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136
THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO.
Kimura invited them to follow him, and led the way
into a
little room overlooking the river.
A servant entered with refreshments, and when the visitors
had partaken of tea and cakes, their host pointing toward the
scene beyond, said,
"
Is not that view lovely. The bamboo screen of the yasume-
forms a frame on one side
chaya (wayside tea-house) opposite,
and the dwellings on the bank of the river fill the other. I sit
here for hours and watch the junks going up and down the
stream. In all the world there is not such another scene."
While the man was speaking, Fitz sniffed suspiciously,
"
noticing which, Kimura said, Honorable O bos-an, what
annoys you
? "
rf Do you not smell the water?"
;
Yes, it is very excellent to-day," replied Kimura.
"
Sometimes it is not as good as at others. In it spring smells
like the rice being planted, in summer it is delicious, in
autumn very rich and fragrant, and in the winter, the odor
comes stealing up like a child begging to be taken into the
about that water."
house. I have written a poem
"
I should write to the River Commissioners about it," said
r?
the unabashed boy. Why, there is cholera, small-pox, diptheria,
scarlet-fever, and a thousand diseases in that odor."
The fan-maker regarded him with amazement, and replied,
one has his belief. You think those diseases
: '
Every
emanate from the beautiful river. We know better, they are
all the vengeance of gods. If you insult the cholera-god, he
will certainly wreak his displeasure upon you, and so will the
others. See,' 1
pulling back a screen on the opposite
room, " I have another lovely view here."
side of the
The young folks turned and beheld a sake shop, the
proprietor of which was busily employed testing a new
delivery of the wine.