of shop; they are
amusingly different from ours. Few things are displayed in the windows
or on the shelves, but they are done up in fine parcels and tucked
away out of sight. It is the rule to take two or three days to sit
at various counters before you attempt to purchase. The seller would
much rather keep his best things; he tries in every way to induce you
to take the cheaper ones, or ones of inferior quality. My guide was in
every way capable and efficient in the selection of fine embroideries,
porcelain, bronzes, and pictures.

FROM YOKOHAMA TO TOKIO.

CHAPTER THREE.

From Yokohama to Tokio, a two hours' ride on the steam cars,
one is constantly gazing at the wonderful country and its perfect
cultivation. There are no vast prairies of wheat or corn, but the land
is divided into little patches, and each patch is so lovingly tended
that it looks not like a farm but like a garden; while each garden is
laid out with as much care as if it were some part of Central Park,
thick with little lakes, artistic bridges and little waterfalls with
little mills, all too diminutive, seemingly, to be of any use, and
yet all occupied and all busy turning out their various wares.

I understand they even hoe the drilled-in wheat. The rice, the staple
of the country, is so cared for and tended that it sells for much
more than other rice. Imported rice is the common food.

As our guide said, we must go to the "Proud of Japan," Nikko, to see
the most wonderful temples of their kind in all the world. We took the
cars at Yokohama for Nikko. It was an all day trip with five changes of
cars, but every step of the way was through one vast curious workshop
of both divine and human hands. The railway fare is only two cents a
mile, first class, and half that, second class; we left the choice
to our guide. A good guide is almost indispensable. Our faithful
Takenouchi was proficient in everything; he was valet, courier,
guide, instructor, purchasing agent, and maid. I never knew a person
so efficient in every way; he could be attentively absent; he never
intruded himself upon us in any way. It is impossible to describe
the wonderful temples! They must be seen to be appreciated and, even
then, one must needs have a microscope, so minute are the carvings in
ivory, bronze, and porcelain, inlaid and wrought with gold and silver;
many of them, ancient though they are, are still marvels of delicate
lines of the patient labor of the past