He nodded, smiling. “After Gozo graduates.”

“An’ naever come bag at Japan?” cried Plum Blossom, in a most tragic voice.

“Oh yes, it will be only a visit, perhaps.”

“I goin’ to die ride away when I cross that west water,” averred the little Japanese girl.

“Why,” grumbled Billy, “you just now promised you’d be my house-keeper.”

“In Japan,” said Plum Blossom.

Taro had finished whittling the bamboo arrow he had been industriously fashioning.

“Pleese, my father, tell now thad story of yourself.”

“Yes?”

“Oh do.”