"You're the man newly appointed, eh? Come and see me sometime,
ha, ha, ha!"

[Footnote 2: Means the last crop.]

Devil take his "Ha, ha, ha!" Who would go to see a fellow so void of the
sense of common decency! I gave this priest from this time the nickname
of Porcupine.

The Confucian teacher was strict in his manner as becoming to his
profession. "Arrived yesterday? You must be tired. Start teaching
already? Working hard, indeed!"--and so on. He was an old man, quite
sociable and talkative.

The teacher of drawing was altogether like a cheap actor. He wore a
thin, flappy haori of sukiya, and, toying with a fan, he giggled; "Where
from? eh? Tokyo? Glad to hear that. You make another of our group. I'm a
Tokyo kid myself."

If such a fellow prided himself on being a Tokyo kid, I wished I had
never been born in Tokyo. I might go on writing about each one of
them, for there are many, but I stop here otherwise there will be no
end to it.

When my formal introduction was over, the principal said that I might go
for the day, but I should make arrangements as to the class hours, etc.,
with the head teacher of mathematics and begin teaching from the day
after the morrow. Asked who was the head teacher of mathematics, I found
that he was no other than that Porcupine. Holy smokes! was I to serve
under him? I was disappointed.