St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-02-22
LETTER FROn JAPAN.
peturn Of a Vermont Girl thither.


letter describing her return to her
missionary work in Japan.
Our voyage Of thirteen days was on
the whole more comfortable than we
expected. We had no storm, but two
days of very heavy rolling, when one
could do little but stick to ones berth.
We had at least three days of very
smooth sailing. The boat that came in
November, the one we intended to take,
had the toughest passage in the expert
ence OF the captain, another reason for
being thankful for our delay. We an
chored in the bay of Yokohama at eight
o'clock on Monday morning, Dec. 10;
we reached home Dec. %, just month
and a day after leaving Peacham.
We did not expect to be able to leave
Yokohama before Wednesday, but the
weather was so fine we just hustled, to
use an American phrase, and by ten
o'clock Tuesday morning were in the
railroad station ready to start north
ward. We went to Maebashi that day, a
distance OF somewhat more than hun
dred miles. Miss Griswold was at the
station to meet us and we were soon
under the roof which she now shares with
Miss Parmalee. The Albrecht family
are close by. Mr.. Albrecht was out on
A trip when we arrived, but soon came
in and reported the Echigo Mountains
already white with snow. Maebashi
was much colder than Yokohama. Iwish
YOU could have been with us that morn
ing on the way up from the sea. 1t was
mild and bright, the fields green with
vegetables and winter wheat, the pictur-
esque houses, the gardens, the trees and
everything made us feel as if we were
indeed "in the land of the gods" The
farther north and inland we went the
more bleak and bare looked the fields.
At Maebashi we found Miss Griswod
rejoicing in her work there, but she has
had trials enough over her worldly pos
sessions" to try the patience Of two
saints. She said she had been laughing
all the fall at each new phase of her mis-
fortunes, but she was now getting almost
beyond the laughing point. The trunks
with which she set out from home, with
all her clothes were left behind in Van
couver, and so far she has been unable to
get hold of them. Her goods that were
packed in Kumamoto were some OF them
so smashed as to be utterly worthless
and her boxes of books are in Kobe, be-
cause the rats ate off the labels and hers
are not to be distinguished from Miss
Sulick's until somebody can open and
attend to them. Her bicycle which Mr..
Pedley ordered for her was packed with
mine and sent to Niigata, while his went
to her. She finally got her own after all
the good riding weather was past for the
season.
We had fine visit over night and left
for the train at half past eight. The sun
was shining, but it was cold, the coolest
of the season, they said, and we could see
some pretty black clouds off in the di-
rection of our Echigo Mountains. We
Travelled until about one o'clock without
special incident. Then we began to wait
for trains coming from the opposite
direction. At five O'Clock we were an
hour late, and after waiting sometime in
the train at Magano were told to get
out as that train would go no farther.
1t would go back to Tokyo because the
train that should be there was late on
account of the snow between there and
Naoetsu, a ride of about three hours.
We got out went to tea house near by,
got warmed up under Kotatsu (hole in
the floor filled with Goals and quilt
thrown over) fed the baby, ate some
lunch ourselves, and by that time the
belated train was in and ready to start
back over the same road. We were due
in Naoetsu ION the Japan sea) at
seven. We arrived about nine, having
ridden through three or four feet of snow
at the highest point of land. At the sea
we found only a little snow on the
ground, driving sleet and snow, and a
wind that seemed to cut through every
thing.
The big japanese hotel, where we al
ways stop close by the station, was full
and running over. They could not pos
sibly put us up, but they had branch
house in another part of the town one
mile away where we could go. We were
dismayed at the thought, for the roads
were frig htful, but there was no help for
it. Our mourning was turned to Joy
when we discovered that the Echigo
railroad station was next door to our
stopping place so there was no riding
next morning. We finally got into bed
about eleven, the wind bowling around
the house rafting doors and windows
and blowing our hair.
We left by train next morning at eight
and made the distance in an hour and a
half that on our wedding journey five
years ago, it took from nine a. m. till
five p. m. to accomplish in jnriksha.
The train runs along the coast. At
Kashiwazaki we found considerable
snow and more falling. We had come
right in the middle of the first snow
storm of the season. We rode that day
from eleven o'clock until six in jinrkisha
...rl,