bad
luck in Japan, that no hope was entertained for her, and she was
married, when her time came, with no reference to the greatest match
that any Japanese princess can make. The third daughter was six years
younger than the Prince, so much younger that it was thought that he
would be married long before she grew up, so no special care or
attention was given to her. In her babyhood, like most Japanese babies
of high rank, she was sent out into the country to be nursed. Her foster
parents were plain farmer folk, who loved her and cared for her as their
own child. She played bareheaded and barefooted in the sun and wind,
tumbled about, jolly and happy, with the village children, and lived and
grew like a kitten or a puppy rather than like a future empress until
she was old enough for the kindergarten. Then she came back to
T[=o]ky[=o], to her father's house, and from there she attended the
Peeresses' School, going backward and forward every day with her bundle
of books, and taking her share of the work and play with the other
children. In her school-days she was noticeable for her great physical
activity and her hearty enjoyment of the outdoor sports which form so
important a part of the training in Japanese schools for girls at
present; and for her strength of will and character among a class of
students upon whom self-repression amounting almost to self-abnegation
has been inculcated from earliest childhood.

When this little princess reached the age of fifteen, the Crown Prince's
marriage, which had been somewhat deferred on account of his ill-health,
was pressed forward, and to the extreme surprise of her own family, and
of many others as well, the Princess Sada was chosen, largely on account
of her great physical vigor. Then began a great change in her life. From
being one of the lowest and least considered in her family, she was
suddenly raised high above all the rest, even her father addressing her
as a superior. The merry, romping school-girl was transformed in a few
days into the great lady, too grand to associate on equal terms with any
but the imperial family. Small cause was there for wonder if she shrank
from the change and begged that the honor might be bestowed on some one
else. The old free life was gone forever, and she dreaded the heavy
responsibility that was to fall upon her slender shoulders.

The choice was made in August, 1899, and from the moment that the
engagement was entered into, the Princess