บทที่ บทที่ 4 · For us teachers there was a duty of night watch in the school, a

For us teachers there was a duty of night watch in the school, and we

had to do it in turn. But Badger and Red Shirt were not in it. On

asking why these two were exempt from this duty, I was told that they

were accorded by the government treatment similar to officials of

“Sonin” rank. Oh, fudge! They were paid more, worked less, and were

then excused from this night watch. It was not fair. They made

regulations to suit their convenience and seemed to regard all this as

a matter of course. How could they be so brazen faced as this! I was

greatly dissatisfied relative to this question, but according to the

opinion of Porcupine, protests by a single person, with what insistency

they may be made, will not be heard. They ought to be heard whether

they are made by one person or by two if they are just. Porcupine

remonstrated with me by quoting “Might is right” in English. I did not

catch his point, so I asked him again, and he told me that it meant the

right of the stronger. If it was the right of the stronger I had known

it for long, and did not require Porcupine explain that to me at this

time. The right of the stronger was a question different from that of

the night watch. Who would agree that Badger and Red Shirt were the

stronger? But argument or no argument, the turn of this night watch at

last fell upon me. Being quite fastidious, I never enjoyed sound sleep

unless I slept comfortably in my own bedding. From my childhood, I

never stayed out overnight. When I did not find sleeping under the roof

of my friends inviting, night watch in the school, you may be sure, was

still worse. However repulsive, if this was a part of the forty yen a

month, there was no alternative. I had to do it.

To remain alone in the school after the faculty and students had gone

home, was something particularly awkward. The room for the night watch

was in the rear of the school building at the west end of the

dormitory. I stepped inside to see how it was, and finding it squarely

facing the setting sun, I thought I would melt. In spite of autumn

having already set in, the hot spell still lingered, quite in keeping

with the dilly-dally atmosphere of the country. I ordered the same kind

of meal as served for the students, and finished my supper. The meal

was unspeakably poor. It was a wonder they could subsist on such

miserable stuff and keep on “roughing it” in that lively fashion. Not

only that, they were always hungry for supper, finishing it at 4.30 in

the afternoon. They must be heroes in a sense. I had thus my supper,

but the sun being still high, could not go to bed yet. I felt like

going to the hot-springs. I did not know the wrong or right of night

watch going out, but it was oppressively trying to stand a life akin to

heavy imprisonment. When I called at the school the first time and

inquired about night watch, I was told by the janitor that he had just

gone out and I thought it strange. But now by taking the turn of night

watch myself, I could fathom the situation; it was right for any night

watch to go out. I told the janitor that I was going out for a minute.

He asked me “on business?” and I answered “No,” but to take a bath at

the hot springs, and went out straight. It was too bad that I had left

my red towel at home, but I would borrow one over there for to-day.

I took plenty of time in dipping in the bath and as it became dark at

last, I came to the Furumachi Station on a train. It was only about

four blocks to the school; I could cover it in no time. When I started

walking schoolwards, Badger was seen coming from the opposite

direction. Badger, I presumed, was going to the hot springs by this

train. He came with brisk steps, and as we passed by, I nodded my

courtesy. Then Badger, with a studiously owlish countenance, asked:

“Am I wrong to understand that you are night watch?”

Chuck that “Am-I-wrong-to-understand”! Two hours ago, did he not say to

me “You’re on first night watch to-night. Now, take care of yourself?”

What makes one use such a roundabout, twisted way of saying anything

when he becomes a principal? I was far from smiling.

“Yes, Sir,” I said, “I’m night watch to-night, and as I am night watch

I will return to the school and stay there overnight, sure.” With this

parting shot, I left him where we met. Coming then to the cross-streets

of Katamachi, I met Porcupine. This is a narrow place, I tell you.

Whenever one ventures out, he is sure to come across some familiar

face.

“Say, aren’t you night watch?” he hallooed, and I said “Yes, I am.”

“Tis wrong for night watch to leave his post at his pleasure,” he

added, and to this I blurted out with a bold front; “Nothing wrong at

all. It is wrong not to go out.”

“Say, old man, your slap-dash is going to the limit. Wouldn’t look well

for the principal or the head teacher to see you out like this.”

The submissive tone of his remark was contrary to Porcupine as I had

known him so far, so I cut him short by saying:

“I have met the principal just now. Why, he approved my taking a stroll

about the town. Said it would be hard on night watch unless he took a

walk when it is hot.” Then I made a bee-line for the school.

