In an old country like Japan, which has a history of two thousand years,
there must be much treasure buried in the soil. There have been
centuries of war, when people lived in continual danger of robbers or
soldiers.
In those times money and other valuables were often secreted in the
ground, out in the woods or meadows, or under the foundations of a
house. The death of the owner would leave the spot unknown, to lie in
obscurity forever, or to reward some accidental finder of the prize. In
almost all the old settled parts of Japan every spot of ground has been
built and burned, farmed and fought over, many times, and the discovery
of hidden treasure is a common occurrence. The Japanese government has
passed laws declaring that all such treasure belongs to the state. The
honest finder is always, however, liberally rewarded.
[Illustration]
While living in Japan, from 1870 to 1874, I heard of several cases of
buried treasure coming to light. Some of them were old pieces of money,
like bullets, or lumps of silver and gold of all shapes, and simply
stamped in one place. The happy finder in the picture has struck upon a
mass of the thin oval gold coins called obans, which are worth from ten
to fifty dollars each in our money. Even his dog shares his glee, while
behind him is his envious neighbor, who is vexed because he did not see
the coins first.
There are many foolish persons in the United States who have spent great
labor and wasted much time to find the pots of gold which Captain Kidd
is said to have buried near the sea-shore. So in Japan: I met, while
there, several foolish people, whose whole mind was set on getting
suddenly rich by finding buried money. The amount of spade-work and
field-digging which they accomplished without any success would have
sufficed to have made good farmers of them. It is a surer thing in
Japan, as in America, to seek to find gold by steady work and a mind on
the lookout for opportunities than by digging for it at random.
The Chinese way of talking about a person who is "waiting for something
to turn up" is "sitting beside a stump, on the watch for a hare." A
farmer in ancient times was ploughing a rice field, when he saw a hare
dash itself against a stump that stood in his field; and immediately
fall dead. The foolish farmer, leaving his plough, sat down upon the
stump and waited for another hare to come and do likewise, which no
other hare was foolish enough to do.
[Illustration]
Do you know where the laurel climbs over the mountain
In great blushing clusters so dewy and sweet?
Do you know where the buttercups laugh in the meadow,
And the daisies shine out on the edge of the wheat?
Come wander with me in the glad sunny morning;
I'll show you where flowers by hundreds are found;
Some up on the hill-tops, some down in the valleys,
And some like stars dropped on the green mossy ground.
Do you know a wise robin with three little children?
Could you find, safely hidden, the humming-bird's nest?
Do you think, if you saw it, you'd guess by the color
The flash of the tanager's beautiful crest?
Come, I know the birdies; they sing for me often;
They fly in and out, and don't mind me at all;
I watch their bright eyes and their quick little motions,
And I know when in anger or trouble they call.
I've an armful of flowers and feathery grasses--
I'm taking them home to my mother, you see;
She'll help me to weave them in baskets and bunches
For pale Susy Rice and for lame Mattie Lee.
I'm so strong and so well, and I never am tired,
And they are so quiet, and often in pain,
That I'm sure they'll be glad when they hear my steps coming,
And ask me to gather them flowers again.
[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
A real satisfaction is afforded us in the perusal of such a note as the
following from an appreciative reader. We are very glad indeed that
while our paper delights the little ones, it also receives the cordial
approbation of their parents.