“This is the money I have been keeping for you.” And then he produced another packet which contained fifty pieces of silver, saying:
“This is only a trifling recognition of your services in the shop, by which we have enjoyed much prosperity; I hope you will accept it.”
Bunkichi again and again refused to accept this additional gift, but in vain, for the master almost forced him to receive it, and said:
“When you come back from Osaka, you will stay again with us, won’t you?”
Bunkichi hesitated and stammered out: “Yes, sir; I might trouble you again, though I intend to continue in some trade of my own.”
“Of course you may go in for whatever trade you like, and if you can conveniently carry on your trade while you stay at my house, please make yourself at home in it, and do not think that you need help in my shop on that account.”
As Bunkichi had no other home, he accepted this kind offer for his future protection after his return, and the next day, when he had prepared himself for the journey, he left the Daikokuya for Osaka.
Though he was a boy in appearance, his mind was equal to that of a full-grown man. At the time of his leave-taking, the master was insisting on getting him a through kago, or Japanese palanquin, to Osaka, which he had refused as unnecessary. In his courageous onward march he came to a lonely part of the road; he was, however, well used to traveling, owing to those early days of wandering when he sold the dragon-flies for the support of his family, and by the experience of his lonely journey to Kumano. But in this present journey, as he carried with him a great sum of money in his pocket, he felt somewhat encumbered and could not walk as lightly as he wished.
On the afternoon of the day when he came to the mountainous region he was well-nigh tired out, and he hired a kago to carry him. The coolies no sooner put him into the palanquin than they started off at almost a running pace, and after a short time they turned off from the highway into a bypath. The lad called out, in suspicion:
“Aren’t you taking a rather strange road?”