"As we climb from the vale to the high mountain's peak,
We leave the green fields far below;
We go on through the forest, beyond it we seek
The line of perpetual snow.
Cold and thin grows the air, the light dazzles our eyes,
We struggle through storm-cloud and sleet;
With courage undaunted we mount toward the skies,
Till the world spreads out at our feet.
"We are journeying now up the mountain of life,
The green fields of youth we have passed;
We've toiled through the forest with unceasing strife,
And gained the bright snow-line at last.
We are whitened by frost, we are chilled by the breeze—
With weariness hardly can move;
But, faithful to duty, in our work we'll ne'er cease
Till we look on the world from above."
[CHAPTER XV.]
EXECUTIONS AND HARI-KARI.
The return to Yokohama was accomplished without any incident of consequence. Fred was a little disappointed to think that their lives had not been in peril. "Just a little danger for the fun of the thing," he remarked to Frank; and at one time on the way he was almost inclined to gloominess when he reflected on the situation. "There hasn't been any attack upon us," he said to himself, "when there might have been something of the kind just as well as not. Not that I wanted any real killing, or anything of the sort, but just a little risk of it to make things lively. It's really too bad."
He was roused from his revery by the Doctor, who told him they were approaching the spot where some Englishmen were set upon by a party of two-sworded Samurai, in the early times of the foreign occupation. The attack was entirely unprovoked, and quite without warning. One of the Englishmen was killed and another seriously wounded, while the natives escaped unharmed. Fred wanted to know the exact character of the Samurai, and why they were nearly always concerned in the attacks upon foreigners.
"It is a long story," said Doctor Bronson, "and I am not sure that you will find it altogether interesting; but it is a part of Japanese history that you ought to know, especially in view of the fact that the Samurai exist no longer. With the revolution of 1868 and the consequent overthrow of the old customs, the Samurai class was extinguished, and the wearing of two swords is forbidden.