The Days of a Man 



customs 



persuaded the curator, Mr. Potter, to give it to me, I 

 afterward named it Holacanthus potteri. 

 At the San Upon our arrival at San Francisco, an amusing 

 Francisco ; nc ident occurred in the customs office. In one trunk 

 we had placed all the gifts received in Japan; I found 

 myself wholly unable to set a valuation on these, as 

 for the most part I could not remember what they 

 were nor could I indicate the worth of each. I there- 

 fore asked the inspector Everett, a Stanford man 

 by the way to make his own estimates. Fixing 

 upon one particular package as a sample, he un- 

 covered a wooden box about five inches square. 

 Within this appeared a similar smaller one which in 

 turn contained a third still smaller, while at the 

 center rested a tiny black and gold lacquer chest or 

 casket filled with infinitesimal bonbons, a souvenir 

 secured by Mr. Huggins at the Empress' garden 

 party. The customs official, like myself, was puzzled, 

 and to this day neither of us knows whether his valu- 

 ation of the whole lot was just or not. 



