A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

. . . "My
Of a Promise Broken 17
" I do not wish for anything else," she said.
dear one, you have been very good
to me always. Now I can die happy."
Then she closed her eyes and died — as easily
as a tired child falls asleep. She looked beautiful
when she was dead ; and there was a smile upon
her face.
She was buried in the garden, under the shade
of the trees that she loved ; and a small bell was
buried with her. Above the grave was erected a
handsome monument, decorated with the family
crest, and bearing the kaimyo : — " Great Elder
Sister, Luminous-Shadow-of-the-Plum-Flower-
Chamber, dwelling in the Mansion of the Great
Sea of Compassion."
But, within a twelve-month after the death of
his wife, the relatives and friends of the samurai
began to insist that he should marry again. " You
are still a young man," they said, " and an only
son ; and you have no children. It is the duty of
a samurai to marry. If you die childless, who
will there be to make the offerings and to re-
member the ancestors .?
2
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