Early the next morning they crept forth, climbed the hill to the shed where they had met the evening before and, piloted by Mr. Harding, made their way to a spot further on where the chairs were waiting. The mists were rolling up from the mountains and Fujisan's crest was quite hidden. There was no sign of a living creature, but once or twice a blithe lark caroled forth his morning song. The waving green of the bamboo stretched on each side, making a perfect jungle, and trees of beech, oak or fir arched overhead. It was decided to stop at one of the tea-houses of the little village of Kiga where they could get breakfast and then continue their journey. A pretty place was chosen where there was a garden and a pond of goldfish, a spot not unlike many others near by, but it seemed the most attractive, and the smiling maids were perhaps more inviting than those they had passed by.
Exultant at having entirely outwitted the ubiquitous Mr. Warner, and refreshed by their breakfast of tea, eggs and rice cakes, they started on, stopping to feed the fishes first and to view the pretty little garden. Only the rush of mountain streams broke the silence as they went on to the pass of O Tomi Toge. Here they halted, for the rest of the journey must be made on foot and with a careful guide.
"Oh, look!" exclaimed Nan as she descended from her chair and cast her eyes in the direction of a great valley. "Such a view of Fujisan I never had."
"Glorious! Splendid!" came from one and another. The mists were still curling around the crown of the solitary peak, but this rendered it even more beautiful, with a foreground of pines and box-trees, and nearer still, growths of snowy flowers, as if reflected from the snowy peak of the mountain itself.
"It smells very queer," remarked Jean sniffing daintily, "but then Japan is so full of queer odors that I am not surprised."
"We must be near the 'Valley of the Greater Boiling,'" decided Nan.
"There is no doubt of that," remarked Mr. Harding; "look at those blighted trees, and see that stream dashing over those rocks of black and yellow. This must be the very entrance to the Stygian valley."
A precipitous and awe-inspiring climb they had now, following the guide with the utmost caution lest they slip through and become engulfed in the boiling mud. No vegetation was here, but the earth and the rocks bore evidences of a blasting, sulphurous heat. In some spots, smoke issued and there were ghastly sputterings and splittings of the earth's crust.
"Isn't it the very epitome of all that is horrible and frightful?" said Nan. "Jack, please be very careful. I heard of some one who lost his life by falling into that awful place, and more than one has been burned severely."
Jack promised and did intend to be very careful, but she was a venturesome young person and could not withstand the temptation to go a little nearer the edge of the dark stream. But fortunately Mr. Harding was watching and dragged her back in time to prevent a misstep into the seething sulphur. Jack herself turned pale as she realized the danger, for the guide, taking a pole, cautiously plunged it into the crust near which she had ventured and immediately it sank deep, deep down into depths of boiling mud.
Nan covered her eyes. "Oh, Jack," she quavered, "just suppose you had gone an inch nearer."
"But I didn't," returned Jack lightly.
"You would have but for Mr. Harding." Nan turned eyes still full of horror on Jack's preserver, while Jack herself held out her hand.
"Thank you," she said. "I came near getting into a bad scrape, didn't I?" She walked off in a direction which gave her safety, really more overcome than she was willing to admit.
"I want to thank you, too," said Nan in a low voice to the young man. "I cannot face the thought of what might have happened but for your quick eye and – " She paused and turned her head, unable to keep back the tears which nervousness brought to her eyes.
"Don't, please don't," said Mr. Harding coming to her side. "Let us leave this terrible place and go somewhere out of danger where you can sit down and get calm. You are trembling still."
He led her to a sheltered spot and presently she was herself again. Mary Lee and Jean had already returned, Jean being quite too timid to venture so far as the others. Jack meekly followed behind Nan and her companion, for once feeling too young to demand attention, and altogether ashamed of having given her dear Nan such cause for alarm. She sat apart quite in the manner of a younger Jack who so often felt herself a culprit. "We must not say anything to Aunt Helen and mother about this," charged Nan as she rose to her feet. "Remember, Jack, not a word to any one, not even to Mary Lee or Jean. There is no use in giving needless worry to them, for even now that it is all over and you are safe, it would distress mother and call up all sorts of visions."
