Yuki San and her mother were up with the sun, sewing and embroidering,
and going about their daily task with zest and song. The past trials
were forgotten and the future not considered.

One morning, not many weeks after the marriage had been arranged, Yuki
San heard the call of the _Yubin_ San, and running out to meet him,
received a strange-looking letter. The envelope was white and square,
and straight across the middle, in very plain English, was her name
and address. Puzzled, she turned it over and over, then broke the
seal.

The picture of the big hotel at the top of the sheet was so
distracting that for a time she could get no further, but a word here
and there and the signature at the end finally made her cry out with
delight and surprise.

"Oh! it's from that funny lil' boy what gave spank to my hands long
time ago. He want to come to my house for stay. Listen."

There was no one to listen but her own happy self, and lying flat upon
the floor she propped her glowing face between her palms, while she
read aloud from the letter spread before her:

YOKOHAMA.

Miss YUKI INOUYE--

_Dear Miss Inouye_: I wonder if you remember an American boy with whom
you had an encounter in your very early days, because he dared to