CHAPTER XIV.

THE FESTIVALS OF LOCAL DEITIES--SCHOOL AGAIN, AND SOME ACCOUNT

OF MY SCHOOL-FELLOWS--CONCLUSION.

PREFATORY LETTER.

PROF. HENRY W. FARNAM:

_Dear Sir:_--My motives in writing this jejune little volume are, as you

are aware, two:

1st. There seems to be no story told in this country of the Japanese

boy's life by a Japanese boy himself. The following rambling sketches

are incoherent and extremely meagre, I own; but you must remember that

they are a boy's talks. Give him encouragement, and he will tell you

more.

2d. The most important of my reasons is my desire to obtain the means to

prosecute the studies I have taken up in America. Circumstances have

obliged me to make my own way in this hard world. If I knew of a better

step I should not have resorted to an indiscreet juvenile publication--a

publication, moreover, of my own idle experiences, and in a language the

alphabet of which I learned but a few years ago.

To you my sincere acknowledgments are due for encouraging me to write

these pages. This kindness is but one of many, of which the public has

no knowledge.

I am, sir,

Yours very truly.

SHIUKICHI SHIGEMI

NEW HAVEN. CT., September, 1889.

A JAPANESE BOY.