"Dear me," returned Jack plaintively, "I am sure I shall only be too glad not to have it known that I was such a silly thing. The worst of it is," she added, "that I cannot feel that I am superior to Mr. Warner after this."
This brought a laugh and relieved the tension. Then after one more look at the curling white smoke, the bare, leafless valley, they left the place and took the narrow path which led them back to what seemed an upper world.
"I feel as if I had been to the mouth of the underworld," said Nan. "It is early yet; suppose we go around by Lake Hakoné; it is so lovely a spot that perhaps it will drive away the horror of this. We shall enjoy it more to-day with no punster along, and moreover it is a much brighter day and we shall see the reflections more clearly."
This plan was unanimously approved and returning by another path, they came to the bottomless lake in whose perpetually cold waters Fujisan was reflected in all its beauty, for now the mists had rolled away and the Lady Mountain revealed herself without her veil.
A tea-house near at hand furnished them with lunch and after a rest and another stop to feed the fishes in Kiga's tea-house garden they went on their way, arriving at Myanoshita to find that Mr. Warner was off in search of them and could not imagine how they had escaped his watchful eye.
"We told him you started very early," Mrs. Corner said merrily, "and that neither your Aunt Helen nor I had seen you before you went."
Later on when the young man did appear he was charged with being a sleepy-head and so well were the tables turned that he believed himself alone to blame for being left out of the day's expedition.
CHAPTER XII
NIKKO, THE MAGNIFICENT
Before the end of the week, came a letter from Mrs. Craig urging them all to join her in the mountains near the famous temples of Nikko. "I have been unable to find you a proper house," she wrote, "but I think you can be very comfortable at one of the inns. I would my own cottage were larger so I could take you all in, but I shall insist upon having Nan and Mary Lee at least. Eleanor gets lonely and begs that they will not disappoint her. You know the old saying, 'Do not say kekko till you have seen Nikko,' meaning that you are not to call any spot magnificent until you have been up here."
Mrs. Craig's letter was followed by one from Eleanor herself. She clamored for her college mates, using every persuasive word and every argument in her power, till they felt it would be fairly wicked not to accept.
For some reason Mr. Harding seemed almost as eager as Eleanor, lending his arguments to hers till finally the girls wrote to say that they would come and Miss Helen decided that they would trust to Mrs. Craig's declaration that the rest could be well housed near by.
"We must keep it a dead secret from Mr. Warner," declared Jack, "for the first thing you know he will bob up serenely with that ridiculous helmet of his and that pongee coat. If I see any one up there wearing the likes, I know I shall faint on the spot, for I shall believe it is Sylvanus Warner reincarnated. Such a name, Sylvanus; it makes me tired."
"He will think we are going back to Tokyo to stay, so we must get off before he gets on to the plan," remarked Jean.
"We will leave a polite little note," said Nan, "telling him that we are going to visit and travel and then when we get back to Tokyo we will let him know. Then we must make up our minds not to come back to Tokyo but to keep on to Kyoto which we must see."
"But it will be hot there," complained Jean, "for it is even further south."
"Oh, well, never mind; we can't stay in the mountains forever, and after being up there and getting back some of our lost energy we ought to be able to stand Kyoto for a while, anyhow," Nan decided.
Mr. Harding bade them good-bye the next day with more cheerfulness than Jack felt was exactly flattering. Nan thought that there was a touch of expectancy in his parting words to her. "I shall see you soon again, I hope," he said. "I am so very glad that you will be with Eleanor and Aunt Nora." Nan, however, kept her own counsel and did not speculate aloud upon what he might have meant her to infer.
Mr. Warner attached himself to their party when they returned to Tokyo, and no one seemed to mind very much, for, as Jack said, "It is always well to have a man around when you take a journey, even if he is a Silly Billy."
