1900] A Modest Home 



invader must be, and she brought forth in triumph 

 one of my photographs. This the two kuruma men 

 pronounced a good likeness. 



A meek tot of one year easily made friends, but 

 "Knight" Otaki, then about three, ran out and hid 

 behind a cherry tree. I caught him, however, and 

 brought him in, which everybody thought a great 

 joke. Finally, after numerous bows and attempts at 

 foreign handshaking, they let me go. The home was 

 very pretty, but its simplicity and enforced econo- 

 mies seemed pathetic; a scholar cannot work under 

 such limiting conditions. On one of the tiny lacquer 

 stands I noticed the unfinished draft of Otaki's wel- 

 come to his "dear teacher," to be delivered at the 

 banquet given me that evening by the Stanford 

 alumni, a speech earnest and heartfelt but with 

 large traces of Japanese idiom. 



In front of the house was a dainty garden, includ- 

 ing one flowering cherry and a native palm. It is a 

 charming feature of Japan that no home is complete 

 without a garden, however small. In a humble 

 Tokyo dwelling I saw one in a lacquered tray two 

 feet square, with rocks, paths, pagodas, pools made of 

 glass, green moss for grass, dwarf pines, maples, and 

 palms, none of them over six or eight inches in 

 height. 



The dinner arranged for me by the Stanford boys Dinner a la 

 was served, at my suggestion, in Japanese style. J a P naiSf 

 Then, before we separated, a Stanford Alumni 

 Association was blocked out, and various pertinent 

 matters came up for discussion. Among them was 

 that of the standing of Japanese students at Stanford, 

 it being the general opinion that the professors were 



C ii 3 



