Feeling rather helpless, Dick talked on, patting first Yuki Chan and then the cat.
The child stood speechless and looked deep into his eyes, not having entirely recovered from the shock of the first blow she had ever received.
"You'll be good, won't you?" he went on coaxingly, "not drown any more cats and things?"
Yuki Chan, with the intuition that only a child can have, suddenly bridged the gulf of strange language and understood. With the quick movement of a nestling bird, she bent forward and laid her cheek against the boy's shoulder. It was not only complete surrender, but allegiance to the conqueror.
Dick rose, red and confused. Then he climbed into the jinrikisha, trying to ignore the smiles of the man.
Yuki Chan, with her hands joined just below her sash, bent her body like a half-shut jack-knife.
"Arigato—arigato," she said politely, as she bowed again and again.
"Him say t'ank you," interpreted the jinrikisha man.
"Good-by," called Dick. "Don't forget—be good!"
Yuki Chan watched the back of the jinrikisha and the swinging brown legs of the jinrikisha man that showed beneath. She had forgotten the cat, but she still remembered the kind look in the blue eyes of the boy.