sun of noon
It is a long way from Nikko to Tokyo by motor . A hundred miles , when one can cross the bridge , but the bridge is washed away now , so a detour of many more miles is necessary , to ferry the motor across the Tonegawa on a flat bottomed , frail boat . The motor sinks nearly to the hubs in the blazing , glaring sands of the dry river bed , and many naked coolies are needed to push and pull it through the hot sands , and work it into the boat . In the glaring sun of noon , the broad river lies motionless , like a sheet of glowing steel . Children bathe in the river , and the sweating coolies dip their brown bodies in it , and the sun beats down pitiless . A junk gets loose from its moorings , and drifts down stream , stern first , on the slow current . Who cares ?