"So you lied to me when you said he was out."

"It's all the same whether he's here or not. He won't meet with anyone who calls, no after who they are or what province they come from."

"Well, I'll wait for the right time."

"Yeah, come again."

"No. This hut is nice and warm. Just let me stay here for a while."

"You're joking! Go away!" The boy jumped up as if to attack the intruder, but when glared at Hideyoshi's smiling face in the flickering red light of the oven, he was unable stay angry no matter how hard he tried. As the child stared hard at this man's face, his initial feelings of hostility gradually lessened.

"Kokuma! Kokuma!" called a voice from the house. The boy reacted instantly. Leaving Hideyoshi where he was, he dashed from the hut into the house, and he didn't come back for quite some time. In the meantime, the smell of scorched food drifted out of the large cauldron that sat on top of the stove. Unable to think of it as just someone else's meal, Hideyoshi quickly picked up the ladle on top of the lid and stirred the contents of th cauldron—brown rice gruel mixed with dried chestnuts and dried vegetables. Others might have laughed at this pauper's food, but Hideyoshi had been born on a poor farm, and when he looked at a single grain of rice, he saw his mother's tears. To him, this was no trifling matter.

"That boy! This is going to burn. What a waster."

Taking a cloth, he grabbed the handles of the pot and lifted it up.

"Oh, thank you, mister."

"Ah, Kokuma? It was just beginning to burn, so I took the cauldron off. It seems to have boiled just enough."

"You already know my name, huh?"

"That's what Master Hanbei called from inside just now. Did you talk to the master for me while you were there?"

"He called me for something else. As for interceding for you, if I talked to my teacher about some useless thing, he'd only get mad. So I didn't say anything."

"Well, well. You're strict about following your teacher's orders, aren't you? I'm really impressed."

"Huh! You're just talking for the sake of your own pride now."

"No, it's true. I'm impatient, but if I were your teacher, I'd praise you like this. That's no lie."

Just then, someone came out of the nearby kitchen, holding a paper lantern. A female voice called repeatedly for Kokuma, and as Hideyoshi turned and looked, he could dimly see  a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl wearing a kimono with a pattern of mountain cherry blossoms and mist, tied with a plum-colored sash. Her figure was illuminated in the sooty darkness by the light of the paper lantern she held in her hand.

"What is it, Oyu?" Kokuma stepped toward her and listened to what she said. When she finished speaking with him, the cherry-blossomed sleeve glided down the dark entrance hall together with the lamp and disappeared behind the wall.

"Who was that?" Hideyoshi asked.

"My teacher's sister," Kokuma said simply and in a gentle voice, as though he were speaking of the beauty of the flowers in his master's garden.

"Listen, I'm asking you. Just to make sure, won't you please go inside just once and ask him to see me? If he says no, I'll leave."

"You'll really leave?"

"I will."

"For sure, now." Kokuma spoke emphatically, but finally he went inside. He returned right away and said abruptly, "He says no, and that he detests receiving guests… and I got scolded, sure enough. So please go away, mister. I'm going to serve my teacher his meal now."

"Well, I'll leave tonight. Then I'll call again sometime." Submitting meekly, Hideyoshi stood up and started to go.

Kokuma said, "It won't do any good to come back!"

Hideyoshi retraced his steps in silence. Unmindful of the darkness, he descended to the foot of the mountain and slept.

When he got up the following day, he made some preparations and once again climbed the mountain. Then, just as he had done the day before, he visited the mountain residence of Hanbei at sundown. The day before, he had spent too much time with the boy, so today he tried going up to the door that appeared to be the main entrance. The person who responded and came out to his call was the same Kokuma of the day before.

"What! Mister, you've come again?"

"I wondered if I could ask to meet him today. Do me the favor of asking your teacher again." Kokuma went inside, and whether he really talked to Hanbei or not, he quickly returned and gave him the same blank refusal.

"If that's the case, I'll inquire again when he's in a better mood," Hideyoshi said politely and left. Two days later he climbed the mountain again.

"Will he meet me today?" Kokuma made a round trip inside the house in his usual fashion, and once again refused him plainly. "He says it's annoying that you come so often."

That day Hideyoshi returned in silence again. He visited the house this way any number of times. In the end, whenever Kokuma saw his face, he did nothing but laugh.

“You've got a lot of patience, haven't you, mister? But coming here is useless, no matter how patient you are. These days, when I go in to tell my teacher you're here, he just laughs instead of getting mad."

Young boys will easily become friendly with people, and a familiarity had already started to develop between Kokuma and Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi climbed the mountain again on the following day. Waiting at the foot of the mountain, Saya had no idea of his master's frame of mind, and finally starting to get angry, he said, "Who does Takenaka Hanbei think he is? This time I'm going to go up there and call his rudeness into account."

The day of Hideyoshi's tenth visit was a day of violent wind and rain, and both Saya and the people who owned the farmhouse where they stayed did their best to stop Hideyoshi from going, but he stubbornly put on a straw raincoat and hat, and made the asscent. Arriving at dusk, he stood at the entrance and called in as usual.

"Yes. Who is it, please?" That night, for the first time, the young woman, Oyu, who Kokuma had said was Hanbei's sister stepped out.

"I know I'm bothering Master Hanbei by calling, and I regret that I'm doing so against his wishes, but I've come as my own master's envoy, and it will be difficult for me to return home until I have met him. It is part of a samurai's service to deliver his master's messages, so I'm resolved to call here until Master Hanbei agrees to see me, even if it takes two or three years. And if Master Hanbei refuses to meet me, I have decided to disembowel myself. Alas, I'm sure that Master Hanbei knows the hardships of the warrior class better than any man. Please… if you could put in a good word for me."

Beneath the spray of the rain gushing violently from the leaking roof, Hideyoshi kneeled and made his petition. It seemed that the impressionable young lady was moved by that alone.

"Please wait for a moment," she said gently, and disappeared into the house. When she appeared again, however, she told him, evidently with some pity, that Hanbei's answer had not changed. "I'm sorry that my elder brother is so stubborn, but would you kindly withdraw? He says that no matter how often you come here, he won't see you. He dislikes speaking with people and refuses to do so now."

"Is that so?" Hideyoshi looked down in apparent disappointment but did not persist. The rain from the eaves battered against his shoulders. "There's nothing else to be done. Well, I'll wait until he's in a good mood." Putting on his hat, he walked out, dejected, into the rain. Following the path through the pine forest as he always did, he had just come out on the other side of the mud wall when he heard Kokuma chasing him from behind.

"Mister! He'll meet you! He said he'll meet you! He said to come back!"

"Huh? Master Hanbei said he would meet me?" Hideyoshi hastily returned with okuma. But only Oyu, Hanbei's sister, was waiting for them.