CHAPTER XIV.
JAPANESE TEMPLE— AND A STORY.

a NA Fs HE doctor took Uncle Nat and his nephews
al AF off into the country for a pleasure-trip, the
next day.

The boys had passed a number of gateways,
_ around which were clustered arching trees, and
they noticed that these gateways were approaches to
certain buildings beyond, whatever their character
“might be. They were entirely willing to have the
jinrikishas halt at such a gateway, that a live boy’s
curiosity might be gratified. Alighting from the jinrikishas, the
boys shook the sleepy feeling out of. their legs, and then
looked eagerly about them. They saw two columns of stone, thirty
feet high, and from one to the other went cross-beams. In the centre
of these was a tablet, bearing an inscription. Before the gateway was
a structure like an arched bridge, and two Japanese stood upon it
talking busily, their heads bare to the sun’s rays that fell in clear,
shining light. There was a grove of trees beyond the gateway, and
through the foliage the outlines of a temple could be obscurely traced.

“There,” said the doctor, “the Japanese like to notice and beautify
prominent places in nature by a Torii or Sacred Gate. It is touching
to see the religious spirit of the people mixed up with a good deal
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