thing like that animal. He must have suffered miserably.' At this moment the dog lying by the pillar trembled and shook, and poured forth a flood of tears, to our intense amazement. This was Okinamaro after all, and his refusal on the previous day to come when he was called was for fear of betraying himself. The Empress was touched and delighted beyond measure. She put down her mirror and called to him, 'Okinamaro!' The dog laid himself flat on the ground and yelped loudly, at which the Empress was greatly amused. Everybody gathered round, and there was much talking and laughing. The Mikado himself, when he heard of it, came in, and smilingly expressed his amazement at the good sense shown by a dog."
The reader will be glad to hear that Okinamaro's sentence of banishment was reversed; he was well treated, and in a short time was his old self again.
But the author was not always so tender-hearted towards dogs. Among "Detestable Things" she enumerates—
A dog who barks in recognition of your lover when he comes to pay you a clandestine visit—that dog should be killed.
A few more of her enumerations may be added.
A nursery where the child has died.
A brazier with the fire gone out.
A coachman who is hated by his ox.
The birth of a female child in the house of a learned scholar.
A letter from one's country home with no news in it.
