MY NEW SCHOOL
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.