“Did you know he was there?” I asked.
“No,” says Motu. “It was great surprise to me.”
“Do you know him?” says I.
Motu kind of hesitated. “I have seen him in my own country,” says he. “Yes, I have even spoken with him.”
“A minister to the United States is a pretty great man, isn’t he?” says I.
“He is a great man and a good man and a wise man,” says Motu. Then he says to himself, like he had forgotten about us again: “Fifteen miles.... Only fifteen miles.”
Mark winked at me and we got up and went away as quiet as we could. Motu never noticed us go, but just looked out across the lake and thought and thought and thought.
“I wonder if Motu’s any relation to the minister from Japan?” I says. “Maybe it’s his father.”
“If the m-m-minister was his father Motu would be apt to know where he lived,” says Mark, a bit sarcastic.
“He was a heap interested in the news that the minister was in Fullington,” says I.