ondon house, when my attention was attracted by
seeing a little creature, looking like a monkey with a great box on his
back, bound suddenly into the room, evidently by aid of the manager's
foot in the adjoining hall. Not in the least perturbed, he began to
unstrap the box from his back, from which he took out curios, and
drifted about the room trying to sell them to the different
globe-trotters assembled there. Nothing was too small or too trivial for
him: he would sell anything. He was chivied about, insulted, and abused
by every one; yet he received it all with a smiling face. Nothing seemed
to affect him. He was a typical Japanese, with bright slit-like eyes set
as close together as any monkey's--blinking eyes they were, but so
intelligent. I could see that he was a keen observer, and that he looked
upon these wayfarers as so much material of prey, by the quiet way in
which he selected a man with a big pocket, sidling up to him and
allowing himself to be insulted, yet always getting the best of the
bargain in the end. He tried to sell me some very bad cloisonne, and he
was so clever about it, handling his wares in so dexterous a
manner,--making his twopenny-halfpenny pots appear of priceless
value--that it occurred to me that this little monkey resemblance might
have ideas of his own, and be in some small way able to help me. He
spoke English a little, and I told him to come up to my room that night,
when I should have something to say to him. Glancing at me in a
searching way, without asking a single question or showing the
slightest surprise, he only said, "I come!"

[Illustration: A BY-CANAL]

And he came. When I went up to my room after dinner, I found him sitting
there, or rather squatting on a chair, waiting for me, blinking his
beady little eyes and looking as solemn as an owl. I told him all my
schemes. I explained that I was a painter, thoroughly in sympathy with
the Japanese, and that I wanted his help to gather together a company of
workers--fan-workers, metal-workers, and screen-workers--in order to
furnish a house that I had built in London. He grasped my idea in an
instant, and very soon entered into the spirit of the plan, taking an
enthusiastic interest in all my schemes. Whenever there was anything
that needed measuring exactly, this little man would run his finger and
thumb over it in the most dexterous manner possible, murmuring to
himself, "One inchie, two inchie, three inchie, seven-and-a-half