"That's right. Do you think I'm going to go back down the mountain without meeting him, after coming all this way?"
"People from Owari are rude, aren't they? You're from Owari, right?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"My master hates people from Owari. I hate them too. Owari's an enemy province isn't it?"
"That's right, I guess."
“You've come looking for something in Mino, haven't you? If you're just on a journey you'd better go right on by. Or you'll lose your head."
“I don't intend to go any farther than this. My only plan was to come to this house.”
"What did you come here for?"
“I came to seek admission."
“Seek admission? You want to become a disciple of my teacher, like me?"
Uh-huh. I guess I want to become a brother disciple with you. At any rate, we should get along well. Now go talk to the master. I'll look after stoking the oven. Don't worry, the rice won't burn."
"That's all right. I don't want to."
"Don't be bad-tempered. There, isn't that your master coughing inside?"
"My master coughs a lot at night. He's not strong."
"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."