ports is not commonplace; there
were heroisms and romances in it; and there was really nothing in this
world as wonderful as life itself. All real life was a marvel, but in
Japan a marvel that was hidden as much as possible--"especially hidden
from dangerous chatterers like Lafcadio Hearn."

If he could get together a book of short stories--six would be
enough--he would make a dedication of it to M. McD. as prettily as he
could.

Under the soothing influence of a good cigar, Hearn would even take his
friend into his confidence about many incidents in his own past
life--that past life which generally was jealously guarded from the
outside world. He tells McDonald the pleasure it gives him, his saying
that he resembles his father, but "I have more smallness in me than you
can suspect. How could it be otherwise! If a man lives like a rat for
twenty or twenty-five years he must have acquired something of the
disposition peculiar to house rodents, mustn't he?"

The communion between these two was more like that between some popular,
athletic, sixth-form boy at Eton, whose softer side had been touched by
the forlornness of a shy, sickly, bullied minor, than that between two
middle-aged men, one representing the United States in an official
capacity, the other one of the most famous writers of the day. The first
letter relates to a visit that McDonald apparently paid to Ushigome, an
audacious proceeding that few ventured upon.

Hearn expressed his appreciation of McDonald's good nature in coming to
his miserable little shanty, over a muddy chaos of street--the charming
way in which he accepted the horrid attempt at entertainment, and his
interest and sympathy in Hearn's affairs.

In the house at Nishi Okubo mementoes are still preserved of McDonald's
visits. A rocking-chair,--rare piece of furniture in a Japanese
establishment--a spirit lamp, and an American cigar-ash holder.

McDonald apparently saw, as Dr. Papellier had seen at Kobe, that Hearn
was killing himself by his ascetic Japanese mode of life. Raw fish and
lotus roots were not food suited for the heavy brain work Hearn was
doing, besides his professional duties at the university. McDonald,
therefore, insisted on being allowed to send him wine and delicacies of
all sorts.

"With reference to the 'best,'" Hearn writes, "you are a dreadful man!
How could you think that I have got even half way to the bottom? I have
only drunk three bottles yet, but that is a sh