"I wonder if they called him Sylly for short when he was a little boy," said Jean, which was pretty good for her.
"They might just as appropriately have called him Vainy," returned Jack; and Sylly Vainy they dubbed him from that time out.
There was only a short halt in Tokyo, and then the start was made for the mountain retreat in the lovely highlands of Nippon. This meant a journey of about a hundred miles by rail, over a well-managed road. At various stations on the way, one could get from boys, only too eager for customers, well-packed luncheons, put up in attractive boxes, so a dining-car could be dispensed with.
"This seems quite like Europe," said Nan nibbling at her broiled chicken, "but I wish I had something to drink; one doesn't dare to try unboiled water in this country." Her wish was soon granted, for almost immediately came a boy with a little earthen pot of tea and a cup which he offered for the modest sum of two cents, pouring on hot water from a steaming kettle he carried.
On, past rice fields, once in a while catching glimpses of vast forests of cryptomeria, they journeyed to Nikko where they were met by Eleanor and the colonel to receive the warmest of greetings and to be hurried on to the mountain inn where four of the party were to stay.
"We will come to Nikko itself another day," the colonel said. "You will find enough to interest you in this region, I am sure. If you feel historically inclined, there are the temples and shrines rich with suggestions of Iyeyasu, than whom is no greater character in all Japanese chronicles. His tomb is here as well as that of his successor, Iemitsu. If you want splendor in the way of temples you have but to visit those erected to his memory. Then if your mood is for natural beauties, we can show you such waterfalls and cascades, such streams and lakes and rocky precipices, forests and glens that ought to satisfy the most ardent nature lover."
This all sounded very alluring and the whole party congratulated themselves that they had not left out this part of the country from their trip.
The Craigs' house was built on the Japanese plan with matted floors, and screened partitions. The entire front could be opened to the day, but at night it could be shut in by the wooden amado. An entrancing garden was kept in order by a Japanese gardener who devised miniature lakes and forests, rockeries and waterfalls, so that the whole was a most unique and delightful place at any hour of the day. Even in wet weather one could find protection under a most artistic summer-house, built of bamboo and supporting vines in flower.
The air was fresh and cool, a great relief after the sultriness of Tokyo, and a warm bath was ready, the water being brought through bamboo pipes. Then there was tea in the little pagoda and afterward all walked over to see how those at the inn were getting along. They were found to be in a state of entire content, in cool, pleasant rooms overlooking a charming garden, a verandah running along in front of their windows giving them a sheltered place to sit if they preferred seclusion.
"We are all going to see the temples the first thing to-morrow," announced Eleanor, "so you must all be ready."
"I can scarcely wait," declared Nan, "for I have dreamed of them ever since I began to study up on Japan. I hope you will all sleep well, so as to be in condition for our wonderful day."
"Sleeping on mats and hearing every least sound through paper partitions may not be conducive to sleep," returned her Aunt Helen, "but we shall do our best. What are we to see first, colonel?"
"The river and the Sacred Bridge would be the most natural in line of progression," returned he. "I am sure you will not exhaust the neighborhood in a long while, so we are hoping to keep you for many weeks."
"The more I hear, the more there seem to rise up new objects to marvel at," said Nan. "I have just heard of a wonderful cavern in the side of an extinct volcano. The Two-Storm Mountain they called it because of the fearful tempests that came spring and fall, but a great saint quelled the storm devils and now it is called Nikko-San, which means the Mountain of the Sun's Brightness. Isn't that a nice tale? I am trying to write down all the legends I hear, but there is such a bewildering number of them that I know some will get away before I have them safely captured."
The cool, mountain breezes made every one so sleepy that conversation lagged at an early hour and no one was inclined to sit up late that night, but there was not one who was not the better for the long night's rest and who was not eager to start out promptly the next morning.
"And so that is the Sacred Bridge, the red lacquer bridge over which none but the emperor may pass," said Mrs. Corner looking at the famous structure which spanned the torrent. "It is really beautiful against the rich green, isn't it? Who but Japanese would ever think of building a red lacquer bridge? But somehow it suits the landscape."
