have built a big fire in my grate, and in my heart I have lighted all
the lamps at my little shrines, and I am burning incense to the loves
that were and are.

Just after tiffin the rain stopped for a little while and I rushed out
for a walk. I had been reading the "Christmas Carol" all morning, and
it brought so many memories of home that I was feeling rather
wobbly. My walk set me up immensely. A baldheaded, toothless old man
stopped me and asked me where I was "coming." When I told him he said
that was wonderful and he hoped I would have a good time. A woman with
a child on her back ran out and stopped me to ask if I would please
let the baby see my hair. Half a dozen children and two dogs followed
me all the way, and an old man and woman leaned against a wall and
laughed aloud because a foreigner was so funny to look at.

If anyone thinks that he can indulge in a nice private case of the
blues while taking a walk in Japan, he deceives himself. I started out
feeling like Napoleon at St. Helena, and I came home cheerful and
ravenously hungry.

I have been trying to read poetry this winter, but I don't make much
progress. The truth is I have gained five pounds, and I am afraid I am
getting too fat. I never knew but one fat person to appreciate poetry
and he crocheted tidies.

By the way I have learned to knit!! You see there are so many times
when I have to play the gracious hostess when I feel like a volcano
within, that I decided to get something on which I could vent my
restlessness. It is astonishing how much bad temper one can knit into
a garment. I don't know yet what mine is going to be, probably an