ough the lady's face had not
escaped being made to look slightly Japanese. The child held a toy, and
had a regular shock head of hair. The frizzed hair of many foreign
children appeared very odd to Yoshi-san. He thought their mothers must
be very unkind not to take the little "western men" more often to the
barber's. He complacently compared the neatness of his own shaven crown
and tidily-clipped and gummed side-locks.

Being tired of standing, the old Grandmother told her grandson they
would go and listen to a recital at the story-teller's. Leaving their
wooden shoes in a pigeon-hole for that purpose, they joined an attentive
throng of some twenty listeners seated on mats in a dimly-lighted room.
Yoshi could not make out all the tale-teller said, but he liked to watch
him toy with his fan as he introduced his listeners to the characters of
his story. Then the story-teller would hold his fan like a rod of
command, whilst he kept his audience in rapt attention, then sometimes,
amidst the laughter of those present, he would raise his voice to a
shrill whine, and would emphasize a joke by a sharp tap on the table
with his fan. After they had listened to one tale Yoshi-san was sleepy.
So they went and bargained with a man outside who had a carriage like a
small gig with shafts called a "jin-riki-sha."[12] He ran after them to
say he consented to wheel them home the two and a half miles for five
cents.

[12] The _jin-riki-sha_, man-power-carriage, invented in Japan in 1871,
is now used all over the East.

FISHSAVE.

[Illustration]

There was once upon a time a little baby whose father was Japanese
ambassador to the court of China, and whose mother was a Chinese lady.
While this child was still in its infancy the ambassador had to return
to Japan. So he said to his wife, "I swear to remember you and to send
you letters by the ambassador that shall succeed me; and as for our
baby, I will despatch some one to fetch it as soon as it is weaned."
Thus saying he departed.

Well, embassy after embassy came (and there was generally at least a
year between each), but never a letter from the Japanese husband to the
Chinese wife. At last, tired of waiting and of grieving, she took her
boy by the hand, and sorrowfully leading him to the seashore, fastened
round his neck a label bearing the words, "The Japanese ambassador's
child." Then she flung him into the sea in the direction of the Japanese
Archipelago, confident that