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Place: Gold Hill, California. The "Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Company" is beset with problems--weather and social problems, as well as financial difficulties. The members of the colony are political refugees who have fled the vengeance of the newly restored Japanese Emperor Meiji. Kei is nursemaid in the household of German adventurer Eduard Schnell who hopes to use this group of Japanese to build a profitable enterprise. Kei finds herself in the midst of considerable uproar and must discover and invent ways to cope. The story is told not only from Kei's perspective, but also from the point of view of neighbor youth Julius C. Kuhl. |
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ISBN 9780976547952 5.5 X 8.5 in., 190pp. Perfectbound: $17.00 list For you: $10 plus shipping, $3 per item Purchase Order? |
In the following excerpt, Maidu maiden Yoto-to-wi makes her first appearance before O-Kei and neighbor boy Julius:
Her hair was black, parted in the middle, tied in two braids that fell behind her shoulders. She wore a dark headband and was dressed in a one-piece gown that looked like brown cloth, but that I recognized as deerskin. She wore deerskin slippers that tied at her ankles. She carried an open basket about the size of a large pumpkin and walked slowly toward our group, Wan-wan running back and forth between her and us.
"She’s a Digger," said Julius. "Usually barefoot."
"I am Maidu"
"My-doo, I-doo, you-doo, dog-doo," sang Julius.
"I am Maidu, not Digger." She spoke American words, and it was obvious that she was correcting Julius.
I spoke up. "I am Kei and she is Kiyo and he is Julius."
"For you," said Yoto-to-wi, and held her basket out to me. I took the basket and looked at it carefully. It was finely, beautifully made. I bowed to her in thanks.
"She’s giving you the basket." Julius need not have described the action, for it was clear enough. "Now she wants something. That’s the way they are. Only she wants to trade for something better, probably."
"No trade. Gift of friend." Yoto-to-wi clasped her hands together, a gesture that helped me understand the word friend. "You are not American. I am not American. I can speak some American, but I cannot ever be friend with American. We can be friend?"
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