Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-04-15


Now and then, as one presses for
ward, the hut of peasant appears
frail things of easy construction, as
things are apt to be in land where
the earth lies uneasy, and quickly
wrecks the labor of mems hands
when it quivers and shakes.
They are thatched, as rule, with
frameworks into which sliding
screens can be fitted during bad
weather and at night. OF furniture
there is practically none, for the
peasant of Nippon still squatts on
his launches, as he has done for
uncounted generations, and feeds
himself from communal bowl.
What cooking he does is over an
open-air furnace, and when he sleeps
it is on mat laid on the floor back
of the sliding screen, with a wooden
headrest for a pillow.
Travellers along the road may see
the peasant at his daily toll, naked
legged under the wide hat; he wades
IN the bitches of the rice paddles with
bent back. Rising, he stares dumbly
at one as he passes and bends again
to his work with much the same OBJ
servation that dumb brute express
es when it eyes one and drops it's
head.
Cutters and dressers of bamboo
poles gaze out from their little clear
lngs and turn back to their stalks.
Their women work with them or sit
cross legged beside the huts, en-
gagged in their housewife tasks or
tending infants with beady black
eyes.
Higher up one comes across the
charcoal burners, and at night the
kilns glow redly in the dark. Their
smoke marks their location by day.
AND there, too, are the goatherds-
brown, wiry, agile as their charges
whom they range over the hills.
Before hut, well up where the
fir-trees dominate the forest, young
girl sat weaving a mat. Her face was
bent in complete absorption of her
task. Her little fingers darted back
and forth.
She did not see the toiling figure
of a bare-legged coolie which strug-
gled up hill in the road. Had she
done so it is doubtful if she had Civ
en- luch attention, save that she
might have known him for a stran-
ger.
Aside from that there was nothing
to arrest her interest. He wore the
peasant garb of the country and a
wide hat against the heat of the sun.
1t was the shuttle of his approaching
feet which finally lifted her eyes.
The stranger came to a halt and
bowed with extended hands before
her. Greeting, flowerlike one of
Nippon!" he said.
She smiled with a twitch of red
lips. ~ am Shima, daughter of Shi-
koku, the charcoal burner" she made
answer. what does the stranger re-
Quire.
water, little Shima-a drink of
water for thirsty road"
"Sit down, stanger," the girl re-
quested, putting down her mat. She
rose and disappeared into the hut,
from which she returned with a cup
OF porcelain, and extended it to the
other
He drained it and gave it back.
"Thanks, little Shima," he said, smi-
ling. THAT was good-as good and
sweet as thyself. And thy father-is
he about ?"
She placed the cup beside her and
took up her work. "At present he is
at the kilns," she replied. "When the
sun touches the top of the mountain
he will ome"
The stranger nodded From the
body of his costume he drew out to-
bacco and paper and rolled a cigar
cite. He lit it, replaced the smoking
materials, and settled himself stolidly
to wait. Now and then he spoke to
the girl. "Thou weavest excellent
mats, little Shima."
To this she replied with smile.
Cant tell me, little Shima, if it is
true that beyond the mountain top is
a new town where there is much
work for men,"
81 do not know. have heard that
such place is there"
perhaps you know if it is true
that they have built steam road
over the mountains to that place."
"Of that, too, l have heard; but I
do not know" said the girl.
The stranger made another cigar
cite and smoked, squatted on his
hams. The sun dropped slowly in the
heavens. By and by it's rim touched
the top of the mountain and shot
shafts of fire among the frs, flinging
their shadows and tlat of the hut
still farther down the mountainside.
Shima glanced up from her weaving,
iooSy PNhSu up Vic CUP, cauu WSHI llIc
the hut.
She came back presently, Juggling a
small iron pot, in which smouldered
Goals. She added some fuel and blew
the dry sticks into blaze, prepara-
y to getting the evening meal.
The stranger watched her while he
smoked.
From among the red-touched boles
of the fir-trees a figure appeared. 1t
was that of man of some five feet
three. He walked with slight stoop,
SO that he looked not so tall. His
arms were naked and smudged with
black streaks and spots, as was his
face. He wore sparse, iron-gray
beard.
The stranger rose and bowed at
his approach. The newcomer paused
and gravely returned the bow.
"You are Shikoku, the charcoal
burner?" the stranger inquired.