John Luther Long

“ Well, the agony of revolt was short enough to please even Kito. Saigo and his gallant, fatuous band went to death at Shiroyama with the blood of their first conflict still upon their swords. And there they lie today, in the little graveyard of Jokoji, in a huge trench—all of them but Kito. For when they drew their swords for Saigo they swore never to sheathe them until he should command it—all but Kito. And when he did command it they refused, preferring to die with him—all but Kito. They sheathed them deeply in their own bodies and died. ”

“ Now, as you chose him, perhaps you perceived that there were holes in the mongrel-tinted hood; the brazen bravery had taken on the oxid of many evil years; the lacquer had been wounded by countless shocks and had been healed by artless repairs.
In short, both Kito and his vehicle had fallen into a gaunt and unfriended old age, not of years, but of circumstances—circumstances which you somehow felt, but could not guess. Both had the appearance of having all to do that was possible in keeping body and soul together. For things in Japan have souls also. ”

“ When the American eagle and the Japanese dragon shall have fraternized, and the Yankee of the East and the Yankee of the West shall join hands across the sea in one commercial brotherhood, the salvation of the nations is assured. And when the lamb, with the fleece of industry, and the lion, with its power, shall, not lie down together in idle slumber, but go forth together in joyous and enlightened toil, then indeed is the millennium almost come. ”

“ How that is sad! Seem lig we cannot be gay without them. In the month of the cherry-blossoms we were marry! But chrysanthemums—all of them! An' lanterns if it be black night—'mos' one thousan'! Aha, ha, ha! His house shall be gayer than it has aever been. There shall naever again be such good occasion."
"Res' is beauty," urged the maid, holding up the mirror to her.
"Ah, Suzuki! I am beautiful—as beautiful as when he went away?"
The maid was silent—the Japanese silence which is not assent.
Cho-Cho-San snatched the metallic mirror out of her hand.
"I am!" she cried savagely. "Say so!" ”

“ And he had but the one prayer:
"Hail, Holy Buddha! Wife—child—Hail, Holy Buddha! Namu Amida Butsu!"
They turned him out of the temple. But out under the great trees in the court he made a temple, and there indulged his soul to the full. Away from the cold eyes of the priests, at the foot of a giant cryptomeria, with the summer air to fan him and the leafy dome to shade him, out of control and encouraged by the silence, his prayer was a vociferous challenge to Shaka and all the gods who had baited and deceived him. He shouted anathemas at heaven. He railed upon the gods and defied them. ”

“ For his wheels ran so true, and there was such softness in the springs, that to take passage with Kito was like wooing lotus dreams. Think of that rush down the Tokaido! White-green rice-fields, black-green palms, glittering bamboos, pink cherries, golden temples, red shrines, laughing yadoya, bridges, canals, rivers, people, swiftly as the flight of the stork. How could he run all day? Why, he had stouter legs and a stouter heart then. ”

“ One day it was Black-Eyes, and the true Japan, and the real Garland. The next it was Purple-Eyes, and the ideal Japan, and the lotus-eating Garland. What is more like lotus-eating than being adored? At first Garland used to smile at the strange dual life which circumstances had wrought out for him. ”

“ For there would be left you but an indefinable sense of faithfulness, and a vague, necessitous beseeching which Kito had somehow inspired. And perhaps you noted this the more because he did not solicit you—only looked at you as a vagrant dog looks. You would probably end by declaring a truce to sentiment, which you found persistently attaching itself to your coolie,—entirely without his connivance, you would admit,—and you would not keep the truce. Nothing is so insidious as sentiment. And when its object is before you it is often insistent. ”

“ And, like an old garment, it would reward you with great comfort and entire faithfulness—lacking only beauty and grace. Still, in its grizzled age there were yet traces of brilliant lacquer and glittering brass. And you could easily supply, in fancy, the lanterns and streamers which must have hung from the shafts of such an equipage and all the other finery with which Kito had begun his career. There are no such now. But there were then—and Kito had truly the gayest 'rikisha in all Tokio. ”

“ Cho-Cho-San whispered again.
"But the child there is a most accomplished child?" said the nakodo.
"Yes," said the traveled Japanese, with the same smile and the same intonation.
There was a distinct silence. Cho-Cho-San smiled more vividly. But her nostrils moved rapidly in and out. The nakodo grew anxious. Yamadori cast his eyes toward the ceiling, and continued:
"A sailor does not know the difference. In no other country are children esteemed as they are here. In America it is different. People sometimes deny them. They are left in a basket at some other person's door. ”

“ She gave a gasp, and cried like a savage wounded animal:
"Yamadori—lies!"
The nakodo was silenced. She crushed the baby so fiercely to her breast that he began to cry.
"Sh!" she commanded harshly. He looked up for an incredulous instant, then burrowed his head affrightedly into her kimono. She turned upon the nakodo in magnificent scorn.
"Oh—you—foo-el! You thing he naever arrive back. Tha' 's what you thing—in secret! He? He do!" ”

“ It was so evidently the invention of Pinkerton that it seemed superfluous to make the explanation. The nakodo said curtly that he did not believe it.
Not believe what Mr. B. F. Pinkerton had said!
Cho-Cho-San was exasperated. The engaging smile had been wasted. She flung the blue-eyed baby up before him.
"Well, then, do you believe that?"
She laughed almost malignantly. The marriage-broker gulped down this fearful indignity as best he might. He hoped there were not going to be any more such women in Japan as the result of foreign marriages. ”

