to our notions; he dislikes foreigners; his manner is often very
disagreeable; and yet I doubt whether I could have obtained a more
valuable servant and interpreter. When we left Tokiyo he spoke
fairly good English, but by practice and industrious study he now
speaks better than any official interpreter that I have seen, and
his vocabulary is daily increasing. He never uses a word
inaccurately when he has once got hold of its meaning, and his
memory never fails. He keeps a diary both in English and Japanese,
and it shows much painstaking observation. He reads it to me
sometimes, and it is interesting to hear what a young man who has
travelled as much as he has regards as novel in this northern
region. He has made a hotel book and a transport book, in which
all the bills and receipts are written, and he daily transliterates
the names of all places into English letters, and puts down the
distances and the sums paid for transport and hotels on each bill.

He inquires the number of houses in each place from the police or
Transport Agent, and the special trade of each town, and notes them
down for me. He takes great pains to be accurate, and occasionally
remarks about some piece of information that he is not quite
certain about, "If it's not true, it's not worth having." He is
never late, never dawdles, never goes out in the evening except on
errands for me, never touches sake, is never disobedient, never
requires to be told the same thing twice, is always within hearing,
has a good deal of tact as to what he repeats, and all with an
undisguised view to his own interest. He sends most of his wages
to his mother, who is a widow--"It's the custom of the country"--
and seems to spend the remainder on sweetmeats, tobacco, and the
luxury of frequent shampooing.