not being of a particularly brilliant quality, my standing in the class
was easier to find by looking up from the bottom. Strange, isn't it,
that when three years were over, I graduated? I had to laugh at myself,
but there being no reason for complaint, I passed out.

Eight days after my graduation, the principal of the school asked me to
come over and see him. I wondered what he wanted, and went. A middle
school in Shikoku was in need of a teacher of mathematics for forty yen
a month, and he sounded me to see if I would take it. I had studied for
three years, but to tell the truth, I had no intention of either
teaching or going to the country. Having nothing in sight, however,
except teaching, I readily accepted the offer. This too was a blunder
due to hereditary recklessness.

I accepted the position, and so must go there. The three years of my
school life I had seen confined in a small room, but with no kick coming
or having no rough house. It was a comparatively easy going period in my
life. But now I had to pack up. Once I went to Kamakura on a picnic with
my classmates while I was in the grammar school, and that was the first
and last, so far, that I stepped outside of Tokyo since I could
remember. This time I must go darn far away, that it beats Kamakura by a
mile. The prospective town is situated on the coast, and looked the size
of a needle-point on the map. It would not be much to look at anyway. I
knew nothing about the place or the people there. It did not worry me or
cause any anxiety. I had simply to travel there and that was the
annoying part.

Once in a while, since our house was no more, I went to Kiyo's
nephew's to see her. Her nephew was unusually good-natured, and
whenever I called upon her, he treated me well if he happened to be at