The Lady and Sada San eBook

scenery, the poetry of the people and their splendid
spirit—­making a dreamland where even man
was perfect. How she loved it! How proud
she was to feel that in part it was her country.
Faithfully would she serve it. Oh, Susanna
West! I ’d like to shake you till your
harp snapped a string. It ’s like sending
a baby to pick flowers on the edge of a bottomless
pit.

What could I say! The missionary-teacher had
told the truth. She simply failed to mention
that in the fairy-land there are cherry-blossom lanes
down which no human can wander without being torn
by the brier patches.

The path usually starts from a wonderful tea-house
where Uncles have grown rich. Miss West didn’t
mean to shirk her duty. In most things the begoggled
lady was a visionary with a theory that if you don’t
talk about a thing it does not exist; and like most
of her kind she swept the disagreeables into a dust
heap and made for the high places where all was lovely.
And yet she had toiled with the girl through all
the difficulties of the Japanese language; and, to
give her a musical education, had pinched to the point
of buying one hat in eight years!

Now it is all done and Sada is launched on the high
seas of life with a pleasure-house for a home and
an unscrupulous Uncle with unlimited authority for
a chaperon. Shades of Susan! but I am hoping
guardian angels are “really truly,” even
if invisible.

Good night, Mate. This game of playing tag with
jarring thoughts, new and old, has made six extra
wrinkles. I am glad I came and you and Jack
will have to be, for to quote Charity, “I ’se
done resoluted on my word of honah” to keep
my hands, if possible, on Sada whose eyes are as blue
as her hair is black.

PACIFIC OCEAN.

Since morning the sea has been a sheet of blue, streaked
with the silver of flying fish. That is all
the scenery there is; not a sail nor a bird nor an
insect. Either the unchanging view or something
in the air has stimulated everybody into being their
nicest. It is surprising how quickly graciousness
possesses some people when there is a witching girl
around. Vivacious young men and benevolent officers
have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, spick and span
in white duck and their winningest smiles. Entertainments
dovetail till there is barely time for change of costume
between acts.

But let me tell you, Mate, living up to being a mother
is no idle pastime, particularly if it means reviving
the lost art of managing love-smitten youths and elderly
male coquettes. There is a specimen of each
opposite Sada and me at table who are so generous
with their company on deck, before and after meals,
I have almost run out of excuses and am short on plans
to avoid the heavy obligations of their eager attentions.