Soon it was night. I called the janitor to my room and had a chat for

about two hours. I grew tired of this, and thought I would get into bed

anyway, even if I could not sleep. I put on my night shirt, lifted the

mosquito-net, rolled off the red blanket and fell down flat on my back

with a bang. The making of this bumping noise when I go to bed is my

habit from my boyhood. “It is a bad habit,” once declared a student of

a law school who lived on the ground floor, and I on the second, when I

was in the boarding house at Ogawa-machi, Kanda-ku, and who brought

complaints to my room in person. Students of law schools, weaklings as

they are, have double the ability of ordinary persons when it comes to

talking. As this student of law dwelt long on absurd accusations, I

downed him by answering that the noise made when I went to bed was not

the fault of my hip, but that of the house which was not built on a

solid base, and that if he had any fuss to make, make it to the house,

not to me. This room for night watch was not on the second floor, so

nobody cared how much I banged. I do not feel well-rested unless I go

to bed with the loudest bang I can make.

“This is bully!” and I straightened out my feet, when something jumped

and clung to them. They felt coarse, and seemed not to be fleas. I was

a bit surprised, and shook my feet inside the blanket two or three

times. Instantly the blamed thing increased,—five or six of them on my

legs, two or three on the thighs, one crushed beneath my hip and

another clear up to my belly. The shock became greater. Up I jumped,

took off the blanket, and about fifty to sixty grasshoppers flew out. I

was more or less uneasy until I found out what they were, but now I saw

they were grasshoppers, they set me on the war path. “You insignificant

grasshoppers, startling a man! See what’s coming to you!” With this I

slapped them with my pillow twice or thrice, but the objects being so

small, the effect was out of proportion to the force with which the

blows were administered. I adopted a different plan. In the manner of

beating floor-mats with rolled matting at house-cleaning, I sat up in

bed and began beating them with the pillow. Many of them flew up by the

force of the pillow; some desperately clung on or shot against my nose

or head. I could not very well hit those on my head with the pillow; I

grabbed such, and dashed them on the floor. What was more provoking was

that no matter how hard I dashed them, they landed on the mosquito-net

where they made a fluffy jerk and remained, far from being dead. At

last, in about half an hour the slaughter of the grasshoppers was

ended. I fetched a broom and swept them out. The janitor came along and

asked what was the matter.

“Damn the matter! Where in thunder are the fools who keep grasshoppers

in bed! You pumpkinhead!”

The janitor answered by explaining that he did not know anything about

it. “You can’t get away with Did-not-know,” and I followed this

thundering by throwing away the broom. The awe-struck janitor

shouldered the broom and faded away.

At once I summoned three of the students to my room as the

“representatives,” and six of them reported. Six or ten made no

difference; I rolled up the sleeves of my night-shirt and fired away.

“What do you mean by putting grasshoppers in my bed!”

“Grasshoppers? What are they?” said one in front, in a tone

disgustingly quiet. In this school, not only the principal, but the

students as well, were addicted to using twisted-round expressions.

“Don’t know grasshoppers! You shall see!” To my chagrin, there was

none; I had swept them all out. I called the janitor again and told him

to fetch those grasshoppers he had taken away. The janitor said he had

thrown them into the garbage box, but that he would pick them out

again. “Yes, hurry up,” I said, and he sped away. After a while he

brought back about ten grasshoppers on a white paper, remarking:

“I’m sorry, Sir. It’s dark outside and I can’t find out more. I’ll find

some tomorrow.” All fools here, down to the janitor. I showed one

grasshopper to the students.

“This is a grasshopper. What’s the matter for as big idiots as you not

to know a grasshopper.” Then the one with a round face sitting on the

left saucily shot back:

“A-ah say, that’s a locust, a-ah——.”

“Shut up. They’re the same thing. In the first place, what do you mean

by answering your teacher ‘A-ah say’? Ah-Say or Ah-Sing is a Chink’s

name!”

For this counter-shot, he answered:

“A-ah say and Ah-Sing is different,—A-ah say.” They never got rid of

“A-ah say.”

“Grasshoppers or locusts, why did you put them into my bed? When I

asked you to?”

“Nobody put them in.”

“If not, how could they get into the bed?”

“Locusts are fond of warm places and probably they got in there

respectfully by themselves.”

“You fools! Grasshoppers getting into bed respectfully! I should smile

at them getting in there respectfully! Now, what’s the reason for doing

this mischief? Speak out.”

“But there is no way to explain it because we didn’t do it.”

Shrimps! If they were afraid of making a clean breast of their own

deed, they should not have done it at all. They looked defiant, and

appeared to insist on their innocence as long as no evidence was

brought up. I myself did some mischief while in the middle school, but

when the culprit was sought after, I was never so cowardly, not even

once, to back out. What one has done, has been done; what he has not,

has not been,—that’s the black and white of it. I, for one have been

game and square, no matter how much mischief I might have done. If I

wished to dodge the punishment, I would not start it. Mischief and

punishment are bound to go together. We can enjoy mischief-making with

some show of spirit because it is accompanied by certain consequences.

