Читать книгу Kibun Daizin; Or, From Shark-Boy to Merchant Prince - Gensai Murai - Страница 3

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“IF you please, sir,—”

And, attracted by a voice behind him, a well-dressed gentleman turned round and saw a boy of about thirteen or fourteen hurrying toward him,—“if you please, sir, are you the head of the Daikokuya^[1]?”

1.Pronounced Dy-ko-koo’ya, meaning “dry-goods house.”

“Yes, I am,” answered the gentleman, eying the boy with surprise. “What can I do for you?”

“I come from Kada-no-Ura,” said the boy, making a polite bow, “and I wish to ask you a great favor. Will you please take me into your shop as an apprentice?”

“Your request is rather a strange one,” said the gentleman, smiling. “Pray tell me why it is that you wish to come to me.”

The boy raised his head. “Oh, sir, yours is the chief business house in Kumano, and I would be so glad if I might learn under you.”

“You wish to become a business man, do you?” said the gentleman, with a friendly nod; upon which the boy drew himself up and exclaimed, “Yes; I mean, if I can, to become the leading merchant in Japan!”

“‘If you please, sir, are you the head of the Daikokuya?’”

The master of the Daikokuya instinctively studied the boy’s face. There was a certain nobleness and intelligence about it; he had well-cut features, a firmness about the lips, and quick-glancing eyes, and, although his clothing showed poverty, his bearing was quiet and his speech refined. These things confirmed the gentleman in the opinion that the boy was not the son of any common man; and having, as the employer of many hands, a quick eye to read character, he said:

“Very good, my boy! So you mean to become the leading merchant in Japan? A fine notion, to be sure. However, before I engage a boy, you know, I must have somebody to recommend him, and he must give me references. Have you any relatives in this place?”

“No, sir; I know no one,” answered the boy.

“Why, where have you been until now?”

“I have only just come from my country. The fact is, I heard your name, sir, some time ago, and being very anxious to enter your service, I left my country all by myself to come to Kumano. But I have not a single acquaintance here, nor anybody to whom I can turn. My only object was to come straight to you; and I was asking a man on the road if he could direct me to your house, when the man pointed to you and said, ‘Why, that gentleman just ahead of us is the master of the Daikokuya.’ And that is how it comes that I ran up to you all of a sudden in this rude way.”

There was a charm in the free utterance with which the boy told his story, and, having listened to it, the gentleman said: “I understand. It is all right. As you have no friends here, I will do without a recommendation, and you shall come just as you are”; and, saying this, he brought the lad back with him to his house.

The Daikokuya, you must know, was the chief clothing establishment, or “dry-goods house,” in Kumano, and did a larger business than any other in the town. On arriving there, the master took the boy with him into an inner room, and, telling his wife what had taken place, called the boy to his side. “Tell me, my boy, what is your name?”

“My name is Bunkichi.”^[2]

2.Pronounced Boon-kee’chee.

“Are your parents living?”

At this question the boy hung his head sorrowfully. “I have neither father nor mother,” he answered, with a choking voice and eyes filled with tears.

Filled with pity, the others asked him how long he had been left alone in the world.

“I lost my mother,” he said, “more than three years ago, and my father only quite recently.”

“And what was your family? Were you farmers or tradesmen?”

“Neither one nor the other. My father formerly served under the Lord of Wakayama, and received an allowance of eight hundred koku^[3] of rice. His name was Igarashi Bunzayemon;^[4] but, losing his position, he came to Kada-no-Ura, where we had to live in a very poor way. My father, however, would never allow me to forget that the ancestor of our house was Igarashi Kobunji,^[5] who served in old days at Kamakura, and gained a name for himself as a brave warrior. ‘And when you become a man,’ my father used to say, ‘you must win your way to fame, and so uphold the honor of the family; but, unlike the past, our lot to-day is cast in peaceful times when there is little chance of winning distinction in arms; but become, if you can, the leading merchant in Japan, and you will bring honor to our house.’ Such was my father’s counsel to me, and not long since he was taken with a severe illness and died. And now, if you please, I wish to learn the ways of business, that I may become a merchant, and I have journeyed to Kumano to throw myself on your kindness.”

3.One koku equals about five bushels.

4.Pronounced Ee-gar-ash’ee Boon-zy’e-mon.

