, all will be quite the same if I sing to-night without
it. You have not forgotten the Moon-and-the-Stork song?"

"No"--for Arisuga had often sung it to her.

Then she sang:--

"O moon get out of my way," said the stork,
"O stork get out of my light," said the moon.
"I will not," said the stork,
"I will not," said the moon:
So that is why the stork is in the light of the moon,
And that is why the moon is in the way of the stork.

It was a little voice, with no great melody, but well fitted for so
frail a theme. Hoshiko joined her, stumbling upon a word, at which Yone
chided her for forgetting, laughed happily and crept yet closer. Then
she said, after a silence:--

"Now!"

"What?" asked Hoshiko; for that she did not know.

"Oh, have you forgotten--have you forgotten? That also? Alas--alas!
After the song you spoke of--"

Her pretty head was burrowed deeply into the space beneath Hoshiko's
chin.

"What?" Hoshiko had to ask again.

"Of marriage," whispered the girl, in terror. And the terror of Hoshiko
was no less than that of Yone.

"You said, you swore by this sacred tomb of a hero, that if the gods did
not send you the red death we should be married one to the other--"

"But, beloved," breathed Hoshiko, in further terror, "I am still a
soldier, still bound to the great red death. I am here but this day.
To-morrow, this night yet, I go to battle. Would you wish me to marry
you and at once go to the field?"

"Yes," whispered the girl.

"And, perchance, fall and never return?"

"Yes."

"So that you will be a widow with blackened teeth?"

"Yes."

Hoshiko made no other protest. What had been first considered with a
certain horror, seemed beautiful and merciful to this love-lorn maiden
now. She need never know. She would live and die thinking herself
married to Arisuga. At her death she would cut her hair and hang it at a
shrine, and always keep the lamps alight, and always pray for the soul
of Shijiro Arisuga. It was the way of the gods; and, as always, the way
of the gods was best, was beautiful!

WHEN THE WATCH PASSED

XXXII

WHEN THE WATCH PASSED

"Sh! sh!" whispered Yone, suddenly, and crushed her small hand upon
Hoshiko's mouth.

It was the watchman with staff and lantern, crying weirdly in the night.
He passed near. He paused nearer. Yone drew a bit of shrubbery before
them.

"I heard a song, by all the gods I heard a foolish song in this sacred