeal?”
+
+“A wily guy like him always plots not to leave any trace behind, and it
+would be difficult to follow his track.”
+
+“What a bore! Then we have to stand in a false light, eh? Damn it! I
+call all kinds of god to witness if this is just and right!”
+
+“Let’s wait for two or three days and see how it turns out. And if we
+can’t do anything else, we will have to catch him at the hot springs
+town.”
+
+“Leaving this fight affair a separate case?”
+
+“Yes. We’ll have to his hit weak spot with our own weapon.”
+
+“That may be good. I haven’t much to say in planning it out; I leave it
+to you and will do anything at your bidding.”
+
+I parted from Porcupine then. If Red Shirt was really instrumental in
+bringing us two into the trouble as Porcupine supposed, he certainly
+deserves to be called down. Red Shirt outranks us in brainy work. And
+there is no other course open but to appeal to physical force. No
+wonder we never see the end of war in the world. Among individuals, it
+is, after all, the question of superiority of the fist.
+
+Next day I impatiently glanced over the paper, the arrival of which I
+had been waiting with eagerness, but not a correction of the news or
+even a line of retraction could be found. I pressed the matter on
+Badger when I went to the school, and he said it might probably appear
+tomorrow. On that “tomorrow” a line of retraction was printed in tiny
+types. But the paper did not make any correction of the story. I called
+the attention of Badger to the fact, and he replied that that was about
+all that could be done under the circumstance. The principal, with the
+face like a badger and always swaggering, is surprisingly, wanting in
+influence. He has not even as much power as to bring down a country
+newspaper, which had printed a false story. I was so thoroughly
+indignant that I declared I would go alone to the office and see the
+editor-in-chief on the subject, but Badger said no.
+
+“If you go there and have a blowup with the editor,” he continued, “it
+would only mean of your being handed out worse stuff in the paper
+again. Whatever is published in a paper, right or wrong, nothing can be
+done with it.” And he wound up with a remark that sounded like a piece
+of sermon by a Buddhist bonze that “We must be contented by speedily
+despatching the matter from our minds and forgetting it.”
+
+If newspapers are of that character, it would be beneficial for us all
+to have them suspended,—the sooner the better. The similarity of the
+unpleasant sensation of being written-up in a paper and being
+bitten-down by a turtle became plain for the first time by the
+explanation of Badger.
+
+About three days afterward, Porcupine came to me excited, and said that
+the time has now come, that he proposes to execute that thing we had
+planned out. Then I will do so, I said, and readily agreed to join him.
+But Porcupine jerked his head, saying that I had better not. I asked
+him why, and he asked if I had been requested by the principal to
+tender my resignation. No, I said, and asked if he had. He told me that
+he was called by the principal who was very, very sorry for him but
+under the circumstance requested him to decide to resign.
+
+“That isn’t fair. Badger probably had been pounding his belly-drum too
+much and his stomach is upside down,” I said, “you and I went to the
+celebration, looked at the glittering sword dance together, and jumped
+into the fight together to stop it. Wasn’t it so? If he wants you to
+tender your resignation, he should be impartial and should have asked
+me to also. What makes everything in the country school so dull-head.
+This is irritating!”
+
+“That’s wire-pulling by Red Shirt,” he said. “I and Red Shirt cannot go
+along together, but they think you can be left as harmless.”
+
+“I wouldn’t get along with that Red Shirt either. Consider me harmless,
+eh? They’re getting too gay with me.”
+
+“You’re so simple and straight that they think they can handle you in
+any old way.”
+
+“Worse still. I wouldn’t get along with him, I tell you.”
+
+“Besides, since the departure of Koga, his successor has not arrived.
+Furthermore, if they fire me and you together, there will be blank
+spots in the schedule hours at the school.”
+
+“Then they expect me to play their game. Darn the fellow! See if they
+can make me.”
+
+On going to the school next day I made straightway for the room of the
+principal and started firing;
+
+“Why don’t you ask me to put in my resignation?” I said.