"The scarlet arch," murmured Nan thoughtfully. "Tell us something about it." She turned to the colonel.
"I should have to give you a long dissertation on Iyeyasu and the Tokugawa which I think would probably bore you all. We'd better wait till some rainy day for that."
"So I can make notes and not find my eyes and thoughts wandering as they would have to do now," returned Nan.
Jack was looking in her guide-book. "It is eighty-four feet across," she gave the information, "and it is said that the wood is in as good condition as when it was put there something like two hundred and forty years ago."
They left the scarlet arch to go on to the great grove of cryptomerias where stood the sacred temples. Many there were, large and small. Shrines and images, pagodas and gray stone lanterns were scattered throughout the wood, and wonderful some of these were, showing such richness of color, wonders in bronze and lacquer, marvels in gilt and white and black, miracles of design and splendor of ornament. It was all too bewildering to be taken in at one time, and they all agreed that one could get only a general impression upon a first view.
"We shall want to come many, many times," Miss Helen declared. "With such an embarrassment of riches one is left in a state of helpless amaze."
"It is by far the finest thing we have seen yet." Mary Lee was sure as to her opinion.
"I suppose every professor at college will be asking me my impressions and will be insisting upon a detailed description, when I get back," said Jack. "I shall have to learn pages of the guide-books for I shall never get a perfectly clear idea of it. I can hear myself saying lamely, 'Oh, it is all gilt and lacquer and there are dragons and queer beasts over everything.'"
"Such a very lucid description," said Jean contemptuously. "I shall try to make as clear a study as possible and take only a little at a time, one shrine, or a part of one temple."
"Good!" cried Jack, "then I can copy yours." It was exactly what Jack would do. She always economized time by taking advantage of Jean's plodding methods, and arrived at much more brilliant results thereby.
"We haven't seen the five hundred Buddhas," said Nan as they left the temples. "I read about them and it is said that they are so elusive that no two persons ever decide upon the same number when counting them."
"Oh, do let's go find them," cried Jack, this being in the manner of a game particularly appealing to her.
They came back to the bridge and climbed up the hillside by a flight of stone steps. Before them were more shrines and holy pagoda-like edifices. Mary Lee and Jean discovered the stone which marks the resting place of the great shogun's favorite horse. They lingered by the spot, Mary Lee reading aloud from her book. "The horse was at last turned loose on the hillside," she told Jean, "and had a long life of freedom here under the trees."
These two presently caught up with the others who were standing near a long row of queer stone images.
"These are the Buddhas," announced Jack.
"Did you ever see such a strong family resemblance as they bear to one another? I have counted them twice, but can't make anything like five hundred. The spray keeps them always moist and that is why they have gathered moss, like other individuals who stay in one place."
"One does seem to have been seized with a wanderlust," cried Nan. "Come here, Jack. There is one at the foot of the hill. I remember reading how he broke away from his companions once when he was afraid of a terrible storm. He tried to reach the village, but didn't quite get there."
They wandered about over the hillside till some one declared it must be time for lunch, and then Mrs. Craig announced that they were to make a picnic of this meal and were to find a silver lake where they were to be met by the servants with the hamper, and where they could rest and enjoy the lovely scene.
"What a delightful surprise," cried Miss Helen, as they suddenly espied the fair lake from a turn in the road, which they had just made. "Is this our picnic ground?"
"It is, and I hope you like it," Mrs. Craig answered. "Chuzenji Lake it is called. It is one of my favorite spots and is rather a relief after the gorgeousness of the temples."
"It is just that, sylvan quiet and perfect peace. One could lie here by the sands and think many thoughts."
The servants were bustling around unobtrusively and presently had an appetizing meal spread. They had brought a hibachi with which they could do wonders in preparing eggs, tea and various other things grateful to tired sightseers. There was much talk of the old legends and of later historical tales, the colonel waxing eloquent upon the subject of the great Iyeyasu who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate which continued almost to the present century.
