age aboard it leaves me but one brief day
in the important and interesting city of Shanghai, during which time I
have to purchase a new outfit of clothes, see about money matters, and
what not.

CHAPTER XIX.

THROUGH JAPAN.

An uneventful run of two days, and the Yokohama Maru steams into the
beautiful harbor of Nagasaki. The change from the filth of a Chinese city
to Nagasaki, clean as if it had all just been newly scoured and
varnished, is something delightful. One gets a favorable impression of
the Japs right away; much more so, doubtless, by coming direct from China
than in any other way. Two days of preparation and looking about leaves
almost a pang of regret at having to depart so soon. The American consul
here, Mr. B, is a very courteous gentleman; to him and Mr. M, an American
gentleman, instructor in the Chinese navy, I am indebted for an
exhibition of the geisha dance, and many other courtesies.

Having duly supplied myself with Japanese paper-money--ten, five, and one
yen notes; fractional currency of fifty, twenty, and ten sen notes,
besides copper sen for tea and fruit at road-side teahouses, on Tuesday
morning, November 23d, I start on my journey of eight hundred miles
through lovely Nippon to Yokohama.

Captain F and Mr. B, the American consul, have come to the hotel to see
me off. A showery night has made the roads a trifle muddy. Through the
long, neat-looking streets of Nagasaki, into a winding road, past crowded
hill-side cemeteries, adorned with queer stunted trees and quaint designs
in flowers, I ride, followed by wondering eyes and a running fire of
curious comments from the Japs.

Nagasaki lies at the shoreward base of a range of hills, over a pass
called the Himi-toge, which my road climbs immediately upon leaving the
city. A good road is maintained over the pass, and an office established
there to collect toll from travellers and people bringing produce into
Nagasaki. The aged and polite toll-collector smiles and bows at me as I
trundle innocently past his sentry-box-like office up the steep incline,
hoping that I may take the hint and spare him the necessity of telling me
the nature of his duty. My inexperience of Japanese tolls and roads,
however, renders his politeness inoperative, and, after allowing me to
get past, duty compels him to issue forth and explain. A wooden ticket
containing Japanese characters is given me in exchange for a few tiny
coins. This I fancy to be a passpo