shop as soon as I got up and rattled me much. On learning my duties in
the school, there seemed to be no difficulty, and I decided to accept.
If only such were what was expected of me, I would not be surprised were
I told to start not only two days hence but even from the following day.
The talk on business over, Porcupine said that he did not think it was
my intention to stay in such a hotel all the time, that he would find a
room for me in a good boarding house, and that I should move.

"They wouldn't take in another from anybody else but I can do it
right away. The sooner the better. Go and look at the room to-day,
move tomorrow and start teaching from the next day. That'll be all
nice and settled."

He seemed satisfied by arranging all by himself. Indeed, I should not be
able to occupy such a room for long. I might have to blow in all of my
salary for the hotel bill and yet be short of squaring it. It was pity
to leave the hotel so soon after I had just shone with a 5-yen tip.
However, it being decidedly convenient to move and get settled early if
I had to move at all, I asked Porcupine to get that room for me. He told
me then to come over with him and see the house at any rate, and I did.
The house was situated mid-way up a hill at the end of the town, and was
a quiet. The boss was said to be a dealer in antique curios, called
Ikagin, and his wife was about four years his senior. I learned the
English word "witch" when I was in middle school, and this woman looked
exactly like one. But as she was another man's wife, what did I care if
she was a witch. Finally I decided to live in the house from the next
day. On our way back Porcupine treated me to a cup of ice-water. When I
first met him in the school, I thought him a disgustingly overbearing
fellow, but judging by the way he had looked after me so far, he
appeared not so bad after all. Only he seemed, like me, impatient by