The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and ChinaKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China
Knox, Thomas Wallace
China -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Japan -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
As the walk through the woods would have been fatiguing, and it was near
the middle of the day, when the sun was high and the heat severe, Doctor
Bronson engaged a boat to take the party back to the hotel. They
returned safely, and, after resting awhile, went on another walk, in a
direction slightly different from the first.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF JAPANESE LADIES.]
They soon found themselves among the huts of the fishermen, and the
quantity of fish that lay around in various stages of preparation told
that the business was not without prosperity. In a secluded part of the
island they came upon a pretty summer-house, where a wealthy citizen of
Tokio spent the hot months of the year. Through the gateway of the
garden they had a glimpse of a group of three ladies that were evidently
out for an airing. Frank thought he had never seen a prettier group in
all his life, and while he looked at them he whispered his opinion to
Fred.
Fred agreed with him, and then added, "I tell you what, Frank, we'll get
three dresses just like those, if they don't cost too much; and when we
get home, we'll have Miss Effie and your sister and my sister put them
on. Then we'll arrange the garden to look like that one as much as
possible, with a little furnace and teapot in front of the girls, and
the pedestal of a statue near them. Won't that be nice?"
Frank agreed that it would, and, lest he should forget the arrangement
of the group, he made a rough sketch of the scene, and said they could
rely upon photographs for the costumes and their colors. If they got the
dresses, the girls could easily arrange them with the aid of the
pictures.
When the sketch was finished, they returned to the hotel. The tide was
now out, and so the Doctor settled their account and they started for
Yokohama, following the most direct route, and making no halts for
sight-seeing. They arrived late in the evening, well pleased with their
excursion to Dai-Boots and Enoshima, and determined to give their
friends at home a full and faithful account of what they had seen and
learned.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF GROTESQUE DRAWING BY A JAPANESE ARTIST.]
CHAPTER XIII.
ON THE ROAD TO FUSIYAMA.
The morning after their return from Enoshima was mostly spent at the
hotel, as all three of the excursionists were somewhat fatigued with
their journey. The boys embraced the opportunity to ask the Doctor the
meaning of certain things they had observed in Japan, and which had not
been brought up in conversation.
"For one thing," said Frank, "why is it that so many of the people, the
coolies especially, have large scars on their skins, as if they had been
burned. There is hardly a coolie I have seen that is without them, and
one of the men that drew my jin-riki-sha to Enoshima had his legs
covered with scars, and also a fresh sore on each leg."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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