Two or three months passed in this way, and the lad’s fame became ever greater, and further prosperity was brought to the house. Then the master took counsel of his wife:
“As we haven’t any boys, Chocho being the only child we have, sooner or later we shall have to adopt a son. I don’t care to have any one of whose intentions and character I know nothing. Rather it would please me to have Bunkichi as our foster-son. What do you think about this?”
His wife said gladly:
“I agree with you, my husband; he would be just the one to whom to leave the conduct of the business, and if we could make him our adopted son, what a pleasure it would be! You had better do it quickly.”
The master pondered awhile and then said:
“But, you see, he hopes to become the leading merchant in Japan, and thereby to raise the name of his ancestors; therefore he would not like to be adopted into another family. This would be the first hitch in the arrangement, I fancy.”
“No, my dear; our intention, of course, is to give him the whole of this our property—and that certainly should be sufficient inducement to any one.”
“No, I think not,” said the other, as he put his head on one side in contemplation; “he is not the boy who will prize such a small property as ours. I don’t care to run the risk of humbling myself by speaking to him rashly. What I want is to ascertain his intention at some opportune moment.”
Sadakichi, who had been playing in company with the little girl on the veranda outside the shoji, first heard this conversation, and one day told Bunkichi about it. The latter said to himself:
“My intention has been to win fame and thereby to raise our ancestors’ name, so it would never do for me to be adopted into another family. Trouble will come if I stay here any longer, and I shall be put in such a strait that I shall feel obliged to fall in with this proposal.” So he thought he would do best to leave the house quickly and try his hand independently at some trade.