he latter, when, on a
sudden, a sword that was lying in the raised part of the room caught
his eye. As he saw it, he started and said--

"Pray tell me, how came you by that sword?"

"Well, as you know, when my Lord Ikeda followed my Lord Tokugawa
Iyeyasu to fight at Nagakude, my father went in his train; and it was
at the battle of Nagakude that he picked up this sword."

"My father went too, and was killed in the fight, and this sword,
which was an heirloom in our family for many generations, was lost at
that time. As it is of great value in my eyes, I do wish that, if you
set no special store by it, you would have the great kindness to
return it to me."

"That is a very easy matter, and no more than what one friend should
do by another. Pray take it."

Upon this Yukiye gratefully took the sword, and having carried it home
put it carefully away.

At the beginning of the ensuing year Matazayemon fell sick and died,
and Yukiye, mourning bitterly for the loss of his good friend, and
anxious to requite the favour which he had received in the matter of
his father's sword, did many acts of kindness to the dead man's
son--a young man twenty-two years of age, named Matagoro.

Now this Matagoro was a base-hearted cur, who had begrudged the sword
that his father had given to Yukiye, and complained publicly and often
that Yukiye had never made any present in return; and in this way
Yukiye got a bad name in my Lord's palace as a stingy and illiberal
man.

But Yukiye had a son, called Kazuma, a youth sixteen years of age, who
served as one of the Prince's pages of honour. One evening, as he and
one of his brother pages were talking together, the latter said--

"Matagoro is telling everybody that your father accepted a handsome
sword from him and never made him any present in return, and people
are beginning to gossip about it."

"Indeed," replied the other, "my father received that sword from
Matagoro's father as a mark of friendship and good-will, and,
considering that it would be an insult to send a present of money in
return, thought to return the favour by acts of kindness towards
Matagoro. I suppose it is money he wants."

When Kazuma's service was over, he returned home, and went to his
father's room to tell him the report that was being spread in the
palace, and begged him to send an ample present of money to Matagoro.
Yukrye reflected for a while, and said--

"You are too young to understand the right line o