Tomo-chan—The Men with Wens—A Curious Punishment—How I Experienced It—Kotoro-kotoro.

Of course I attended another school as soon as we were settled. And every morning I went with my Tomo-chan.

But I must tell you who Tomo-chan was. She—yes, she—was the adopted daughter of my aunt, of about the same age as I, and in the same class at school. I wish I had space enough to tell you how she came to be adopted, but I shall have to be contented just with telling you that the main cause of her becoming a member of my aunt’s family was all through me. Aunty had no child, but she had found how lovely a child is, even if he be mischievous, through my short visit two years before, which I have had no occasion to tell you about. Now one of the first principles in physics says that nature abhors a vacuum. This means that it is unnatural for a place to have nothing in it. I had gone back: who was to fill my place? So Tomo-chan, a better and certainly prettier child than I, slipped into my shoes.

Aunty wished us to be good friends. So I called on her every morning on my way to school, and in the afternoon we went over our lesson together. Arithmetic was not very hard for me, and so I helped her over pitfalls of calculation, while she did the same for me with reading. Girls remember very well, but do not care to reason things out, it seems. And indeed, Tomo-chan remembered even the number of mistakes I made in reading. Now what one can do in half a day, two can accomplish in half an hour, was the philosophy that came to me from our case; for our drudgery was over in no time, and we were going through Tomo-chan’s treasure of nice pictures and books of fairy-tales. There was a picture in one of the books of an old man with a wen on his cheek, dancing before a crowd of demons and goblins. “Look here, what is this?” I asked. She laughed at the picture and would not tell me about it till she had thoroughly enjoyed laughing. That is the way of a girl. But with “O dear!” she started thus:

“One day, this old man with a wen happened to fall into a crowd of those ugly monsters, and was made to dance. He danced very well, and so was asked to come again the next day. The goblins wanted something for a pledge for his keeping his word and so removed the wen from the man’s cheek. The old man was very glad to part with it, and went home, when he met another man with a wen.” She turned the leaf to show another picture. This time the new man was dancing before the weird crowd. “You see, this man was told how he could remove his wen, and is now showing his skill before them to induce them to ask for the pledge. But he did not have any practice at all in dancing and so was just jumping round. And the goblins got angry over his deceit, and sent him back with the wen that the old man had left.” Turning the leaf, “Here he is with wens on both his cheeks!”

She laughed again, and I could not help laughing with her, too. At this moment some one was coming up the stairs.

“Why, is this the way you study your lesson?”

It was aunty who entered the room as she said: “I am surprised at you.” And she laid down a tray with a teapot and cups and a dish of cakes on it. The sight made us happy all at once, and Tomo-chan explained to her how soon we had finished our study.

“Why, Ei-chan helped me in arithmetic, so we finished a long, long time ago.”

“Well, Ei-chan is a good boy, isn’t he?” said aunty. Boys feel awkward to be well spoken of to their face, and my speech failed me somehow. By the way, I was no longer “Bot’chan.”

The school I found much larger and finer than the village one. The pupils numbered ten times more. Each class had its own room, and boys and girls marched in and out in procession every hour. It was so much more orderly and systematic than the village school that there was less of “out-of-tune” matter. But then there was one thing that puzzled me. It was that often a boy was seen standing in the hallway with a bowl of water in his hands. Sometimes he stood there motionless until the class was all dismissed. But I was not slow to divine the cause. What puzzled me was the question: “How could that be the best form of punishment?” While a boy stood there he need not attend the class. That was certainly easy for an idle boy. And then there was no pain to endure. As to the holding of a bowl, why, did I not hold my bowl of rice every meal and not know even if it was heavy or light? But another solution suggested itself to me; it might have the same effect on the offender as wearing a cap with “I am a Fool,” written on it. He stood there, and everybody thought he was a bad boy. “It might be, it might be,” I said, congratulating myself on the happy solution, when a crow that had just alighted on a branch of the elm by the gate repeated, “It might be!” I threw a stone at him without thinking that it was a violation of the school rule, and, if discovered, I might have undergone the punishment.

At any rate, I was destined, it appeared, to undergo the punishment once at least. And it happened in this way.

At this school, boys were not allowed to carry iron tops or even hand-balls. There were too many of them, and if they should all indulge in these sports, there would be constant danger of breaking their legs or knocking their noses off. So comparatively harmless footballs were provided. Now, one noon recess, ten of us wanted to have a game. We were divided into parties of five and played. Of course we had no rules to go by, but tried to carry the ball within the enemy’s lines by every means. One time we fumbled furiously near the building, and, in the heat of our tackling, one fellow seized the ball and kicked it without minding in which direction he was aiming. If he had had less skill the ball would have gone only over the roof and dropped on the head of a jinrikisha man running on the other street. But as it was, it went madly against a window-pane and smashed it all to pieces. What a noise it made! For a minute it made all the boys and girls playing on the ground keep quite still. And in this awful suspense a teacher appeared and caught the five, I among the number, who were still in the position of fumbling, together with the poor fellow who did the kicking, and who stood dazed, unable to recover as yet from the shock of his late experience. I didn’t know how the other four escaped being caught, but I was glad that they did.

