But Tom had to do his sight-seeing pretty much by himself, at first, for his father was very busy, and the Americans that he met did not have much time to go about with a boy.
But Tom was not a bad fellow to take care of himself, and as his father engaged for him a horse and a betto, as a man who attends horses in Japan is called, he had every opportunity of going about as much as he wanted to.
When Tom’s horse was brought out for him the first time there were two bettos in attendance. One of them had clothes enough on, but the other one looked as if he were just ready to take a swim.
JAPANESE BETTOS.
This fellow was the one who accompanied Tom wherever he went. He was a good-natured man and very ready to talk, and if Tom could have understood a word he said, he might have been very interesting.
But they got along capitally together, and Tom rode about Yokohama all day, and came home at night, and asked questions of his father. In this way he got some information about the things he had seen, but in many cases he had to make up theories of his own about things. And some very curious theories he made.
There was a porter who had a lodge at the door of the house where they lived, and he used to strike on a gong every time any one entered. Sometimes he struck once, and sometimes two or three times, and Tom could not imagine what he did it for. He might have asked his father about this, but he made up his mind that he would find it out for himself.
You must not suppose that Tom’s father was not a good-natured man, or that he objected to giving information to his son. But the truth was that Mr. Reynolds was not only very busy all day, and very often at night, with his merchant friends, but he did not know a great deal about Japanese life himself.
As soon as he had got through with the most pressing part of his business, he intended to go about and see Japan. He had never been there before.