A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

246 Japanese Miscellany
ing kindness, had persuaded her to become a
Christian. (Converts are always commanded
to bury or to cast away their ancestral tablets.)
These missionary-women — the first ever seen
in the province — had promised O-Dai, their
only convert, an allowance of thrtt j>en a month,
as assistant, — because she could read and write.
By the toil of her hands she had never been
able to earn more than two yen a month; and
out of that sum she had to pay a rent of twenty-
five sen for the use of the upper floor of a little
house, belonging to a dealer in second-hand
goods. Thither, after the death of her parents,
she had taken her loom, and the ancestral tablets.
She had been obliged to work very hard indeed
in order to live. But with three yen a month
she could live very well ; and the missionarywomen
had a room for her. She did not think
that the people would mind her change of
religion.
As a matter of fact they did not much care.
They did not know anything about Christianity,
and did not want to know: they only laughed
at the girl for being so foolish as to follow the
ways of the foreign women. They regarded
her as a dupe, and mocked her without malice.