THE FESTIVALS OF LOCAL DEITIES–SCHOOL AGAIN, AND SOME ACCOUNT
OF MY SCHOOL-FELLOWS–CONCLUSION.

PREFATORY LETTER.

PROF. HENRY W. FARNAM:

_Dear Sir:_–My motives in writing this jejune little volume are, as you
are aware, two:

1st. There seems to be no story told in this country of the Japanese
boy’s life by a Japanese boy himself. The following rambling sketches
are incoherent and extremely meagre, I own; but you must remember that
they are a boy’s talks. Give him encouragement, and he will tell you
more.

2d. The most important of my reasons is my desire to obtain the means to
prosecute the studies I have taken up in America. Circumstances have
obliged me to make my own way in this hard world. If I knew of a better
step I should not have resorted to an indiscreet juvenile publication–a
publication, moreover, of my own idle experiences, and in a language the
alphabet of which I learned but a few years ago.

To you my sincere acknowledgments are due for encouraging me to write
these pages. This kindness is but one of many, of which the public has
no knowledge.

I am, sir,
Yours very truly.
SHIUKICHI SHIGEMI

NEW HAVEN. CT., September, 1889.

A JAPANESE BOY.