They passed by several temples, and, after a time, their way led through some narrow streets and up a gently sloping hill. Suddenly they halted and were told that they had reached their stopping-place. There are several hotels at Kioto in the foreign style, but all kept and managed by Japanese. John declared that the one to which he had brought them was the best, but he added, in a quiet whisper, that it was not so good as the hotels at Kobe and Yokohama. After a day's experience of the establishment, Frank suggested that he could make an improvement in John's English.
Fred asked what he had to propose.
"Why," said Frank, "he spoke of this hotel as the best in the place; best implies goodness somewhere, and I don't find any goodness in it."
"But, for all that," Fred responded, "the others may be worse than this."
"Quite true," was the answer, "and then let him say so. Instead of calling this the best hotel in Kioto, he should say that it is the least bad. Then he would be making a proper use of language."
WOMEN OF KIOTO.
Fred retorted that Frank was demanding too much of a boy to whom they only paid fifty cents a day, and his expenses, and said he was reminded of the excuse of a soldier who was being censured for drunkenness.
"What was that?" queried Frank.