Page:A Daughter of the Samurai.pdf/72

 could not understand, then, why he should leave the temple where he had been so long and which he so dearly loved; but afterward I learned that, devout and faithful though he was to all the temple forms, his brain had advanced beyond his faith, and he had joined the “Army of the Few” who choose poverty and scorn for the sake of what they believe to be the truth.

One evening, after a heavy snowfall, Grandmother and I were sitting cozily together by the fire-box in her room. I was making a hemp-thread ball for a mosquito net that was to be woven as part of my sister’s wedding dowry, and Grandmother was showing me how to put my fingers deftly through the fuzzy hemp.

“Honourable Grandmother,” I exclaimed, suddenly recalling something I wanted to say, “I forgot to tell you that we are going to have a snow-fight at school tomorrow. Hana San is chosen to be leader on one side and I on the other. We are to——”

I was so interested that again I lost my thread and it matted. I gave it a quick jerk and at once found myself in sad trouble.

“Wait!” said Grandmother, reaching out to help me. “You should sing ‘The Hemp-Winding Song.’&thinsp;” As she straightened my tangled thread, her quavery old voice sang:

“Don’t forget again!” she added, handing back the untangled bunch of hemp.

“I was thinking about the snow-fight,” I said apologetically.

Grandmother looked disapproving. “Etsu-bo,” she said, “your eldest sister, before she was married, made