"Iyeyasu died in 1616," the colonel told them, "and the present emperor came into power in 1868. Iyeyasu boasted of having fought ninety battles. He nearly destroyed Christianity and closed the door of Japan upon foreign nations. He was really a great man for he accomplished much, and although we must condemn many of his acts, we can but admire the man's tremendous force and strength of character. It was his request that his body should be brought to Nikko where were the most magnificent temples in the country. He is supposed to return to earth once a year to ride in that fine lacquered vehicle which brought his body hither. Some day when we get better acquainted with him and when you have become more familiar with the splendors of the various temples we will come and look at the relics of Iyeyasu."
"I get so dreadfully mixed up on the religions. I thought all the Chinese and Japanese were followers of Confucius," said Jean.
"Shinto is the legalized religion," the colonel told her. "It is ancestor worship, to describe it briefly, but you will find that the doctrines of Confucius are accepted as philosophies rather than as religious dogmas. Shintoism means 'the way of the gods.' To quote one writer, 'it is a mixture of nature worship and the worship of ancestors.' It has its own mythological gods, heroes and traditions. The god, Izanagi, and the goddess, Isanami, are supposed to be the parents of the Japanese Islands. The great Sun-goddess, who is the supreme deity, was born from Izanagi's left eye. The Shinto temples are very simple compared to those of the Buddhists who introduced their religion into the country about the sixth century. There are several sects of Buddhists. There is the Shin-shu and the Jodo-shu, for instance, and though all these sects differ on minor points they agree upon the more important ones. Buddhist temples are often built in isolated spots, upon the mountains or in deep valleys, while the Shin sect erect their places of worship principally in the cities. One would have to make a pretty deep study of all these different beliefs to understand the differences, or indeed to understand just what is the belief of any one sect. If you go in for folk-lore it will be necessary for you to get some slight notion, at least, of the mythology and of the salient features of the doctrines. There, I have given you a long lecture, and I shall not tire you out by saying any more."
"It is all very interesting, and makes one want to go deeper into it," confessed Nan.
"Very well, any time you come up against a blank wall I will do my best to open the way for you," said the colonel. "I am by no means an authority, and have only the veriest smattering of the subject, but I find it an interesting one, and in my talks with various missionaries, I have learned something."
"There is something very wonderful about the temple gardens," said Miss Helen. "I notice that each one has some special form of development. Here we have the cryptomeria trees as a dominant feature; at Uyeno it was the cherry trees, and at Kamakura the lotus held sway."
"That is all quite true, and at Kyoto you will find that water is made to occupy the centre of interest. The gardens of Japan are alone worth a study. I was surprised, when I first came, to see how one single material was sometimes worked up in such a way as to give a charming individuality. In one, garden rocks would be used; in another, there would be little waterfalls, rills, and aquatic plants; in a third, you would find certain scenes reproduced in miniature; a little pool will stand for a lake, the rock in the middle will be an island, the mountainside will be represented by small inclines planted thickly with dwarf bushes. Such gardens are often real works of art."
There was much more talk of this kind during the time they were resting after their meal and then the move was made for a return. "So we can digest our luncheon and the colonel's lecture at the same time," said Jack saucily.
"I hope both will agree with you," returned the colonel with a smile. They returned by way of the town where a new sight caught their amused attention. An energetic bullock, the motive power of a short railway line, was seen performing his office of engine quite as a matter of course, drawing cars along the track at the rate of two miles an hour.
"In this land of Upside-down-ness, that is about the funniest thing I have seen," declared Jack. "I shall expect to see monkeys acting as telephone girls and cats doing the postman act."
"There is one thing about the cats here, I notice," said Jean gravely, "they don't carry tails."
The girls all groaned. "See what pernicious influence can be wrought by one person," said Mary Lee. "Jean has been associating with Sylly Vainy for so long that she has borrowed his peculiarities." Which remark quite settled Jean.