s authority and to defy the greatest of laws, filial piety. What
manner of a country is it where custom grants liberty to a girl that she
may roam the streets and sit in a public garden alone with a man!"

This last was indeed serious. In my day and in my town it could be done
if the girl were so fortunate as to have something that stood for a male
cousin. But neither then nor now was it permissible in a land of
man-made laws for men. Unless it was between husband and wife, private
conversation, or a promenade just for two branded the participants as
bold, possibly evil.

I asked for further details. Kishimoto San said the young man was a
minor officer on the steamer by which his granddaughter and her mother
had crossed the Pacific. He thought he was an American. Whenever the
ship coaled in a nearby port, the young chap communicated with the girl
and together they walked and talked.

The plain facts after all sounded harmless and innocent. What more
natural than for a lonely girl to seek for pastime the company of a
youth of her own kind? But it could not be--not in Japan; though as
innocent as two baby kittens playing on the green, it would bring shame
upon the girl and the family, which no deed of heroism would ever erase
from local history. Something must be done; I asked Kishimoto San how I
could be of assistance.

"I have been consulting with myself," he replied in English. "Would you
grant me permission to send her to you daily as a student? Besides her
strange ways, she talks in strange English. I cannot find the same in
any conversation book. Her whole being has need of reconstruction."

I was not in the reconstructing business, but a young girl in the house
meant youth and diversion and a private pupil meant extra pay. What a
little extra money wouldn't do in my house wasn't worth adding up. In
thought I repaired the roof and bought new legs for the kitchen stove.

My visitor, mistaking my silence for hesitation, suggested, "First come
and see her. Analyze her conduct and grant me decision whether she is a
natural, free-born American citizen, as she boasts, or if the gods have
cursed her with a bold spirit. She is of your country, your religion, if
any, and perhaps you can understand her. I fail to comprehend."

He folded his arms for emphasis. The gleam of the western sun caught the
sheen of his silk kimono and covered him with a glow. From under bent
brows he gazed at the scene before him.

Earth and