d the child. Let Myo[u]zen
Osho[u] be summoned to say a prayer of direction, while yet the child
spirit hovers hereabouts.' Such is the cry of the Okusama. Hence the
presence of this Tomobei. Otherwise he would rather be scourged at the
white sand than face the darkness in which O'Iwa San wanders abroad."
Man and priest were weeping. The former in his fright and over the
confusion and distress fallen on the household; the priest over the
sudden and dreadful end of this child to whom the homeless one, the man
devoted to the solitary life, had taken an unbounded affection as of a
father. Great as was his terror, he forgot his own ills in the greater
misfortune of the life-long friend. He remained bowed in prayer. "Namu
Myo[u]ho[u] Renge Kyo[u]! Namu Myo[u]ho[u] Renge Kyo[u]! Oh! The
wondrous law, the _sutra_ of the Lotus!" He rose--"Myo[u]zen comes."

As they struggled through the storm, Tomobei kept up a nonsensical,
running talk, full of the superstitious fear of the man of the lower
classes. "Iya! The affair has been terrible, but misfortune is in the
air.... What's that! Ah! Something passes by ... above. O'Iwa! O'Iwa!"
He seized the priest's arm and clung to him in terror. Myo[u]zen's fears
had all returned. He would have run away, but was too tightly held.
"Where! Where!" He shrieked and whirled around toward Samegabashi.
Tomobei held on tenaciously to his skirts. An object was bearing down on
them in the dark. Close upon priest and man they jumped to one side. A
cold hand was laid on the neck of the cleric, who squawked with fear. A
howl answered the howls and mad cries and blows of the two men, who now
threw themselves flat on the ground to shut out sight of the apparition.
The beast sped down the hill. Discomfited, Myo[u]zen disentangled
himself from the embraces of a broken water spout, which descending from
the roof under which he had taken shelter, was sending its cold stream
down his neck. Tomobei rose from the mud puddle in which he lay face
downward. They gazed at each other. "A dog! A wandering cur!" Myo[u]zen
eyed his once immaculate garments with disgust. How present himself in
such a state! Tomobei read his thoughts and determined to keep a
companion so hardly won. "There are present but the master and the
Okusama, Tomobei, and Kiku; other company there is none.... Yes; the
Ojo[u]san."--"The corpse needs no company," said Myo[u]zen testily. In
his disgrace and unkempt condition Myo[u]zen was unduly irrit