+
+“Eh?” Badger stared blankly.
+
+“You requested Hotta to resign, but not me. Is that right?”
+
+“That is on account of the condition of the school……”
+
+“That condition is wrong, I dare say. If I don’t have to resign, there
+should be no necessity for Hotta to resign either.”
+
+“I can’t offer a detailed explanation about that……as to Hotta, it
+cannot be helped if he goes…… ……we see no need of your resigning.”
+
+Indeed, he is a badger. He jabbers something, dodging the point, but
+appears complacent. So I had to say:
+
+“Then, I will tender my resignation. You might have thought that I
+would remain peacefully while Mr. Hotta is forced to resign, but I
+cannot do it.”
+
+“That leaves us in a bad fix. If Hotta goes away and you follow him, we
+can’t teach mathematics here.”
+
+“None of my business if you can’t.”
+
+“Say, don’t be so selfish. You ought to consider the condition of the
+school. Besides, if it is said that you resigned within one month of
+starting a new job, it would affect your record in the future. You
+should consider that point also.”
+
+“What do I care about my record. Obligation is more important than
+record.”
+
+“That’s right. What you say is right, but be good enough to take our
+position into consideration. If you insist on resigning, then resign,
+but please stay until we get some one to take your place. At any rate,
+think the matter over once more, please.”
+
+The reason was so plain as to discourage any attempt to think it over,
+but as I took some pity on Badger whose face reddened or paled
+alternately as he spoke, I withdrew on the condition that I would think
+the matter over. I did not talk with Red Shirt. If I have to land him
+one, it was better, I thought, to have it bunched together and make it
+hot and strong.
+
+I acquainted Porcupine with the details of my meeting with Badger. He
+said he had expected it to be about so, and added that the matter of
+resignation can be left alone without causing me any embarrassment
+until the time comes. So I followed his advice. Porcupine appears
+somewhat smarter than I, and I have decided to accept whatever advices
+he may give.
+
+Porcupine finally tendered his resignation, and having bidden farewell
+of all the fellow teachers, went down to Minato-ya on the beach. But he
+stealthily returned to the hot springs town, and having rented a front
+room upstairs of Masuya, started peeping through the hole he fingered
+out in the shoji. I am the only person who knows of this. If Red Shirt
+comes round, it would be night anyway, and as he is liable to be seen
+by students or some others during the early part in the evening, it
+would surely be after nine. For the first two nights, I was on the
+watch till about 11 o’clock, but no sight of Red Shirt was seen. On the
+third night, I kept peeping through from nine to ten thirty, but he did
+not come. Nothing made me feel more like a fool than returning to the
+boarding house at midnight after a fruitless watch. In four or five
+days, our old lady began worrying about me and advised me to quit night
+prowling,—being married. My night prowling is different from that kind
+of night prowling. Mine is that of administering a deserved
+chastisement. But then, when no encouragement is in sight after one
+week, it becomes tiresome. I am quick tempered, and get at it with all
+zeal when my interest is aroused, and would sit up all night to work it
+out, but I have never shone in endurance. However loyal a member of the
+heavenly-chastisement league I may be, I cannot escape monotony. On the
+sixth night I was a little tired, and on the seventh thought I would
+quit. Porcupine, however, stuck to it with bull-dog tenacity. From
+early in the evening up to past twelve, he would glue his eye to the
+shoji and keep steadily watching under the gas globe of Kadoya. He
+would surprise me, when I come into the room, with figures showing how
+many patrons there were to-day, how many stop-overs and how many women,
+etc. Red Shirt seems never to be coming, I said, and he would fold his
+arms, audibly sighing, “Well, he ought to.” If Red Shirt would not come
+just for once, Porcupine would be deprived of the chance of handing out
+a deserved and just punishment.
