Your friend,
Lafcadio Hearn.
Really, it seems to me as if I hadn’t thanked you at all. You are simply divine about doing kind things. My little wife sends you this greeting with her own hand,—
It means: “May you live a thousand years!”
TO SENTARŌ NISHIDA
Kagawa, Sakai, August, 1892.
Dear Nishida,— ... It made us both very happy to hear you had been persuaded to stop at our little house; for although it is hot and small, still you would feel more homelike there, with Izumo folk, than at the big dreary hotels of Kumamoto. I hope you will be able to stop a little while with us now at Mionoseki.
I like Oki very, very much—much better than Kumamoto. I like country people, fishermen, sailors, primitive manners, simple ways: all these delight me, and they are in Oki. To watch the life and customs of those people is very pleasant, and would be profitable to me in a literary way if I had time to spare. Oki is worth six months’ literary study for me. I hope to see it again. The only unpleasant thing is the awful smell of the cuttle-fish. But I will tell you all my impressions when we meet....
With kindest regards from myself and Setsu,—hoping to see you soon, as ever,