far side,
and found ourselves mixed up with half a mile of lumber-yard.

Cultivation and water-cuts were gone, and our tireless 'rickshaws were
running by the side of a broad, shallow river, choked with logs of every
size. I am prepared to believe anything of the Japanese, but I do not
see why Nature, which they say is the same pitiless Power all the world
over, should send them their logs unsplintered by rocks, neatly barked,
and with a slot neatly cut at the end of each pole for the reception of
a rope, I have seen timber fly down the Ravi in spate, and it was hooked
out as ragged as a tooth-brush. This material comes down clean.
Consequently the slot is another miracle.

"When the day is fine," said the guide, softly, "all the people of Kioto
come to Arashima to have picnics."

"But they are always having picnics in the cherry-tree gardens. They
picnic in the tea-houses. They--they--"

"Yes, when it is a fine day, they always go somewhere and picnic."

"But why? Man isn't made to picnic."

"But why? Because it is a fine day. Englishmen say that the money of the
Japanese comes from heaven, because they always do nothing--so you
think. But look now, here is a pretty place."

The river charged down a turn in the pine-grown hills, and broke in
silver upon the timber and the remains of a light bridge washed away
some days before. On our side, and arranged so as to face the fairest
view of the young maples, stood a row of tea-houses and booths built
over the stream. The sunlight that could not soften the gloom of the
pines dwelt tenderly among the green of the maples and touched the
reaches below where the cherry blossom broke in pink foam against the
black-roofed houses of a village across the water.

There I stopped.

No. XVI

THE PARTY IN THE PARLOUR WHO PLAYED GAMES. A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ALL
MODERN JAPANESE ART; A SURVEY OF THE PAST, AND A PROPHECY OF THE FUTURE,
ARRANGED AND COMPOSED IN THE KIOTO FACTORIES.

"Oh, brave new world that has such creatures in it,
How beautiful mankind is!"

How I got to the tea-house I cannot tell. Perhaps a pretty girl waved a
bough of cherry blossom at me, and I followed the invitation. I know
that I sprawled upon the mats and watched the clouds scudding across the
hills and the logs flying down the rapids, and smelt the smell of the
raw peeled timber, and listened to the grunts of the boatmen as they
wrestled with that and the rush of the river, and was