"Why didn't you say so in the beginning?"
He took the monstrous key that hung from his belt and went to the gate. Omiti gave him a kobang. It was a large amount to the ill-paid man, who drank up his wages as fast as he earned them.
"With such a reason in your hands, there was no need to put your father to death!" said he, throwing open the gate.
"Which is the shortest way to reach the banks of the Yedogawa?" she asked.
"Walk straight ahead. You'll come to another gate; it opens on the shore."
"Thank you!" said she.
And she moved rapidly away. The road was better; the snow had been shovelled away and piled in heaps.
"How I am safe," thought the happy girl, heedless of the fatigue that weighed her down.
She gained the second gate. But now she knew what she was to do to have it opened. The keeper was pacing up and down, stamping his feet, to keep warm.
"I'll give you a kobang if you'll open the gate," she exclaimed.