Where does one expect to see the dastardly spirit which hungers for

mischief-making without punishment, in vogue? The fellows who like to

borrow money but not pay it back, are surely such as these students

here after they are graduated. What did these fellows come to this

middle school for, anyway? They enter a school, tattle round lies, play

silly jokes behind some one by sneaking and cheating and get wrongly

swell-headed when they finish the school thinking they have received an

education. A common lot of jackasses they are.

My hatred of talking with these scamps became intense, so I dismissed

them by saying:

“If you fellows have nothing to say, let it go at that. You deserve

pity for not knowing the decent from the vulgar after coming to a

middle school.”

I am not very decent in my own language or manner, but am sure that my

moral standard is far more decent than that of these gangs. Those six

boys filed out leisurely. Outwardly they appeared more dignified than I

their teacher. It was the more repulsive for their calm behavior. I

have no temerity equal to theirs. Then I went to bed again, and found

the inside of the net full of merry crowds of mosquitoes. I could not

bother myself to burn one by one with a candle flame. So I took the net

off the hooks, folded it the lengthwise, and shook it crossways, up and

down the room. One of the rings of the net, flying round, accidentally

hit the back of my hand, the effect of which I did not soon forget.

When I went to bed for the third time, I cooled off a little, but could

not sleep easily. My watch showed it was half past ten. Well, as I

thought it over, I realized myself as having come to a dirty pit. If

all teachers of middle schools everywhere have to handle fellows like

these in this school, those teachers have my sympathy. It is wonderful

that teachers never run short. I believe there are many boneheads of

extraordinary patience; but me for something else. In this respect,

Kiyo is worthy of admiration. She is an old woman, with neither

education nor social position, but as a human, she does more to command

our respect. Until now, I have been a trouble to her without

appreciating her goodness, but having come alone to such a far-off

country, I now appreciated, for the first time, her kindness. If she is

fond of sasa-ame of Echigo province, and if I go to Echigo for the

purpose of buying that sweetmeat to let her eat it, she is fully worth

that trouble. Kiyo has been praising me as unselfish and straight, but

she is a person of sterling qualities far more than I whom she praises.

I began to feel like meeting her.

While I was thus meditating about Kiyo, all of a sudden, on the floor

above my head, about thirty to forty people, if I guess by the number,

started stamping the floor with bang, bang, bang that well threatened

to bang down the floor. This was followed by proportionately loud

whoops. The noise surprised me, and I popped up. The moment I got up I

became aware that the students were starting a rough house to get even

with me. What wrong one has committed, he has to confess, or his

offence is never atoned for. They are just to ask for themselves what

crimes they have done. It should be proper that they repent their folly

after going to bed and to come and beg me pardon the next morning. Even

if they could not go so far as to apologize they should have kept

quiet. Then what does this racket mean? Were we keeping hogs in our

dormitory?

“This crazy thing got to stop. See what you get!”

I ran out of the room in my night shirt, and flew upstairs in three

and half steps. Then, strange to say, the thunderous rumbling, of

which I was sure of hearing in the act, was hushed. Not only a whisper

but even footsteps were not heard. This was funny. The lamp was

already blown out and although I could not see what was what in the

dark, nevertheless could tell by instinct whether there was somebody

around or not. In the long corridor running from the east to the west,

there was not hiding even a mouse. From other end of the corridor the

moonlight flooded in and about there it was particularly light. The

scene was somewhat uncanny. I have had the habit from my boyhood of

frequently dreaming and of flying out of bed and of muttering things

which nobody understood, affording everybody a hearty laugh. One

night, when I was sixteen or seventeen, I dreamed that I picked up a

diamond, and getting up, demanded of my brother who was sleeping close

to me what he had done with that diamond. The demand was made with

such force that for about three days all in the house chaffed me about

the fatal loss of precious stone, much to my humiliation. Maybe this

noise which I heard was but a dream, although I was sure it was real.

I was wondering thus in the middle of the corridor, when at the

further end where it was moonlit, a roar was raised, coming from about

thirty or forty throats, “One, two, three,—Whee-ee!” The roar had

hardly subsided, when, as before, the stamping of the floor commenced

with furious rhythm. Ah, it was not a dream, but a real thing!

“Quit making the noise! ’Tis midnight!”

I shouted to beat the band, and started in their direction. My passage

was dark; the moonlight yonder was only my guide. About twelve feet

past, I stumbled squarely against some hard object; ere the “Ouch!” has

passed clear up to my head, I was thrown down. I called all kinds of

gods, but could not run. My mind urged me on to hurry up, but my leg

would not obey the command. Growing impatient, I hobbled on one foot,

and found both voice and stamping already ceased and perfectly quiet.