“ Kito's history must have moved the priests to unwonted benefaction. For while he lay ill they wooed back his life with gentleness. And when he went from them to take up its dull way again, they blessed him with incense, and left in his heart a transcendent hope that else had never blossomed there. Doubtless, they said, the Lord Buddha, seeing his wife and child defenseless in the midst of peril, had reached with his great arm out of heaven, and lifted them into his Bosom with intent to send them back again in more glorious bodies. ”

“ As she prostrated herself Garland noticed that her hair had been newly dressed (an operation of several hours) , and that she wore a dainty blue kimono, too gay for any but a geisha to wear. But it became her royally.
"You look more than ever like a picture on a fan," greeted Garland, with even more admiration in his eyes than in his voice.
Instead of being pleased, as any other Japanese girl would have been, Purple-Eyes slowly shook her head.
"Alas! you naever see no picture on fan lig unto me." ”

“ And Saigo, the rebel, had nothing but those long, ancient swords and bamboo armor.
Kito knew nothing about the quarrel. No rumors of war had reached him in his secluded home. It is doubtful if he knew that he was in rebellion against his sovereign; for all about him, from his august chieftain to the abjectest ronin, wore the imperial brocade. He made no inquiries. What he wished was to kill the men he supposed it was his duty to kill, whoever they were, and go home. He could not understand why all his comrades had left their homes to fight. ”

“ Alas! perfect happiness is ominous.
V
YUKI
But a little more happiness was possible to even Kito. Our cup is never quite full. One morning a wee baby with the eyes of the gentle Owannon lay beside her. True, it was a girl. That was unfortunate from a Japanese man's point of view. But Owannon rebelliously pulled him down to her and confessed, with a light in her eyes that he had never before seen there, that she had treasonably prayed that it might be a girl! Kito capitulated to her eyes, and swore that he too had done so. ”

“ To each of these the broker answered lugubriously yes. "Then why, in the name of the gods, does she wait?" The nakodo explained with a sigh that she had declined his presents.
"I will send her others. They shall be a thousand times more valuable. Since I have seen her I know that the first must have been an affront."
She kept her eyes up, but Yamadori unquestionably smiled in the direction of Cho-Cho-San—as if she were a woman of joy!
The light of battle came into the stony eyes of the girl. She clapped her hands almost viciously. The little maid appeared. ”

“ The only thing he cared for was Owannon. At this time he had her—but he had her because of the swords. He got his swords, his rank (of samurai) , and his wife at the same time. And when the first summons came to attend his lord in battle, his wife was reclining across his knees. She was laughing up in his face. The baby was between them. The swords were rusting in their chest (he had only seen them once) . He had forgotten who his lord was!
Said his wife, with a sigh, after her shiver of fear:
"No samurai, whose soul is the sword, whose watchword is Honor, will disobey his lord. ”

“ American women, we are told, assume more fearless attitudes in the security of their boudoirs than elsewhere. Japanese women, never. Their conduct is eternally the same. It must be as if some one were looking on—always. There is no privacy for them short of the grave. They have no secure boudoirs.
But Madame Butterfly (through the courtesy of her American husband) had both these. It will therefore be argued, perhaps, that she is not a typical Japanese woman. But it is only Lieutenant Pinkerton's views about which we are presently concerned. ”

“ He is in the trench at Jokoji, with Saigo, more honored than he ought to be. The emperor has taken his house and burned it. He is dead, I say."
"And had he a a family?" questioned Kito.
"He had a wife and child; both very beautiful—more beautiful than he deserved. When he killed himself with the rest at Shiroyama, they heard of it and disappeared. Some say the Lord Buddha took them. They disappeared—like that smoke." He pointed to it. " They have never been seen since the news came home. As for me, I think they are still on earth. Others think them in heaven. He is dead—do you hear? ”

“ THE GOOD CONSUL'S COMPASSIONATE LYING
Demoralization set in. Even the comfort of the maid was dulled. They decided that Cho-Cho-San should go to see the good consul, while the maid and the baby remained at home to welcome him if, perhaps, he had not gone with the war-ship. They had already created this hope.
The maid helped her down the steepest part of the hill. Nevertheless, when she arrived at the consulate she was quite breathless. The consul was alone. There were no frivolities now. Each knew that the other understood. ”

“ You go'n' sleep liddle—please, jus' liddle—res'—sleep?"
She drew her mistress's eyelids down, and lightly held them. Cho-Cho-San shook her off, and sprang up, revivified.
"Res'! Sleep! Not till he come!"
"Res'—peace—sleep—beauty," chanted the maid, persuasively. But her mistress would not.
"Now, hasten lig you got eagle's wings an' a thousan' feet! It will not be one hour—not one half—till he will be here. My pink kimono—widest obi—kanzashi for my hair an' poppies. I will be more beautiful than I have aever been. Flowers—alas! there are no cherry-blossoms. ”

“ If Pinkerton should not, should—well, die, you know, you would indeed be an outcast. If your own people would have nothing to do with you, nobody else would. It must, of course, be known to you that your—marriage with Pinkerton has put you in unfortunate relations with everybody; the Japanese because you have offended them, the foreigners because he has. What would you do in such a case? "
"Me? I could—dance, mebby, or—or die?".
But she laughed as she said it. Then she acknowledged his rebuking glance.
"Aexcuse me, tha' 's not nize? Well, it is not so easy to die as it was—bifore he came." ”

“ Perhaps Kito never heard the stentorian criers who went about that labyrinthine city proclaiming the loss of the little Titania, only daughter of one Lady Jane Coventry, strayed or stolen from her Japanese nurse in the woods of Shiba, or thereabouts, and the pains to be suffered by any person concealing guilty knowledge of the kidnapping. ”