The old couple and their pets.

A refreshing story in these sadly hackneyed days comes from Kumamoto prefecture. It is told by the Nippon....

Okamura Kumakichi, an old gentleman with some means, lives in amity with his wife Okamura Itsu, at Mefune-machi in Kumamoto. Curiously the old couple, who are each near seventy, have never had any children, but they appear to be perfectly content with numerous substitutes of a lower order. In their house will be found in pleasant companionship dogs, cats, snakes, and frogs, and the veracious writer in the Nippon gives the story of how the collection was formed. Fifty years ago, when the master of the establishment was newly married, he was walking along a road near his native town. Suddenly a small frog hopped from a ditch and persistently hovered about the young man's feet. So persistent was the little frog that it was tenderly picked up and placed in the garden where it is today. It settled remarkably well in its new quarters ... and refused all temptations to depart. Okamura fed the frog daily, and now it comes regularly for its meals and is always indoors on time. The frog is a remarkable specimen of its kind, weighing about five pounds. Of late years it has had the companionship of another frog, which weighs a pound, but shows a marked preference for the friendship of Tama, an intelligent dog, which the owner values most among the eight that are domiciled within the gates.

There are also two snakes,--one seven feet long and ... the other much smaller. The larger one has lived thirty years with its owner. It was first discovered in a rice barn, at a time when Okamura was much puzzled by the continued disappearance of his store of rice. This was thirty years ago. He decided to find out the thief. One day he remained hidden in the barn ... and soon saw a snake enter and begin devouring the family staple. Most men would have killed the snake, but the man who had trained a frog had different ideas. We are not told how he secured the reptile, but the fact remains that gradually its wild instincts became tamed, and now with its companion, excepting at meal times and when it goes out to play in the garden, it is always to be found coiled up on a cushion. The Nippon writer describes how at meals times the snakes, the frogs, the dogs and nine tabby cats with no tails to speak of are to be seen in the garden all on the best of terms with each other ... Immediately on the conclusion of the meal ... the frogs hop back to their nests in grass, the snakes glide to their cushions, and the cats and dogs quietly disperse.

Naturally in the midst of all this life and friendship the old couple never feel lonely, and when the time comes for them to join their ancestors, their most sincere mourners will be the animals whose friendship they have so long enjoyed.

FROM THE JAPAN WEEKLY CHRONICLE, AUGUST 10TH, 1905