bout one foot long, five inches wide and eight
inches high. A pillow filled with cut rye straw and covered with
several sheets of rice paper isn't so bad, though I should prefer my
good goose feather pillows. The Japanese are exceedingly neat and
clean; they could teach needed lessons to the poorer classes in
America.

We one day made an excursion twenty milds on the Tokiado, the great
highway of Japan. It is broad and smooth; five hundred miles long, and
follers the coast. Part of the way we went with horses, and little
side trips into the country wuz made with jinrikishas. Quaint little
villages wuz on each side of the road, and many shrines on the
waysides. That day we see the famous temple of Diabutsu with its
colossal bronze idol. It wuz fifty feet high and eighty-seven feet
round. The eyes three feet and a half wide. One thumb is three and a
half feet round. He seemed to be settin' on his feet.

A widder and a priest wuz kneelin' in front of this idol. The priest
held in one hand a rope and anon he would jerk out melancholy sounds
from a big bronze bell over his head. In his other hand he held some
little pieces of wood and paper with prayers printed on 'em. As he
would read 'em off he would lay one down on the floor, and the widder
would give him some money every time. I thought that wuz jest about
where the prayers went, down on the floor; they never riz higher, I
don't believe.

Josiah wuz kinder took with 'em, and sez he, "How handy that would be,
Samantha, if a man wuz diffident, and every man, no matter how bashful
he is, has more or less wood chips in his back yard. Sometimes I feel
diffident, Samantha."

But I sez, "I don't want any wooden prayers offered for me, Josiah
Allen, and," sez I, "that seen shows jest how widders are imposed
upon."

"Well," sez he, "she no need to dickered with the priest for 'em if
she hadn't wanted to."

And I did wish that that little widder had known about the One ever
present, ever living God, who has promised to comfort the widder, be a
father to the orphan, and wipe away all tears.

But the Sunrise Land is waking up, there is a bright light in the
East:

In the beauty of the lilies Christ is born acrost the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me.

With the sweet gentleness and amiable nater of the Japans what will
not the divine religion of the Lord Jesus do for them? It will be
plantin' seed in good ground that will spring up a hu