Men can be cowards but I never expected them capable of becoming such

dastardly cowards as this. They challenged hogs.

Now the situation having developed to this pretty mess, I would not

give it up until I had dragged them out from hiding and forced them to

apologize. With this determination, I tried to open one of the doors

and examine inside, but it would not open. It was locked or held fast

with a pile of tables or something; to my persistent efforts the door

stood unyielding. Then I tried one across the corridor on the

northside, but it was also locked. While this irritating attempt at

door-opening was going on, again on the east end of the corridor the

whooping roar and rhythmic stamping of feet were heard. The fools at

both ends were bent on making a goose of me. I realized this, but then

I was at a loss what to do. I frankly confess that I have not quite as

much tact as dashing spirit. In such a case I am wholly at the mercy of

swaying circumstances without my own way of getting through it.

Nevertheless, I do not expect to play the part of underdog. If I

dropped the affair then and there, it would reflect upon my dignity. It

would be mortifying to have them think that they had one on the

Tokyo-kid and that Tokyo-kid was wanting in tenacity. To have it on

record that I had been guyed by these insignificant spawn when on night

watch, and had to give in to their impudence because I could not handle

them,—this would be an indelible disgrace on my life. Mark ye,—I am

descendant of a samurai of the “hatamoto” class. The blood of the

“hatamoto” samurai could be traced to Mitsunaka Tada, who in turn could

claim still a nobler ancestor. I am different from, and nobler than,

these manure-smelling louts. The only pity is that I am rather short of

tact; that I do not know what to do in such a case. That is the

trouble. But I would not throw up the sponge; not on your life! I only

do not know how because I am honest. Just think,—if the honest does not

win, what else is there in this world that will win? If I cannot beat

them to-night, I will tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then the day after

tomorrow. If not the day after tomorrow, I will sit down right here,

get my meals from my home until I beat them.

Thus resolved, I squatted in the middle of the corridor and waited for

the dawn. Myriads of mosquitoes swarmed about me, but I did not mind

them. I felt my leg where I hit it a while ago; it seemed bespattered

with something greasy. I thought it was bleeding. Let it bleed all it

cares! Meanwhile, exhausted by these unwonted affairs, I fell asleep.

When I awoke, up I jumped with a curse. The door on my right was half

opened, and two students were standing in front of me. The moment I

recovered my senses from the drowsy lull, I grabbed a leg of one of

them nearest to me, and yanked it with all my might. He fell down

prone. Look at what you’re getting now! I flew at the other fellow, who

was much confused; gave him vigorous shaking twice or thrice, and he

only kept open his bewildering eyes.

“Come up to my room.” Evidently they were mollycoddles, for they obeyed

my command without a murmur. The day had become already clear.

I began questioning those two in my room, but,—you cannot pound out the

leopard’s spots no matter how you may try,—they seemed determined to

push it through by an insistent declaration of “not guilty,” that they

would not confess. While this questioning was going on, the students

upstairs came down, one by one, and began congregating in my room. I

noticed all their eyes were swollen from want of sleep.

“Blooming nice faces you got for not sleeping only one night. And you

call yourselves men! Go, wash your face and come back to hear what I’ve

got to tell you.”

I hurled this shot at them, but none of them went to wash his face. For

about one hour, I had been talking and back-talking with about fifty

students when suddenly Badger put in his appearance. I heard afterward

that the janitor ran to Badger for the purpose of reporting to him that

there was a trouble in the school. What a weak-knee of the janitor to

fetch the principal for so trifling an affair as this! No wonder he

cannot see better times than a janitor.

The principal listened to my explanation, and also to brief remarks

from the students. “Attend school as usual till further notice. Hurry

up with washing your face and breakfast; there isn’t much time left.”

So the principal let go all the students. Decidedly slow way of

handling, this. If I were the principal, I would expel them right away.

It is because the school accords them such luke-warm treatment that

they get “fresh” and start “guying” the night watch.

He said to me that it must have been trying on my nerves, and that I

might be tired, and also that I need not teach that day. To this I

replied:

“No, Sir, no worrying at all. Such things may happen every night, but

it would not disturb me in the least as long as I breathe. I will do

the teaching. If I were not able to teach on account of lack of sleep

for only one single night, I would make a rebate of my salary to the

school.”

I do not know how this impressed him, but he gazed at me for a while,

and called my attention to the fact that my face was rather swollen.

Indeed, I felt it heavy. Besides, it itched all over. I was sure the

mosquitoes must have stung me there to their hearts’ content. I further

added:

“My face may be swollen, but I can talk all right; so I will teach;”

thus scratching my face with some warmth. The principal smiled and

remarked, “Well, you have the strength.” To tell the truth, he did not

intend remark to be a compliment, but, I think, a sneer.