Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/62

Rh of her voice; and the sake-demon looked petrified with amazement.

"Well, if ever any one saw the like!" he said in English, adding in Japanese,—"Do not be afraid, my children, I will not hurt you."

He repeated this in a still more reassuring tone, and Cherry-Bloom, always quick to recover her courage, now peeped at him between her two fingers to make sure if he really meant what he said.

He saw this and smiled at it.

"Get up, little sister," he said gently; "Of what are you so much afraid?"

Cherry-Bloom sat back on her heels, and looked at the fish from which she knew Plum-Blossom's eye was watching, but said nothing.

"Is it because I am a stranger?"

Still silence.

"Oh, come now, what is it?" he continued, "I had no idea I was so appalling a person!"