Botchan (Master Darling) Part 10

"If you don't like it so much, I wouldn't force it on you. But if you change your mind within two or three hours with no particular reason, it would affect your credit in future."

"I don't care if it does affect it."

"That can't be. Nothing is more important than credit for us. Supposing, the boss of the boarding house......."

"Not the boss, but the old lady."

"Makes no difference,--suppose what the old woman in the boarding house told you was true, the raise of your salary is not to be had by reducing the income of Mr. Koga, is it? Mr. Koga is going to n.o.beoka; his successor is coming. He comes on a salary a little less than that of Mr.

Koga, and we propose to add the surplus money to your salary, and you need not be shy. Mr. Koga will be promoted; the successor is to start on less pay, and if you could be raised, I think everything be satisfactory to all concerned. If you don't like it, that's all right, but suppose you think it over once more at home?"

My brain is not of the best stuff, and if another fellow flourishes his eloquence like this, I usually think, "Well, perhaps I was wrong," and consider myself defeated, but not so to-night. From the time I came to this town I felt prejudiced against Red s.h.i.+rt. Once I had thought of him in a different light, taking him for a fellow kind-hearted and feminished. His kindness, however, began to look like anything but kindness, and as a result, I have been getting sick of him. So no matter how he might glory himself in logical grandiloquence, or how he might attempt to out-talk me in a head-teacher-style, I don't care a snap. One who s.h.i.+nes in argument is not necessarily a good fellow, while the other who is out-talked is not necessarily a bad fellow, either. Red s.h.i.+rt is very, very reasonable as far as his reasoning goes, but however graceful he may appear, he cannot win my respect. If money, authority or reasoning can command admiration, loansharks, police officers or college professors should be liked best by all. I cannot be moved in the least by the logic by so insignificant a fellow as the head teacher of a middle school. Man works by preference, not by logic.

"What you say is right, but I have begun to dislike the raise, so I decline. It will be the same if I think it over. Good by." And I left the house of Red s.h.i.+rt. The solitary milky way hung high in the sky.

CHAPTER IX.

When I went to the school, in the morning of the day the farewell dinner party was to be held, Porcupine suddenly spoke to me;

"The other day I asked you to quit the Ikagins because Ikagin begged of me to have you leave there as you were too tough, and I believed him.

But I heard afterward that Ikagin is a crook and often pa.s.ses imitation of famous drawings for originals. I think what he told me about you must be a lie. He tried to sell pictures and curios to you, but as you shook him off, he told some false stories on you. I did very wrong by you because I did not know his character, and wish you would forgive me."

And he offered me a lengthy apology.

Without saying a word, I took up the one sen and a half which was lying on the desk of Porcupine, and put it into my purse. He asked me in a wondering tone, if I meant to take it back. I explained, "Yes. I didn't like to have you treat me and expected to pay this back at all hazard, but as I think about it, I would rather have you treated me after all; so I'm going to take it back."

Porcupine laughed heartily and asked me why I had not taken it back sooner. I told him that I wanted to more than once, in fact, but somehow felt shy and left it there. I was sick of that one sen and a half these days that I shunned the sight of it when I came to the school, I said.

He said "You're a deucedly unyielding sport," and I answered "You're obstinate." Then ensued the following give-and-take between us two;

"Where were you born anyway?"

"I'm a Yedo kid."

"Ah, a Yedo kid, eh? No wonder I thought you a pretty stiff neck."

"And you?"

"I'm from Aizu."

"Ha, Aizu guy, eh? You've got reason to be obstinate. Going to the farewell dinner to-day?"

"Sure. You?"

"Of course I am. I intend to go down to the beach to see Koga-san off when he leaves."

"The farewell dinner should be a big blow-out. You come and see. I'm going to get soused to the neck."

"You get loaded all you want. I quit the place right after I finish my plates. Only fools fight booze."

"You're a fellow who picks up a fight too easy. It shows up the characteristic of the Yedo kid well."

"I don't care. Say, before you go to the farewell dinner, come to see me. I want to tell you something."

Porcupine came to my room as promised. I had been in full sympathy with Hubbard Squash these days, and when it came to his farewell dinner, my pity for him welled up so much that I wished I could go to n.o.beoka for him myself. I thought of making a parting address of burning eloquence at the dinner to grace the occasion, but my speech which rattles off like that of the excited spieler of New York would not become the place.

I planned to take the breath out of Red s.h.i.+rt by employing Porcupine who has a thunderous voice. Hence my invitation to him before we started for the party.

