“CHOBEI WENT FORTH TO TRY AGAIN”
So Chobei went forth to try again, and this time he sought in the poorer streets. There young women were washing upon the steps, children were playing upon the pavement, old women were talking in the doorways, and to them all Chobei smiled and bowed, “May the sun goddess smile upon you, honorable august Madame,” he would say with his most courtly air. “That you and your honorable family are in good health is my wish. It gives me pleasure to meet you. I am from a far street and I ask the honor of your acquaintance. Have you any waste paper to sell?”
Although the good women understood, he might have left unsaid all his remarks except the last. But they were pleased with his air, and they ransacked their houses for waste paper. They called him the “Knightly Waste-paper Man,” and soon he had a very good trade and earned many yen, which Chohachi helped him carefully to spend. Then O Tsuiu San and the little daughter whom the gods sent to them, were well cared for.
II
One day the Knightly Waste-paper Man was crying his wares through the streets when he saw a crowd about a man who had fallen by the way.
“’Tis but a starving beggar,” said one. But Chobei had learned much in the days when he had walked the streets without a sen[10] in his sleeves, and his heart was tender. He hurried to the beggar’s aid and to his surprise found that he was no other than Bun-yemon, the ronin who had helped him to escape from his home, when his lord was angry so long ago. He caused him to be taken up and carried home.
That night Chobei talked long with Tsuiu.
“Gratitude is a sacred duty,” he said. “But for this ronin perhaps we should have been murdered, and now that he has reached this low estate, it is our place to help him, but how?” O Tsuiu San sighed.
“In all these years, my lord,” she said, “we have lived by the favor of the gods, but we have saved nothing. How much should we give Bun-yemon?”