+
+I left my boarding house about 7 o’clock on the eighth night and after
+having enjoyed my bath, I bought eight raw eggs. This would counteract
+the attack of sweet potatoes by the old lady. I put the eggs into my
+right and left pockets, four in each, with the same old red towel hung
+over my shoulder, my hands inside my coat, went to Masuya. I opened the
+shoji of the room and Porcupine greeted me with his Idaten-like face
+suddenly radiant, saying:
+
+“Say, there’s hope! There’s hope!” Up to last night, he had been
+downcast, and even I felt gloomy. But at his cheerful countenance, I
+too became cheerful, and before hearing anything, I cried, “Hooray!
+Hooray!”
+
+“About half past seven this evening,” he said, “that geisha named
+Kosuzu has gone into Kadoya.”
+
+“With Red Shirt?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“That’s no good then.”
+
+“There were two geishas……seems to me somewhat hopeful.”
+
+“How?”
+
+“How? Why, the sly old fox is likely to send his girls ahead[Q], and
+sneak round behind later.”
+
+“That may be the case. About nine now, isn’t it?”
+
+“About twelve minutes past nine,” said he, pulling out a watch with a
+nickel case, “and, say put out the light. It would be funny to have two
+silhouettes of bonze heads on the shoji. The fox is too ready to
+suspect.”
+
+I blew out the lamp which stood upon the lacquer-enameled table. The
+shoji alone was dimly plain by the star light. The moon has not come up
+yet. I and Porcupine put our faces close to the shoji, watching almost
+breathless. A wall clock somewhere rang half past nine.
+
+“Say, will he come to-night, do you think? If he doesn’t show up, I
+quit.”
+
+“I’m going to keep this up while my money lasts.”
+
+“Money? How much have you?”
+
+“I’ve paid five yen and sixty sen up to to-day for eight days. I pay my
+bill every night, so I can jump out anytime.”
+
+“That’s well arranged. The people of this hotel must have been rather
+put out, I suppose.”
+
+“That’s all right with the hotel; only I can’t take my mind off the
+house.”
+
+“But you take some sleep in daytime.”
+
+“Yes, I take a nap, but it’s nuisance because I can’t go out.”
+
+“Heavenly chastisement is a hard job, I’m sure,” I said. “If he gives
+us the slip after giving us such trouble, it would have been a
+thankless task.”
+
+“Well, I’m sure he will come to-night…—… Look, look!” His voice changed
+to whisper and I was alert in a moment. A fellow with a black hat
+looked up at the gas light of Kadoya and passed on into the darkness.
+No, it was not Red Shirt. Disappointing, this! Meanwhile the clock at
+the office below merrily tinkled off ten. It seems to be another bum
+watch to-night.
+
+The streets everywhere had become quiet. The drum playing in the
+tenderloin reached our ears distinctively. The moon had risen from
+behind the hills of the hot springs. It is very light outside. Then
+voices were heard below. We could not poke our heads out of the window,
+so were unable to see the owners of the voices, but they were evidently
+coming nearer. The dragging of komageta (a kind of wooden footwear) was
+heard. They approached so near we could see their shadows.
+
+“Everything is all right now. We’ve got rid of the stumbling block.” It
+was undoubtedly the voice of Clown.
+
+“He only glories in bullying but has no tact.” This from Red Shirt.
+
+“He is like that young tough, isn’t he? Why, as to that young tough, he
+is a winsome, sporty Master Darling.”
+
+“I don’t want my salary raised, he says, or I want to tender
+resignation,—I’m sure something is wrong with his nerves.”
+
+I was greatly inclined to open the window, jump out of the second story
+and make them see more stars than they cared to, but I restrained
+myself with some effort. The two laughed, and passed below the gas
+light, and into Kadoya.
+
+“Say.”
+
+“Well.”
+
+“He’s here.”
+
+“Yes, he has come at last.”
+
+“I feel quite easy now.”
+
+“Damned Clown called me a sporty Master Darling.”
+
+“The stumbling[R] block means me. Hell!”
