48
Eminent Authors of Japan
—pardon me, Sir; I have been too talkative. I must be going. And again, thank you, Sir, for your kindness. (He goes out, and his voice is again heard outside, as he walks away.) Rags! Rags! Any rags for sale?
- Tsugi.—(Sadly) Now all of them have gone, I feel as if I miss them.
- Koyama.—But, my child, if we kept them here, they would be constantly bringing back old memories and trouble, and so that is why I determined to part with them. Moreover, you know that we must pay for medicine.
- Tsugi.—Oh, I see! Of course we have not yet paid for it.
- Koyama.—I only wish that I could have earned more money to pay for medicine and ice.
- Tsugi.—Yes, Papa; we have always been short of money, and we have had to be careful in the past as to how we spent it. We were unable to do more than we did, you know.
- Koyama.—You are right, but it seems to me sometimes when I think about it, that, if we had been able to spend more, we should have been able to let them live.
- Tsugi.—Yes, Papa; but we did all we could, and our regrets cannot bring them back to us now.
- Koyama.—Yes, the more I think about it, the more I feel that it was I who cruelly killed them both.
- Tsugi.—No, no, Papa, you must not talk in such a way. You have nothing to blame yourself for.
