Japan -- History -- Meiji period, 1868-1912 -- Fiction
The eating is fairly good, only sometimes it is so hot with curry and
spice that it nearly takes my breath. My little Chinese waiter is
entirely too solicitous for my comfort. No amount of argument will
induce him to leave my plate until I have finished, after a few
mouthfuls he whisks it away and brings me another relay. After
pressing upon me dishes of every kind, he insists on my filling up all
crevices with nuts and raisins, and after I have eaten, and eaten, he
looks hurt, and says regretfully: "Missy sickee, no eatee."
There is one other person, who is just as solicitous. The little
German watches my every mouthful with round solemn eyes, and insists
upon serving everything to me. He looks bewildered when anyone tells a
funny story, and sometimes asks for an explanation. He has been
around the world twice, and is now going to China for three years for
the Society of Scientific Research. He seems to think I am the
greatest curio he has yet encountered in his travels.
The chief excitement of our trip so far has been the day in
Honolulu. I wanted to sing for joy when we sighted land. The trees and
grass never looked so beautiful as they did that morning in the
brilliant sunshine. It took us hours to land on account of the red
tape that had to be unwound, and then there was an extra delay of
which I was the innocent cause. The quarantine doctor was inspecting
the ship, and after I had watched him examine the emigrants, and had
gotten my feelings wrought up over the poor miserable little children
swarming below, I found a nice quiet nook on the shelter deck where I
snuggled down and amused myself watching the native boys swim. The
water on their bronze bodies made them shine in the sunlight, and they
played about like a shoal of young porpoises. I must have stayed there
an hour, for when I came down there was considerable stir on board. A
passenger was missing and we were being held while a search of the
ship was made. I was getting most excited when the purser, who is the
sternest and best looking man you ever saw, came up and pounced upon
me. "Have you been inspected?" he demanded, eyeing me from head to
foot. "Not any more than at present," I answered meekly. "Come with
me," he said.
I asked him if he was going to throw me overboard, but he was too full
of importance to smile. He handed me over to the doctor saying: "Here
is the young woman that caused the delay." Young woman, indeed! but I
was to be crushed yet further for the doctor looked over his glasses
and said: "Now how did we miss that?"
But on to Honolulu! I don't wonder people go wild over it. It is as if
all the artists in all the world had spilled their colors over one
spot, and Nature had sorted them out at her own sweet will. I kept
wondering if I had died and gone to Heaven! Marvelous palms, and
tropical plants, and all hanging in a softly dreaming silence that
went to my head like wine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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