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

7 страница из 24

“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.

ssss1.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.”