+
+I and Porcupine had to waylay them on their return. But we knew no more
+than the man in the moon when they would come out. Porcupine went down
+to the hotel office, notifying them to the probability of our going out
+at midnight, and requesting them to leave the door unfastened so we
+could get out anytime. As I think about it now, it is wonderful how the
+hotel people complied with our request. In most cases, we would have
+been taken for burglars.
+
+It was trying to wait for the coming of Red Shirt, but it was still
+more trying to wait for his coming out again. We could not go to sleep,
+nor could we remain with our faces stuck to the shoji all the time our
+minds constantly in a state of feverish agitation. In all my life, I
+never passed such fretful, mortifying hours. I suggested that we had
+better go right into his room and catch him but Porcupine rejected the
+proposal outright. If we get in there at this time of night, we are
+likely to be prevented from preceding much further, he said, and if we
+ask to see him, they will either answer that he is not there or will
+take us into a different room. Supposing we do break into a room, we
+cannot tell of all those many rooms, where we can find him. There is no
+other way but to wait for him to come out, however tiresome it may be.
+So we sat up till five in the morning.
+
+The moment we saw them emerging from Kadoya, I and Porcupine followed
+them. It was some time before the first train started and they had to
+walk up to town. Beyond the limit of the hot springs town, there is a
+road for about one block running through the rice fields, both sides of
+which are lined with cedar trees. Farther on are thatch-roofed farm
+houses here and there, and then one comes upon a dyke leading straight
+to the town through the fields. We can catch them anywhere outside the
+town, but thinking it would be better to get them, if possible, on the
+road lined with cedar trees where we may not be seen by others, we
+followed them cautiously. Once out of the town limit, we darted on a
+double-quick time, and caught up with them. Wondering what was coming
+after them, they turned back, and we grabbed their shoulders. We cried,
+“Wait!” Clown, greatly rattled, attempted to escape, but I stepped in
+front of him to cut off his retreat.
+
+“What makes one holding the job of a head teacher stay over night at
+Kadoya!” Porcupine directly fired the opening gun.
+
+“Is there any rule that a head teacher should not stay over night at
+Kadoya?” Red Shirt met the attack in a polite manner. He looked a
+little pale.
+
+“Why the one who is so strict as to forbid others from going even to
+noodle house or dango shop as unbecoming to instructors, stayed over
+night at a hotel with a geisha!”
+
+Clown was inclined to run at the first opportunity; so kept I before
+him.
+
+“What’s that Master Darling of a young tough!” I roared.
+
+“I didn’t mean you. Sir. No, Sir, I didn’t mean you, sure.” He insisted
+on this brazen excuse. I happened to notice at that moment that I had
+held my pockets with both hands. The eggs in both pockets jerked so
+when I ran, that I had been holding them. I thrust my hand into the
+pocket, took out two and dashed them on the face of Clown. The eggs
+crushed, and from the tip of his nose the yellow streamed down. Clown
+was taken completely surprised, and uttering a hideous cry, he fell
+down on the ground and begged for mercy. I had bought those eggs to
+eat, but had not carried them for the purpose of making “Irish
+Confetti” of them. Thoroughly roused, in the moment of passion, I had
+dashed them at him before I knew what I was doing. But seeing Clown
+down and finding my hand grenade successful, I banged the rest of the
+eggs on him, intermingled with “Darn you, you sonovagun!” The face of
+Clown was soaked in yellow.
+
+While I was bombarding Clown with the eggs, Porcupine was firing at
+Red[S] Shirt.
+
+“Is there any evidence that I stayed there over night with a geisha?”
+
+“I saw your favorite old chicken go there early in the evening, and am
+telling you so. You can’t fool me!”
+
+“No need for us of fooling anybody. I stayed there with Mr. Yoshikawa,
+and whether any geisha had gone there early in the evening or not,
+that’s none of my business.”
+
+“Shut up!” Porcupine wallopped him one. Red Shirt tottered.
+
+“This is outrageous! It is rough to resort to force before deciding the
+right or wrong of it!”
