“I don’t know about courage, … but at any rate I could not bring myself to such a thing. If I had taken the boy away from there to some other restaurant, I perhaps should have been able to treat him to what he desired.”
“Yes, perhaps you were right,” answered Mr. B.
Mr. A. had a little boy of his own, whom he was sending to a kindergarten, and wishing to follow day by day the physical development of his child, he decided to provide his bath-room with a small platform scales. One day it happened that he visited the very shop in Kinda where the little apprentice Senkichi was serving.
When Mr. A. entered the shop, the boy did not recognise him, but he at once remembered the boy.
In one inner part of the house stood numerous kinds of scales, big and small. They were standing there in order of their height. Mr. A. selected the smallest among them. It was of the same design as is usually found on the railway-station or is seen standing in the offices of any forwarding-agents. Though it was the smallest size that they had, he imagined how this neat little machine would please his wife and child at home.
A clerk of the shop, note-book in hand, came and asked him, “Excuse me. Sir, but will you kindly give me your address?”
“Well,” said Mr. A. looking hesitatingly at the boy, “Is that boy of yours free now?”
“Yes, Sir, he is not specially busy…”
