A Japanese Idyll

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Hiti was a little Japanese maid, but her feminine heart was the same as that organ of any other woman in the world, and it played the same tune. Hiti had big black eyes, soft olive hands and a stubborn will. Hiti fell in love. He was only a poor little Jap, but a manly chap. It was just like in your own little town; the more Hiti's parents objected to the fellow, the more determined was Hiti to marry him. Then a wealthy Japanese merchant came a wooing Hiti. Many miles he came, advising Hiti's parents that he was en route to bid for the hand of the enchanting Hiti. The parents were filled with joy, which of course Hiti didn't share. There was a little American girl in Hitl's town, the daughter of a consul or something, and the two girls had long been friends. It was the East's appeal to the Western, and the Western heart's silent response to the East. So Hiti went to the American girl and told her of her great sorrow, and American strategy and Oriental sagacity combined to defeat the logic of the old. It was thought of by we don't know whom; it might have been Hiti, or it might have been Elsie; but at any rate, when the mighty merchant reached the house, he found a very ugly Hiti indeed. Her face was enough to stop a Japanese automatic toy, and the merchant fled. Hiti married the right man. Hiti and Elsie often talk about the stunt that made her sweetheart her husband, and sometimes they laugh so loud that they wake the little Jap baby, who evidences his displeasure at the interruption of his siesta with a very ordinary baby wail.