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CHAPTER XXVIII.
LIKE THE BREATH OF A CLAM.
AS happy as a clam at high water " is the fisherman's
account of himself when his fancy is
tickled for the moment by something pleasant and
he is filled with delight. But to the far Orientals
the idea seems to be reversed. The clams, which
are called " chestnuts of the shore," enter into rapture
and day-dreams when the tide recedes. Then
from the open mouth of the giant clam rises a vapor
which creates a mirage of wonders. The clam's
breath forms all the gorgeous things which to human
imagination appear in dreams. Palaces of delight
are thus built in the air in unsubstantial majesty.
Until Perry and the American ships
appeared off
the obscure village of Yokohama, or " cross strand,"
it lay on the bay of Yedo scarcely better known
than a chestnut dropped by chance into the forest,
or a clam living in the sandy mud of the sea-shore.
But if a farmer from the Echizen rice-fields had
looked upon
the scene that revealed itself on the
first
day of July, 1859, he would surely have thought
he was looking upon the deceptive mirage of the
clam's breath. Instead of the little hamlet of
thatch, wattle, and mud, with a few fishermen's
nets spread out to dry, and brown children wading
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