5.Pronounced Ee-gar-ash’ee Ko-boon’jee.

The gentleman listened to the boy’s clear account of himself and expressed his admiration. “Ah! I was right, I see, when I thought you were not the son of an ordinary man. Your ambition to become the chief merchant in Japan is a high one, certainly; but the proverb says, ‘Ants aspire to the skies,’ and anything is possible to a man who puts his whole heart into his work. You are still quite young, I should say, though you have come all the way from Kada-no-Ura by yourself, and though you talk of your affairs in a manner that would reflect credit on a grown-up man. Come, tell me, how old are you?”

“I am fourteen,” he answered.

“What, not more than that?”

And the master’s wife, who was by his side, could not repress her surprise, either.

At this point the shoji, or paper sliding doors, opened, and in ran a pretty little girl of about eleven. Her hair was drawn up into a little butterfly device on the top of her head, which shook to and fro as she ran up to her mother. Stretching out a small maple-leaf hand, with a winsome look, she said:

“Mother, please give me a cake.”

“Why, my dear, where are your manners? What will our young friend here think of you?”

At this the child looked around, and, for the first time becoming aware of the boy’s presence, turned shy and sat down. Looking gently in her face, her mother then asked her what she had been doing. Afraid of the stranger, she whispered in her mother’s ear: “I have been playing oni^[6] with Sadakichi in the garden. But I don’t like Sadakichi. When he was the oni he just caught me at once.”

6.A play similar to tag or prisoner’s base.

“But that often happens in playing oni,” said the mother, with a smile.

“Yes, but he does it too much; he has no right to catch people in the way he does, and I don’t wish to play with him any more.”

“Well, if that is so, how would you like to play with Bunkichi here instead?”

Accepting it as one of the duties that might fall to him, to act as the child’s companion and caretaker, Bunkichi, rather pleased than otherwise, offered to go out and try to amuse her. The little girl looked into her mother’s face, and then at Bunkichi. “Mama, how long has he been here?” she asked in a low voice.

“He only came to-day, but he’s a fine boy, and I hope you’ll be a good little girl and show him the garden.”

But the child’s thoughts seemed suddenly to take a new turn, and, sidling up to her mother, she begged to be given a cake. The mother opened the little drawer of the hibachi,^[7] and, taking out two or three sugar-plums, put them into her hand. The child then, with barely a glance at Bunkichi, ran through the shoji out of doors.

7.Pronounced he-bah’chee. A wooden fire-box where a charcoal fire is kept for warming the hands.

“Take care and don’t stumble,” her mother called out. “Do you mind just seeing after her?” she said to Bunkichi, who at once got up and went out on the veranda.

No sooner was Chocho Wage,^[8] or “Butterfly Curls” (so named from the way in which her hair was dressed), outside in the garden than she began quarreling with the boy from the shop. “No, Sadakichi; I’m not going to play with you. Mama says that the other boy who has just come is a fine boy, and I’m going to play with him.”

8.Pronounced Cho’cho Wah’gay.

“What! another boy has come, has he?”

“Yes; there he is. Go and fetch him.”

Sadakichi called to Bunkichi, “You will find some geta^[9] there, if you will come out.”

9.Pronounced gay’tah. Foot-wear or wooden clogs.

So Bunkichi came out to the garden.

It was not a very large one, but it was a pretty spot, for beyond it sparkled the bay that lay at the back of Kumano. Bunkichi had soon joined the two others, and Sadakichi, turning to the little child, said, “Well, shall we three play at oni?”

“No,” she answered; “you are always catching me, and I don’t care to play.”

“I won’t catch you, then, Chocho, if you don’t like it.”

“All the same, I’d rather not.”

A thought struck Bunkichi, and, addressing himself to the child, he said: “Would you like me to make you something? I would if I only had a knife and some bamboo.”

The child was at once interested, and told Sadakichi to go and get what was wanted. So Sadakichi strolled off and brought a knife and some bamboo chips. “Now, then, what are you going to make?” said he.

“A nice bamboo dragon-fly,” Bunkichi answered; and, taking the knife, he split a bit of the bamboo, shaved it fine and smooth, and fixed a little peg in the middle of it.

