Botchan | Page 9

on account of my being slow in the fork over of this "tea
money" that they had huddled me into such a narrow, dark room.
Likewise my shabby clothes and the carpet bags and satin umbrella
must have been accountable for it. Took me for a piker, eh? those
hayseeds! I would give them a knocker with "tea money." I left Tokyo
with about 30 yen in my pocket, which remained from my school
expenses. Taking off the railway and steamship fare, and other
incidental expenses, I had still about 14 yen in my pocket. I could give
them all I had;--what did I care, I was going to get a salary now. All
country folk are tight-wads, and one 5-yen bill would hit them square.
Now watch and see. Having washed myself, I returned to my room and
waited, and the maid of the night before brought in my breakfast.
Waiting on me with a tray, she looked at me with a sort of sulphuric
smile. Rude! Is any parade marching on my face? I should say. Even
my face is far better than that of the maid. I intended of giving "tea
money" after breakfast, but I became disgusted, and taking out one
5-yen bill told her to take it to the office later. The face of the maid
became then shy and awkward. After the meal, I left for the school. The
maid did not have my shoes polished.
I had had vague idea of the direction of the school as I rode to it the
previous day, so turning two or three corners, I came to the front gate.
From the gate to the entrance the walk was paved with granite. When I
had passed to the entrance in the rikisha, this walk made so
outlandishly a loud noise that I had felt coy. On my way to the school, I
met a number of the students in uniforms of cotton drill and they all
entered this gate. Some of them were taller than I and looked much
stronger. When I thought of teaching fellows of this ilk, I was

impressed with a queer sort of uneasiness. My card was taken to the
principal, to whose room I was ushered at once. With scant mustache,
dark-skinned and big-eyed, the principal was a man who looked like a
badger. He studiously assumed an air of superiority, and saying he
would like to see me do my best, handed the note of appointment,
stamped big, in a solemn manner. This note I threw away into the sea
on my way back to Tokyo. He said he would introduce me to all my
fellow teachers, and I was to show to each one of them the note of
appointment. What a bother! It would be far better to stick this note up
in the teachers' room for three days instead of going through such a
monkey process.
The teachers would not be all in the room until the bugle for the first
hour was sounded. There was plenty of time. The principal took out his
watch, and saying that he would acquaint me particularly with the
school by-and-bye, he would only furnish me now with general matters,
and started a long lecture on the spirit of education. For a while I
listened to him with my mind half away somewhere else, but about half
way through his lecture, I began to realize that I should soon be in a
bad fix. I could not do, by any means, all he expected of me. He
expected that I should make myself an example to the students, should
become an object of admiration for the whole school or should exert
my moral influence, besides teaching technical knowledge in order to
become a real educator, or something ridiculously high-sounding. No
man with such admirable qualities would come so far away for only 40
yen a month! Men are generally alike. If one gets excited, one is liable
to fight, I thought, but if things are to be kept on in the way the
principal says, I could hardly open my mouth to utter anything, nor take
a stroll around the place. If they wanted me to fill such an onerous post,
they should have told all that before. I hate to tell a lie; I would give it
up as having been cheated, and get out of this mess like a man there
and then. I had only about 9 yen left in my pocket after tipping the
hotel 5 yen. Nine yen would not take me back to Tokyo. I had better
not have tipped the hotel; what a pity! However, I would be able to
manage it somehow. I considered it better to run short in my return
expenses than to