Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan.pdf/98

82 fervour. She carried it in her arms, and every day she dressed and undressed it, and even made it a little bed and a tiny pillow to rest upon. Whenever she happened to be absent from school with a cold, it was always this particular doll which was chosen to sit cross-legged near her bed, and with its smiling face it seemed to listen intently to the fairy tales which she told it.

A little girl who lived near by would often call upon Sode-ko, and would say:

“Sode-ko-san, let us play.”

Her name was Mitsu-ko, and her hair was cut across her brow in the style of little girls who attend kindergarten. Sometimes Sode-ko would go to see her when she had a little time to spare, and they would play happily together, making all kinds of pretty things from folded paper, or amusing themselves in other ways. At such times, the boy doll was always with them.

But Sode-ko’s love and devotion for her dolls gradually waned, and she did not go to play with Mitsu-ko so often as before. However, before she had finished the first course of the higher elementary school, being fond of the company of other children, she could not be without someone or something to play with, so she began to bring a little boy, of two years of age, the son of a neighbour, to her house. But he was a very quiet baby compared with the headstrong Mitsu-ko, her former playmate.

His name, Kinnosuke, suited him well. He had a lovely face, with plump cheeks which dimpled merrily