CHAPTER IV.

THE GARDEN IN THE RAIN.


For three interminable days the rain poured down uninterruptedly. The
floodgates of heaven had opened and it seemed as though they would never
close again. The all-pervading dampness and chill brought illness to the
Campbell household of a kind not to be healed by medicine. Homesickness
it was, and it spread rapidly like a contagious disease. Only one member
of the party of Americans was not afflicted and that was Mr. Campbell,
who had lived in many climates and countries and was accustomed to
seasons of rain and wet. Moreover, as he himself had said, he had no home
to be sick for. He felt a supreme content in the thought of having his
daughter with him and no amount of rain could chill his enthusiasm.

Miss Campbell took to her bed with an attack of rheumatism, brought on,
she insisted, from having sat on the floor at the home of Mme. Ito. Mary
began a diary of her experiences in Japan and had several private weeping
spells entirely due to the unsurpassed dismalness of the weather. Billie
endeavored to throw off her depression by giving Onoye lessons in English
in exchange for lessons in Japanese, and in the course of these lessons
she learned a little of Onoye's history. O'Haru had been obliged to go to
work after the death of her husband who had lost all his property in a
fire. Onoye's only brother had been killed in great "bat-tel." The family
had had "muchly unfortune. All money gone--nothing."

At the conclusion of this sad story told mostly by expressive gestures