There was no question in the teacher’s mind but that all six should be exhibited in the hallway, and so we were made to stand there, each holding a bowl of water. Now I had an ample opportunity to learn every significance of this form of punishment. Naturally, we felt merry at first. In the first place, there was something unreasonable and ludicrous in the way at least five of us came to stand there. And then when you have companions in your bad luck, you feel surely light of heart. And so we did. But when fifteen, thirty minutes passed, our legs got to be stiff and the weightless bowls began to weigh very much in our hands. Indeed, the slightest inclination would spill the water! But why did we not drink some of it, you may say? Well, we should have done it, but we knew that it must all be there when the teacher came. Forty-five minutes, and the bell rang for the dismissal. All the boys and girls poured out, leaving us alone. Ah, that is the saddest moment for any schoolboy, for after that the school is dismal as a prison. Fifteen minutes more, and all the teachers, except the one in charge of us, were gone. None of us dared to look up, our heads being bent with extreme sorrow. Presently a weak-minded fellow dropped his china and cried out. It was not I, but we were all ready to follow his example, when the teacher came out, and, removing the bowls, read us a lecture before sending us home.

We lost our courage, even to run out of the school compound, but dragged slowly home. But when I turned the first corner whom should I meet but my Tomo-chan?

“Why, Tomo-chan!” I looked at her in surprise.

“I could not go home without you. So I waited for you. But isn’t it a shame for teacher to punish you without your deserving it?” she said.“We did not want to let Takeda suffer alone, you know.”

My answer was a surprise even to me. Of course, I did not think to the contrary, but I was not impressed with the significance of it till I put it into words and—to her. It came as a new thought to me. Our hearts became light, the thing was forgotten, and only the prospect of the fine time we should have that golden afternoon in late summer occupied our minds.

“Come along,” I said. “Let’s go to the field!”

And we hastened on briskly, and, throwing our things into our houses on the way, went to the field, green with cool, cushion-like grass. About a dozen boys and girls were already waiting for us, and we just jumped among them.

“What shall we play?” said one.

“Let’s have Kotoro-kotoro,” suggested another.

“That’s fun!” all shouted.

To play the game, we must first select from the boys one “chief” to protect his “sons and daughters,” and one “imp” to catch them. The boys stand in a circle and are ready to say “Jan-ken-pon,” and to hammer with their fists. At “pon” you make one of three shapes with your hand. When your hand is spread, that denotes a sheet of paper; when two fingers only are stretched, that means a pair of scissors; and when your hand is held closed, it signifies a stone. A sheet of paper can be cut by scissors, but the latter is ineffectual on a stone. But a stone can be wrapped by a sheet of paper. Hence, each one can defeat one of the rest, but is conquered by the other. To simplify the matter, you can use only two of the three shapes. The one who wins at first is to be the chief, the one who is ultimately defeated, the imp. So we began: “Jan-ken-pon!”

Only three won. Then those three tried again.

“Jan-ken-pon!”I won; and so was the chief. The rest went on jan-ken-ponning till the imp was decided.

Now all except the imp held firmly each other’s belt on the back, in a line, with me at the head. It is a pity you don’t have any belt on your dress, and so play the sport. It is very convenient to us. Apart from its use in sport, when we meet a robber, we throw him down by jiu-jitsu, and, untying our belt, bind him up hand and foot! But to return. I was ready with the imp in front and with my “little ones” behind, like the body of a centipede. The imp could not touch me; he could only seize any one behind. I stretched my arms, ran to and fro to prevent the imp from getting round to my flanks. The line swayed, rolled, jerked like a serpent in a rapid flight. And the motion would all but throw weak-armed ones off their holds. But they merrily persisted, and could have held on longer but for their mirth being worked up too high by the very manner of the imp himself.

The boy who played that part was a born comedian. He loved his fun more than his bread. Once in the midst of his supper he heard a man come with a monkey dressed in a kimono. No sooner than he recognized that by the sound of a drum, he threw away his chop-sticks, and, running out of his house, danced all way up the street with the professional monkey as his wondering spectator. Now in playing his part as the imp, he did not go about it like an eagle intent on his prey. But he brought all his talent into full play in every motion of his body, suggestive of some grotesque form, heightened by a queer ejaculation. When, in his series of performances, he imitated a pig, flapping his hands from his head like large ears of the animal and grunting, Gr-r-r-r, Gr-r-r-r, it caused everybody to burst into laughter. At this moment he made a sudden turn, which caused such a jerk to the line, that, being absent-minded from merriment, they were all thrown out of their hold, each rolling on the grass, but still laughing at the grunting. The imp could now jump at anybody for his prey, but as a true comedian, he also rolled on the grass, laughing with the rest.