Lady of the Decoration | Page 7

a
splendid exercise. Well I headed the line and after the girls had
followed me around the room twice I saw that they were convulsed
with laughter! When I asked what was the matter, they explained
between gasps that the step was the principal movement in the heathen
dance given during festivals to the God of Beauty! My saints! Wouldn't
some of my dear brethren do a turn if they knew!
Every afternoon I take about forty of the girls out for a walk. Our
favorite stroll is along the moat that surrounds the old castle. It is
almost always spilling over with lotus blossoms. The maidens, trotting
demurely along in their rain-bow kimonos and little clicking sandals
make a pretty picture. We have to pass the parade grounds of the
barracks where 20,000 soldiers are stationed, and I do wish you could

see them trying to be modest, and yet peeping out of the corners of
their little almond eyes in a way which is not peculiar to any particular
country.
And the way they imitate me makes me afraid to breathe naturally. This
thing of being a shining example is more than I bargained for. It is one
of the few things in my checkered career that I have hitherto escaped.
Never mind Mate, I couldn't be frivolous if I wanted to down here.
Kobe would have proven fatal, for there are many foreigners there, and
the temptation to have a good time would have been too much for me. I
am rapidly developing into a hymn-singing sister, and the world and
the flesh and the devil are shut up in the closet. Let us pray.

October 2nd, 1901.
At last, dear Mate, I am started at my own work with the babies and
there aren't any words to tell you how cunning they are. There are
eighty-five high class children in the pay kindergarten, and forty in the
free. The latter are mostly of the very poor families, most of the
mothers working in the fields or on the railroads. There are so many
pitiful cases that one longs for a mint of money and a dozen hands to
relieve them. One little girl of six comes every day with her blind baby
brother strapped on her back. She is a tiny thing herself and yet that
baby is never unstrapped from her back until night comes. When I first
saw her old weazened face and her eagerness to play, I just took them
both in my lap and cried!
One funny thing I must tell you about. From the first week that I got
here, the children have had a nickname for me. I noticed them laughing
and nudging each other on the street and in the school, and whenever I
passed they raised their right hands in salute, and gave a funny little
clucking sound. They seemed to pass the word from one to another
until every youngster in the neighborhood followed the trick. My
curiosity was aroused to such a pitch that I got an interpreter to
investigate the matter. When he came to report, he smilingly touched
my little enamelled watch, the one Jack gave me on my 16th birthday,
and apologetically informed me that the children thought it was a
decoration from the Emperor and they were saluting me in consequence!
And they have named me "The Lady of the Decoration". Think of it, I
have a title, and I am actually looked up to by these funny yellow

babies as a superior being. They forget it some time though when we
all get to playing together in the yard. We can't talk to each other, but
we can laugh and romp together, and sometimes the fun runs high.
I am busy from morning until night. The two kindergartens, a big
training class in physical culture, two Japanese lessons a day and
prayers about every three minutes, don't leave many spare hours for
homesickness. But the longing is there all the same, and when I see the
big steamers out in the harbor and realize that they are coaling for home,
I just want to steal aboard and stay there.
The language is something awful. I get my tongue in such knots that I
have to use a corkscrew to pull it straight again. Just between you and
me, I have decided to give it up and devote my time to teaching the
girls to speak English instead. They are such responsive, eager little
things, it will not be hard.
As for the country, I wouldn't dare to attempt a description. Sometimes
I just ache with the beauty of it all! From my window I can see in one
group banana, pomegranate, persimmon and fig trees all loaded with
fruit. The roses are