Sadakichi, quickly guessing what it was, said: “Ah, it’s a dragon-fly. I know! I once went with the banto^[10] to Kada-no-Ura, and every one there was flying those dragon-flies, and, now I think of it, the boy who was selling them looked just like you.”

10.Clerk.

Not a bit disconcerted, Bunkichi replied: “Yes, you are quite right. I was the boy who made them and was selling them.”

“Bah! Mr. Dragon-fly-seller!” blustered out Sadakichi, with a face of disgust.

“Don’t speak like that,” said the little girl, turning sharply upon him, and then to Bunkichi: “What made you sell them?” she asked, speaking out to him for the first time.

“My father was ill in bed,” he answered, continuing to scrape the bamboo, “and, as our family was poor, I managed to buy him rice and medicine by selling these dragon-flies.”

Child as she was, this touching story of filial piety made her respect Bunkichi all the more.

“Oh, wasn’t that good of him!” she said, turning to Sadakichi. “Do you think you could have done it?”

“I—yes; only there would have been no need for me to sell dragon-flies. I should have sold the wearing-things in our shop,” he answered, arrogantly.

“‘Why, it’s just like a real dragon-fly!’ she cried, with delight”

Bunkichi had now finished making the dragon-fly, and, holding it between his hands, he spun it round, and up it went into the air with a whirring sound, and lighted on the ground again some five or six paces away.

“Why, it’s just like a real dragon-fly!” cried the child, with delight. “Do let me have it!” And, taking it in her hands, she tried to set it flying, but she could only make it go up a little way.

Then Sadakichi, wishing to try his hand, pushed forward. “Let me have it,” he said, “and I’ll show you how well I can do it”; and, seizing hold of it, with the force of both hands he sent it flying high into the air. “There, now—see how it goes!” and, while the little girl was watching it with delight, the dragon-fly flew over the wall fence and dropped into the water beyond.

The little child ran after it, followed by Sadakichi and Bunkichi. There was a little gate in the garden, opening on a jetty. Through this they passed and stood together on the plank, watching the dragon-fly tossing about on the water.

“Oh, I wish we could get it,” said the little girl, looking at it wistfully; “if it would only come just in front of us!”

“Take care,” said Sadakichi, holding her back, while the dragon-fly, bobbing up and down among the ripples, gradually drifted farther off.

Now Bunkichi, seeing there was a small boat lying alongside the jetty, had said to Sadakichi, “Let me row out and get it,” and was drawing the boat toward him, when he was abruptly stopped by Sadakichi. “No, no; you mustn’t think of putting out from the shore. If you do, you are certain to be eaten up by the wanizame.”^[11]

11.Pronounced wah-ne-zah’may, meaning a huge shark.

“Yes, it’s quite true,” chimed in the little girl. “There’s a horrid wanizame that prevents any one going on the sea. Only yesterday it captured somebody.”

“Yes—a young man from the brewery,” said Sadakichi. “He had some barrels in his boat, and he had gone only two or three hundred yards when the shark came up and overturned his boat and seized him.”

“It doesn’t matter about the dragon-fly; I don’t want it; let us go back to the house.” And the little child, frightened in good earnest, took hold of Bunkichi’s arm.

It was the first time Bunkichi had heard about the wanizame. “Is it really true, miss, that there is a wanizame in the bay?” he asked.

“Yes; I can tell you it’s very serious. I don’t know how many people it has eaten in the last month.”

“Really! But how big is it?”

“I don’t know what you would call big,” broke in Sadakichi. “But it’s about as big as this house. If it sees a small boat, it overtakes it in no time and topples it over, and if it is a big boat it gets in the way and stops it so that it can’t move, and so the fishermen can’t go out, and no cargo can come into the port. I suppose it must be want of food that has brought it into this harbor; but, however that may be, it thinks nothing of upsetting the small craft, so that for a month no one has ventured out at all. Well, there was the brewer’s man. Yesterday he thought it would be safe to go just a short distance, but he very soon got swallowed up. And what is the consequence? Why, the fishing is stopped, and there’s no trade, and the place is going to ruin. The fishermen and hunters have tried over and over again to kill it with spikes and guns and with all kinds of things. But what is the use? Their weapons only snap in two or glance off its back, and they only get killed themselves. So they have given up trying.”

Bunkichi listened to every word, and then suddenly went into the house and stood before the master.