Untitled

A VISIT TO A LACQUER-MAKER. 57
and the other was planing a board, placed upon a sloping log,
the lower end of which he steadied with his right foot.
rf
Why do you draw your plane towards you?" demanded
"
Johnnie. Our carpenters always push theirs from them."
The workman picked up some shavings, cast them on a
pile of rubbish burning near by, and replied:
" Ours is the correct way. Your carpenters cannot teach
us anything."
:? We
can put a plank, like that, in a machine, and plane it
in an instant," said the boy, who was desirous of astonishing
the man.
"Oh! yes, certainly," sarcastically returned the carpenter.
" You Chinese can do wonderful things. I suppose you can
grow a tree, saw it into boards and build a house with it while
one is winking."
f '
"
But it would
Not quite," was the laughing rejoinder.
make you wink to see our circular saws at work. We are not
Chinese, but Americans. You ought to visit our country and
take some lessons."
The man put his tongue in his cheek, laid his plane on the
wood, and resumed his work without condescending to bestow
any more notice upon them.
It was quite a walk from the Kaga yashiki to Asakusa,
however, the day was fine and the party enjoyed the exercise.
As they passed through the street leading to the foot of
Uyeno Hill, they stopped before a bronze-maker's, where the
workmen were busily employed upon a quaint figure support-
ing
e '
a lantern.
" What a comical-looking creature that is," remarked Fitz.
He looks like a colored person."
'This is Riu-to, the god of the bottom of the sea," said the
"
I would not advise you to be disre-
foreman of the shop.