As one nail drives out another so were the sights of Honolulu lost in those newer ones which were met as the vessel entered the great bay.
"It is just like the pictures," cried Nan, eagerly squeezing her sister's arm.
"It is exactly," responded Mary Lee. "Oh, Nan, those square-sailed things are the junks, aren't they? And oh, what a lot of little boats."
"And isn't the color beautiful?" returned Nan, her eyes seeking the further mass of shore beyond the calmly glittering waters. "I am wildly excited, aren't you, Aunt Helen? Somehow it seems the foreignest of all the foreign countries we have seen yet, much more than Honolulu did, for there was so much that was American there."
"It is certainly deeply interesting," her aunt agreed. "I suppose we shall have to come down to the matter-of-fact question of customs directly, and after that we can begin to enjoy ourselves."
"Oh, dear me, I always forget that there are such disagreeable things as customs. I hope they will not capture my precious calabash."
But the customs were easily passed and then came the first sensation of the day, a ride to the hotel in a jinrikisha.
"I feel as if I were on a fan or a kakamono," giggled Mary Lee, as they were borne along by their galloping coolie.
"What funny little houses," commented Nan. "Can you imagine that really sober, every-day people live in them? It all looks like a joke, and as if we might come to our sober senses after a while. To be sure some of the houses do look somewhat European, but even they have a queer expression."
"I didn't expect to see any horses, and yet there are a good many." Mary Lee made the observation.