Читать книгу Kibun Daizin; Or, From Shark-Boy to Merchant Prince онлайн

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His curiosity aroused at hearing the little girl speak of the dragon-fly, the father said, “What do you wish him to make for you?”

“Oh, father, it’s a bamboo dragon-fly—an amusing toy which flies up high, whizzing,” was her confident answer.

“Ah, I see,” he remarked, as he understood the girl’s request; “that flying bamboo thing I often see when I go out on the streets. The toy, I remember, was first made by a boy of great filial virtue in a certain country district, and even here they talk about him; it is clever of you, Bunkichi, to have learned how to make them.”

Then Sadakichi interrupted, saying: “No wonder! Why, he was the hawker of the toy; I know all about it, as I saw him selling it at Kada-no-Ura.”

“Are you, then, the inventor of the toy?” asked the master, to whom the boy at once replied in the affirmative. The master, who was more than ever struck by the boy’s character, said, “Are you, then, the same boy whom all the people talk about and praise for his devotion to his parent?”