"He is the father of my father and mother."
"What will you give the Emperor?"
"All my best toys, and my life when he needs it."
Now he was busy tying a long silk string to his kite and getting it ready to fly.
Umé forgot her school books and ran down the garden path to look once more at the bed of iris which was now in full bloom beside the brook.
"To-morrow I will gather some of the leaves and flowers," she said, "and arrange them in the tall green jar for the alcove. That will keep away evil spirits from our home."
Then she ran back to the house, making the motions of the flying fishes with her hands.
"If I were an honorable boy," she cried, "I would sail away from Japan to every country where there are dragons, and kill them all. Then I would come back home again and tell all about it, so that all the children and their children, as long as Japan lasts, would learn about me!"
Tara looked at Umé as contemptuously as a Japanese boy ever looks at his sister, which is not saying much, because in Japan the boys and girls are taught to be most polite to each other.
"That is not the way of a true patriot," he said. "We men must stay at home and defend our country from enemies that may attack us from without. True glory will find us; we do not need to run all over the world looking for it, and then perhaps, miss it after all."