I commenced by explaining the Madonna affair, but Porcupine, needless to say, knew more about it than I. Telling about my meeting Red s.h.i.+rt on the Nozeri river, I called him a fool. Porcupine then said; "You call everybody a fool. You called me a fool to-day at the school. If I'm a fool, Red s.h.i.+rt isn't," and insisted that he was not in the same group with Red s.h.i.+rt. "Then Red s.h.i.+rt may be a four-flusher," I said and he approved this new alias with enthusiasm. Porcupine is physically strong, but when it comes to such terms, he knows less than I do. I guess all Aizu guys are about the same.

Then, when I disclosed to him about the raise of my salary and the advance hint on my promotion by Red s.h.i.+rt, Porcupine pished, and said, "Then he means to discharge me." "Means to discharge you? But you mean to get discharged?" I asked. "Bet you, no. If I get fired, Red s.h.i.+rt will have to go with me," he remarked with a lordly air. I insisted on knowing how he was going to get Red s.h.i.+rt kicked out with him, and he answered that he had not thought so far yet. Yes, Porcupine looks strong, but seems to be possessed of no abundance of brain power. I told him about my refusal of the raise of my salary, and the Gov'nur was much pleased, praising me with the remark, "That's the stuff for Yedo kids."

"If Hubbard Squash does not like to go down to n.o.beoka, why didn't you do something to enable him remain here," I asked, and Porcupine said that when he heard the story from Hubbard Squash, everything had been settled already, but he had asked the princ.i.p.al twice and Red s.h.i.+rt once to have the transfer order cancelled, but to no purpose. Porcupine bitterly condemned Hubbard Squash for being too good-natured. If Hubbard Squash, he said, had either flatly refused or delayed the answer on the pretext of considering it, when Red s.h.i.+rt raised the question of transfer, it would have been better for him. But he was fooled by the oily tongue of Red s.h.i.+rt, had accepted the transfer outright, and all efforts by Porcupine who was moved by the tearful appeal of the mother, proved unavailing.

I said; "The transfer of Koga is nothing but a trick of Red s.h.i.+rt to cop the Madonna by sending Hubbard Squash away."

"Yes," said Porcupine "That must be. Red s.h.i.+rt looks gentle, but plays nasty tricks. He is a sonovagun for when some one finds fault with him, he has excuses prepared already. Nothing but a sound thumping will be effective for fellows like him."

He rolled up his sleeves over his plump arms as he spoke. I asked him, by the way, if he knew jiujitsu, because his arms looked powerful. Then he put force in his forearm, and told me to touch it. I felt its swelled muscle which was hard as the pumic stone in the public bathhouse.

I was deeply impressed by his ma.s.sive strength, and asked him if he could not knock five or six of Red s.h.i.+rt in a bunch. "Of course," he said, and as he extended and bent back the arm, the lumpy muscle rolled round and round, which was very amusing. According to the statement of Porcupine himself, this muscle, if he bends the arm back with force, would snap a paper-string wound around it twice. I said I might do the same thing if it were a paper-string, and he challenged me. "No, you can't," he said. "See if you can." As it would not look well if I failed, I did not try.

"Say, after you have drunk all you want to-night at the dinner, take a fall out of Red s.h.i.+rt and Clown, eh?" I suggested to him for fun.

Porcupine thought for a moment and said, "Not to-night, I guess." I wanted to know why, and he pointed out that it would be bad for Koga.

"Besides, if I'm going to give it to them at all, I've to get them red handed in their dirty scheme, or all the blame will be on me," he added discretely. Even Porcupine seems to have wiser judgment than I.

"Then make a speech and praise Mr. Koga sky-high. My speech becomes sort of jumpy, wanting dignity. And at any formal gathering, I get lumpy in my throat, and can't speak. So I leave it to you," I said.

"That's a strange disease. Then you can't speak in the presence of other people? It would be awkward, I suppose," he said, and I told him not quite as much awkward as he might think.

About then, the time for the farewell dinner party arrived, and I went to the hall with Porcupine. The dinner party was to be held at Kas.h.i.+n-tei which is said to be the leading restaurant in the town, but I had never been in the house before. This restaurant, I understood, was formerly the private residence of the chief retainer of the daimyo of the province, and its condition seemed to confirm the story. The residence of a chief retainer transformed into a restaurant was like making a saucepan out of warrior's armor.

When we two came there, about all of the guests were present. They formed two or three groups in the s.p.a.cious room of fifty mats. The alcove in this room, in harmony with its magnificence, was very large.