+
+“Outrageous indeed!” Another clout. “Nothing but wallopping will be
+effective on you scheming guys.” The remark was followed by a shower of
+blows. I soaked Clown at the same time, and made him think he saw the
+way to the Kingdom-Come. Finally the two crawled and crouched at the
+foot of a cedar tree, and either from inability to move or to see,
+because their eyes had become hazy, they did not even attempt to break
+away.
+
+“Want more? If so, here goes some more!” With that we gave him more
+until he cried enough. “Want more? You?” we turned to Clown, and he
+answered “Enough, of course.”
+
+“This is the punishment of heaven on you grovelling wretches. Keep this
+in your head and be more careful hereafter. You can never talk down
+justice.”
+
+The two said nothing. They were so thoroughly cowed that they could not
+speak.
+
+“I’m going to neither run away nor hide. You’ll find me at Minato-ya
+on the beach up to five this evening. Bring police officers or any old
+thing you want,” said Porcupine.
+
+“I’m not going to run away or hide either. Will wait for you at the
+same place with Hotta. Take the case to the police station if you like,
+or do as you damn please,” I said, and we two walked our own way.
+
+It was a little before seven when I returned to my room. I started
+packing as soon as I was in the room, and the astonished old lady asked
+me what I was trying to do. I’m going to Tokyo to fetch my Madam, I
+said, and paid my bill. I boarded a train and came to Minato-ya on the
+beach and found Porcupine asleep upstairs. I thought of writing my
+resignation, but not knowing how, just scribbled off that “because of
+personal affairs, I have to resign and return, to Tokyo. Yours truly,”
+and addressed and mailed it to the principal.
+
+The steamer leaves the harbor at six in the evening. Porcupine and I,
+tired out, slept like logs, and when we awoke it was two o’clock. We
+asked the maid if the police had called on us, and she said no. Red
+Shirt and Clown had not taken it to the police, eh? We laughed.
+
+That night I and Porcupine left the town. The farther the vessel
+steamed away from the shore, the more refreshed we felt. From Kobe to
+Tokyo we boarded a through train and when we made Shimbashi, we
+breathed as if we were once more in congenial human society. I parted
+from Porcupine at the station, and have not had the chance of meeting
+him since.
+
+I forgot to tell you about Kiyo. On my arrival at Tokyo, I rushed into
+her house swinging my valise, before going to a hotel, with “Hello,
+Kiyo, I’m back!”
+
+“How good of you to return so soon!” she cried and hot tears streamed
+down her cheeks. I was overjoyed, and declared that I would not go to
+the country any more but would start housekeeping with Kiyo in Tokyo.
+
+Some time afterward, some one helped me to a job as assistant engineer
+at the tram car office. The salary was 25 yen a month, and the house
+rent six. Although the house had not a magnificent front entrance, Kiyo
+seemed quite satisfied, but, I am sorry to say, she was a victim of
+pneumonia and died in February this year. On the day preceding her
+death, she asked me to bedside, and said, “Please, Master Darling, if
+Kiyo is dead, bury me in the temple yard of Master Darling. I will be
+glad to wait in the grave for my Master Darling.”
+
+So Kiyo’s grave is in the Yogen temple at Kobinata.
+
+—(THE END)—
+
+
+[A: Insitent]
+
+[B: queershaped]
+
+[C: The original just had the Japanese character, Unicode U+5927, sans
+description]
+
+[D: aweinspiring]
+
+[E: about about]
+
+[F: atomosphere]
+
+[G: Helloo]
+
+[H: you go]
+
+[I: goo-goo eyes]
+
+[J: proper hyphenation unknown]
+
+[K: pin-princking]
+
+[L: Procupine]
+
+[M: celabration]
+
+[N: wans’t]
+
+[O: paper.]
+
+[P: girl shead]
+
+[Q: stumblieg]
+
+[R: Rad]
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOTCHAN (MASTER DARLING) ***
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