Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1915-01-02
CHAPTER VIII.
On the Trail.

On the Trail.
A chain of mountains lies back of
Kobe. They rise from the lowlands
back of the seacoast, their TANKS
covered with varying vegetation.
First come the rice paddles, lying at
the foot of the elevation.
From there one comes to a more
rugged land where forests of bamboo
shoot upward, making a twilight
through which winds the trail. De-
ciGuous trees next take up the task
of clothing the naked shoulders of
heights; and as one goes on, now
and then a fir appears, jostled into
partial obscurity by its crowding
brothers Of arboreal If.
Gradually the first come to pre-
dominate the landscape, winning
their living where the less hardy
forms no longer press upon them,
and they hold the stage until the last.
Now and then, as one presses for
ward, the hut of a peasant appears
frail things of easy construction, as
things are apt to be in a land where
TN earth lies uneasy, and quickly
wrecks the labor of mems hands
when it quivers and shakes.
They are matched, as a rule, with
rice straw. Their walls are mere
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
hlmSelf from communal bowl.
What cooking he does is over an
oopen-air furnace, and when he sleeps
1t is on a 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 dumblv
at one as he passes and bends again
to his work with much the same oh
servation that dumb brute express
es when 1t eyes one and drops its
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 dav.
AND there, too, are the goatherds-
Drown wlry, agile as their charges
nom they range over the hills.
Before hut, well up where the
hr-trees dominate the forest, a Young
lirl 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 toilinp figure
of bare-legged coolie which strug-
gled up hill in the road. Had She
done so it is doubtful if she had civ
en- UGH attention, ave that She
might have known him for a stran
ger.
Aside from that there was nothing
TO arrest her interest. He wore the
Neasant garb of the country and n
wide hat ;gains the heat of the sun.
1t was the shuttle of his approaching
The stranger came to a halt and
bowed with extended hands before
her. Greeting howerlike one of
Nipponp he said.
She smiled with a twitch IF red
lips. 81 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 a thirsty road"
"Sit down, stanger," the girl re-
guessed, putting dow her mat. She
rose and disappeared into the hut.
from which she returned with a cup
of porcelain, and extended il to the
other.
He drained il and gave il back.
Thanks, little Shima," he said. smi-
ling. "That was good-as good and
sweet as myself. And thy father-is
he about ?"
She placed the cup beside rer and
took up her work. AT present he is
al the kilns," she replied. when the
sun touches the top OF the mountain
he will come"
The stranger nodded. From the
body of his costume he drew out to-
bacco and pape- and rolled a cigar
cite. He lit it, replaced the smoking
materials, and settled himself stolidly
20 wait. Now end tfen he spoke to
the girl. "Thou weavest excellent
mats, little Shima."
To this she replied with smile.
Cant tell me, little Shima, IL IL is
true that beyond the mountain top is
q new town where there is much