Miss Numè of Japan A Japanese-American Romance

MISS NUMÈ OF JAPAN.

ONOTO WATANNA.

MISS NUMÈ
OF JAPAN

A Japanese-American Romance

BY

ONOTO WATANNA

Author of "Natsu-San," "Yuri-San and Okiku-San,"
"A Half Caste," etc.

Chicago and New York:
RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY.
PUBLISHERS.

Copyright, 1899, by Rand, McNally & Co.

THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND,
HELEN M. BOWEN
BECAUSE I LOVE HER SO

INTRODUCTION.

The fate of an introduction to a book seems not only to fall short ofits purpose, but to offend those whose habit it is to criticise beforethey read. Once I heard an old man say, "It is dangerous to write forthe wise. They strike warm hands with form, but shrug a cold shoulder atoriginality." I do not think, though, that this book was written for the"wise," for the men and women whose frosty judgment would freeze thewarm current of a free and almost careless soul. It was written for theimaginative, and they alone are the true lovers of story and song. OnotoWatanna plays upon an instrument new to our ears, quaintly Japanese, anair at times simple and sweet, as tender as the chirrup of a bird inlove, and then as wild as the scream of a hawk. Mood has been herteacher; impulse has dictated her style. She has inherited the spirit ofthe orchard in bloom. Her art is the grace of the wild vine, under noobligation to a gardener, but with a charm that the gardener could notimpart. A monogram wrought by nature's accident upon the golden leaf ofautumn, does not belong to the world of letters, but it inspires morefeeling and more poetry than a library squeezed out of man's tiredbrain. And this book is not unlike an autumn leaf blown from a forest in Japan.

OPIE READ.

Chicago, January, 1899.

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CONTENTS.

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

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Miss Numè of Japan.

CHAPTER I. PARENTAL AMBITIONS.

When Orito, son of Takashima Sachi, was but ten years of age, and Numè,daughter of Watanabe Omi, a tiny girl of three, their fathers talkedquite seriously of betrothing them to each other, for they had beengreat friends for many years, and it was the dearest wish of their livesto see their children united in marriage. They were very wealthy men,and the father of Orito was ambitious that his son should have anunusually good education, so that when Orito was seventeen years of age,he had left the public school of Tokyo and was attending the ImperialUniversity. About this time, and when Orito was at home on a vacation,there came to the little town where they lived, and which was only avery short distance from Tokyo, certain foreigners from the West, whorented land from Sachi and became neighbors to him and to Omi.

Sachi had always taken a great deal of interest in these foreigners,many of whom he had met quite often while on business in Tokyo, and hewas very[Pg 6] much pleased with his new tenants, who, in spite of theirbarbarous manners and dress, seemed good-natured and friendly. Often inthe evening he and Omi would walk through the valley to their neighbors'house, and listen to them very attentively while they told them of theirhome in America, which they said was the greatest country in the world.After a time the strange men went away, though neither Sachi nor Omiforgot them, and very often they talked of them and of their foreignhome. One day Sachi said very seriously to his friend:

"Omi, these strangers told us much of their strange land, and talked ofthe fine schools there, where all manner of learning is taught. What sayyou that I do send my