The alcove in the fifteen-mat room which I occupied at Yamas.h.i.+ro-ya made a small showing beside it. I measured it and found it was twelve feet wide. On the right, in the alcove, there was a seto-ware flower vase, painted with red designs, in which was a large branch of pine tree. Why the pine twigs, I did not know, except that they are in no danger of withering for many a month to come, and are economical. I asked the teacher of natural history where that seto-ware flower vase is made. He told me it was not a seto-ware but an imari. Isn't imari seto-ware? I wondered audibly, and the natural history man laughed. I heard afterward that we call it a seto-ware because it is made in Seto. I'm a Yedo kid, and thought all china was seto-wares. In the center of the alcove was hung a panel on which were written twenty eight letters, each letter as large as my face. It was poorly written; so poorly indeed that I enquired of the teacher of Confucius why such a poor work be hung in apparent show of pride. He explained that it was written by Kaioku a famous artist in the writing, but Kaioku or anyone else, I still declare the work poorly done.

By and by, Kawamura, the clerk, requested all to be seated. I chose one in front of a pillar so I could lean against it. Badger sat in front of the panel of Kaioku in j.a.panese full dress. On his left sat Red s.h.i.+rt similarly dressed, and on his right Hubbard Squash, as the guest of honor, in the same kind of dress. I was dressed in a European suit, and being unable to sit down, squatted on my legs at once. The teacher of physical culture next to me, though in the same kind of rags as mine, sat squarely in j.a.panese fas.h.i.+on. As a teacher of his line he appeared to have well trained himself. Then the dinner trays were served and the bottles placed beside them. The manager of the day stood up and made a brief opening address. He was followed by Badger and Red s.h.i.+rt. These two made farewell addresses, and dwelt at length on Hubbard Squash being an ideal teacher and gentleman, expressing their regret, saying his departure was a great loss not only to the school but to them in person.

They concluded that it could not be helped, however, since the transfer was due to his own earnest desire and for his own convenience. They appeared to be ashamed not in the least by telling such a lie at a farewell dinner. Particularly, Red s.h.i.+rt, of these three, praised Hubard Squash in lavish terms. He went so far as to declare that to lose this true friend was a great personal loss to him. Moreover, his tone was so impressive in its same old gentle tone that one who listens to him for the first time would be sure to be misled. Probably he won the Madonna by this same trick. While Red s.h.i.+rt was uttering his farewell buncomb, Porcupine who sat on the other side across me, winked at me. As an answer of this, I "snooked" at him.

No sooner had Red s.h.i.+rt sat down than Porcupine stood up, and highly rejoiced, I clapped hands. At this Badger and others glanced at me, and I felt that I blushed a little.

"Our princ.i.p.al and other gentlemen," he said, "particularly the head teacher, expressed their sincere regret at Mr. Koga's transfer. I am of a different opinion, and hope to see him leave the town at the earliest possible moment. n.o.beoka is an out-of-the-way, backwoods town, and compared with this town, it may have more material inconveniences, but according to what I have heard, n.o.beoka is said to be a town where the customs are simple and untainted, and the teachers and students still strong in the straightforward characteristics of old days. I am convinced that in n.o.beoka there is not a single high-collared guy who pa.s.ses round threadbare remarks, or who with smooth face, entraps innocent people. I am sure that a man like Mr. Koga, gentle and honest, will surely be received with an enthusiastic welcome there. I heartily welcome this transfer for the sake of Mr. Koga. In concluding, I hope that when he is settled down at n.o.beoka, he will find a lady qualified to become his wife, and form a sweet home at an early date and incidentally let the inconstant, unchaste sa.s.sy old wench die ashamed ...... a'hum, a'hum!"

He coughed twice significantly and sat down. I thought of clapping my hands again, but as it would draw attention, I refrained. When Porcupine finished his speech, Hubbard Squash arose politely, slipped out of his seat, went to the furthest end of the room, and having bowed to all in a most respectful manner, acknowledged the compliments in the following way;

"On the occasion of my going to Kyushu for my personal convenience, I am deeply impressed and appreciate the way my friends have honored me with this magnificent dinner....... The farewell addresses by our princ.i.p.al and other gentlemen will be long held in my fondest recollection.......

I am going far away now, but I hope my name be included in the future as in the past in the list of friends of the gentlemen here to-night."

Then again bowing, he returned to his seat. There was no telling how far the "good-naturedness" of Hubbard Squash might go. He had respectfully thanked the princ.i.p.al and the head teacher who had been fooling him. And it was not a formal, cut-and-dried reply he made, either; by his manner, tone and face, he appeared to have been really grateful from his heart.

Badger and Red s.h.i.+rt should have blushed when they were addressed so seriously by so good a man as Hubbard Squash, but they only listened with long faces.