二十八

"If your family has any property, I think you ought to settle it properly while there's still time, though it's none of my business. While your father is still in good health, why not make sure you get what's coming to you? After anything should happen, the most troublesome thing is always the question of property." "Yes."

I paid little attention to the teacher's words. I believed that in my family, not just me but neither father nor mother was worried about such a thing. Besides, I was a little surprised that the teacher, as a teacher, should speak so pragmatically. But there my usual respect for my elders kept me silent.

"Forgive me if my phrasing sounded as if I were anticipating your father's death. But men must die. Even the healthiest may die at any time."

The teacher's tone was unusually bitter.

"I don't mind it at all," I explained.

"How many siblings do you have?" the teacher asked.

The teacher went on to ask about the number of my family members, whether I had relatives, and how my uncles and aunts were doing. And finally he said this:

"Are they all good people?"

"There doesn't seem to be anyone particularly bad. They're mostly country folk."

"Why aren't country folk bad?"

I was troubled by this cross-examination. But the teacher gave me no leisure to think of a reply.

"Country folk are if anything worse than townspeople. And just now you said that among your relatives there doesn't seem to be anyone especially bad. But do you think there is such a type as a 'bad person' in this world? There can be no such molded villains. Ordinarily everyone is good. Or at least everyone is ordinary. It is terrifying precisely because at the critical moment they suddenly turn into bad people. That is why one cannot be careless."

The teacher showed no sign of stopping there. I was about to say something, when a dog suddenly began barking behind us. The teacher and I both started and turned around.

Beside the cedar saplings planted from the edge of the veranda toward the back, bear bamboo grew thickly over some three tsubo, hiding the ground. The dog showed its face and back above the bear bamboo and barked furiously. A child of about ten came running and scolded the dog. The child, still wearing a black cap with a badge, came around to the front of the teacher and bowed.

"Uncle, when you came in, was there nobody at the house?" he asked.

"There was no one."

"But sister and mother were out in the kitchen."

"Is that so, they were?"

"Yes. Uncle, you should have announced yourself and come in."

The teacher gave a wry smile. He took a purse from his breast and pressed a five-sen nickel into the child's hand.

"Tell your mother that for me. Say, please let me rest here a while."

The child's bright eyes flooded with laughter, and he nodded.

"I'm a scout leader now, you know."

With this explanation, the child ran down through the azaleas toward the lower part of the garden. The dog, tail curled high, chased after him. Before long two or three children of about the same age also came running down in the direction the scout leader had gone.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”