Volume II Part 44 (2/2)

Please pardon these little observations, which are not intended as criticisestions

Believe me ever most sincerely yours,

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO MRS WETMORE

TOKYO, July, 1902

MY DEAR MRS WETMORE,--Perhaps you can reo to japan, because I want to read the books that you rite about it” As ht to be getting satisfied

I a--not without some difficulty--to ask whether you would or could play the part of a fairy God-sister, in helping me to find, for the time of a year or two years, some easy situation in America

As my eyes are nearly burnt out, I should have to depend upon quality rather than quantity of work Some post upon a literary weekly--where I could eood I doubt whether the universities would give lish literature

Somy boy with me: it is chiefly for his sake Once that he learns to speak English well, the rest of his education will not disturb me I am his only teacher and want to continue to teach him for a few years more--South or West I should prefer to East--”where only a swordfish can swiht touch with your wand the _only_ thing that would exactly help land is hopeless, of course: I have no chance of earning anything in that ”awful orderliness” My fa my absence; but the provision will leaveabroad

What is worse still, I have been so utterly isolated here that I have no conception of the actual tone and state of things abroad I do not kno I stand”

You should try to think of your old acquaintance as a srey unpleasant ”old man”

Yours very sincerely, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO MRS WETMORE

YAIDZU, August, 1902

DEAR MRS WETMORE,--Your kindest letter of July 23d reached e of Yaidzu, where I a you a ”grey-haired woman of forty” is, of course, impossible Even ifuntruth It is quite certain that you are a fairy,--capable of assu myriad shapes,--but I know the shapes to be each and all--_Maya_! I never really saw any of the raph; and they were all different persons, belonging to different centuries, and containing different souls About you I should not even trust the eyes of the X-rays My ly,--but justifying the iination of _une jeune fille un peu farouche_ (there is no English word that gives the same sense of shyness _and_ force) who cas for a paper there, and was so kind to a particular variety of savage that he could not understand--and was afraid

I a written you more fully I fear you think that I am in a very _immediate_ hurry No: if a fair chance can come to me in the course of a year, or even fifteen months, I can easily wait My people have their own ho presses Even if the ----s should find ways and means to poke me out of the Government service (they have tried it--in oh! so many ways--for four years past), I should feel quite easy about matters for a twelve you any hurry-scurry trouble But, perhaps in a year's tiht offer itself

I am _afraid_ of New York City for my boy's sake I should not like to let him risk one New York winter Besides, what exercise can a boy have in New York--no trees, fields, strea were to happen to _hio out I can't take risks-- Oh, if I were by myself--yes: twenty dollars a er any wants personal

Every year there are born soer, handsomer than mine I may be quite a fool in my esti of that sort Perhaps there will prove to be ”nothing in him” I cannot tell All that I am quite sure of is that he naturally likes what is delicate, clean, refined, and kindly,--and that he naturally shrinks froht_ learn easily ”the things that areof civilization

Anyhow, I ive it a chance to prove what it is worth It is ME, in another birth--with renewed forces given by a strange and char blood fro out of the little lamp

[Illustration: KAZUO AND IWAO, MR HEARN'S OLDER CHILDREN]