"On such a winter"s night a good fire is necessary for the entertainment of a traveller, but, alas! all the charcoal has been used up and I have no more in the house. To warm you before you retire I will therefore b.u.m these trees!"
"What!" said the astonished guest, for he saw that the trees were of no common kind, but were of some value, for they were old, and their training showed the skill of an experienced gardener; "these pine, plum, and cherry trees are too good to be used as fuel--they are finely trained. No! no! you mustn"t burn them for me--they are far too valuable!"
"Don"t trouble yourself," said the host. "I loved them once when I was rich and had many more such valuable trees in my possession. But now that I am ruined and living in this miserable condition, of what use are such trees to me, pray tell me?" and with these words he began to break up the trees and to put the pieces on the fire. "If they could speak, I am sure they would say how pleased they were to be used for such a good purpose as your comfort!"
The disguised ex-Regent smiled as he watched the kind man break up his pet trees, and make up the fire. Since Tokiyori had first entered the house, small and poverty-stricken though it was, he had felt that his host was no common farmer as he pretended to be; that he must be a man in reduced circ.u.mstances.
"I feel sure," said the priest, "that you are no farmer by birth; indeed in you I recognize the a courtesy and breeding of a _samurai_ [a knight]. Will you add one more favour to the rest you have shown me this night and tell me your real name?"
"Alas," answered the farmer in disguise, "I cannot do so without shame."
"Do not trifle with me," said the priest, "for I am very much in earnest. Tell me who you are. I should very much like to know."
Pressed so earnestly to reveal himself, the host could no longer refuse.
"Since you wish so earnestly to know, I will tell who I am, without reserve," he answered. "I am no farmer, as you rightly guessed. I am in reality a _samurai_, and my name is Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo."
"Indeed? Are you Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo? I have heard of you. You are a _samurai_ of high rank, I know. But tell me, how is it that you are now in such reduced circ.u.mstances?"
"Oh, that is a long story," replied Sano. "It was through the dishonesty of an unworthy relation. He seized my property, little by little, without my knowing it, and one day I found that he had taken everything and that I was left with nothing except this farmhouse and the land on which it stands."
"I am sorry for you," said Tokiyori; "but why haven"t you brought a lawsuit against your relation? Were you to do that, I am sure you would recover your lost property."
"Oh yes, I have thought of that," said the farmer; "but now that Tokiyori, the just Regent, has died, and as Tokimune his successor is very young, I felt that it was useless to present my pet.i.tion, so that I determined to resign myself to poverty. But though I live and work like a farmer, in heart and soul I am still a _samurai_. Should war break out or even a call to arms be sounded, I shall be the first to go to Kamakura, wearing my armour, dilapidated and torn though it may be, carrying my halberd, rusty as it is, and riding my old horse, emaciated and unpresentable though he is, and I will do glorious deeds once more and die a knight"s death. I never for one moment forget my ambition.
This alone buoys me up through all my trouble and poverty," he added cheerfully, looking up at his listener with a smile.
"Your purpose is a good one, and worthy of a true _samurai_," said the priest, and he smiled and looked at the knight intently. "I prophesy that you will rise in life in the near future, and I feel sure that I shall see you and congratulate you at Kamakura on obtaining your heart"s desire."
While they were talking, the night had pa.s.sed and day began to break.
The snow had ceased to fall, and as Sano and his guest rose to open the storm-doors, the sun rose bright and shining on a silvered world.
The priest went to put on his rain-coat and hat.
"Thank you," he said, "for all the kindness and hospitality you have shown me. I will say good-bye. Now that the storm has ceased, I need trespa.s.s no longer on your goodness; I will be getting on my way!"
"Oh," said the knight, "why need you hurry so? At least stay one more day with us, for you seem to me no longer a stranger but a friend, and I am loth to see you depart."
"Thank you," replied the priest, "but I must hurry on. I take my leave, however, with the firm conviction that fate will give us the pleasure of meeting again ere long. Remember my words. Good-bye!" And thus speaking, with several bows the priest turned from the porch and wended his way through the snow.
When he had gone the knight remembered that he had forgotten to ask the traveller"s name, so he and his wife would probably never know who the sympathetic stranger was.
The next spring the Government at Kamakura issued a proclamation calling upon all knights to present themselves in battle-array before the Regent. When Sano Genzaemon heard of this, he thought that some extraordinary event must have taken place. What it was he could not imagine. But he was a knight and must answer the summons promptly. Here might be the chance of proving his knightly prowess, for which he had been waiting so long, hidden away in obscurity and the poverty of his circ.u.mstances. The only thing that weighed him down was the thought that he had no money either to buy a new suit of armour or a good horse. No hesitation, however, showed itself in the despatch with which he hastened to Kamakura, clothed only in his suit of shabby armour, a rusty halberd in hand, and riding an old broken-down horse, unattended by any servant.
When Sano reached Kamakura, he found the city crowded with warriors who were riding in from all parts of the country. There were thousands of great and eminent _samurai_ clothed from head to foot in beautiful armour, their suits, their helmets, and their swords glittering with ornamentation of silver and gold. It was a goodly sight that the sun shone on that day, framed by the great pine trees against the background of the glimmering sea beyond. The pride of life and race were there, the hauteur of birth and rank, the glory and parade of war, the glinting of helmet and clanking of steel,--every knight"s armour was composed of fine metal scales woven and held together by silken threads of ruby, emerald, scarlet, sapphire, and gold. Each knight wore his favourite colour, and as the ranks moved into the sunlight or fell into the shade the whole formed an army of moving splendour, the brilliant and variegated colouring of which was like a river of rich and magnificent brocade.
As Sano, clothed in his shabby armour and riding his broken-down horse, rode in amongst the bright phalanx of warriors, how they all jeered and scoffed at him and his horse! But Sano cared little for their scorn, the consciousness that he was a _samurai_ as good as most of them bore him up, and he laughed to himself at their pride and swagger.
"These men wear fine armour, it is true," he said to himself, "but they have lost the true _samurai_ spirit; their hearts are corrupt or they would not glory so in appearance; though my armour cannot compare with theirs, yet in loyalty I can never be outdone, even by them, braggers though they be."
As these thoughts pa.s.sed through his mind, Sano saw a herald approaching the gay concourse of knights. He rode a richly caparisoned horse, and he held aloft a banner bearing the house-crest of the Regent. The warriors, their armour and their swords clanging as they moved, parted to the right and left, leaving a road for him to pa.s.s. As he rode up their lines he called aloud: "The Regent summons to his presence the knight who wears the shabbiest armour and who rides the most broken-down horse!"
When Sano heard these words he thought:
"There is no soldier here but myself clothed in old armour. Alas! the Governor will reprimand it me for daring to appear in such a state. It can"t be helped; come what will, I obey the summons--such is my duty!"
So with a sinking heart Sano, the dilapidated knight, followed the herald to the Governor"s house. Here the messenger announced that the knight Sano Genzaemon had come in answer to the proclamation summoning the poorest-clothed knight to the Regent.
"I am the poorest knight here, so the required man can be none other than myself," said Sano, as he bowed low to the retainers who came out to receive him at the porch.
Sano was then ushered along endless corridors and through s.p.a.cious rooms. At last the ushering officer knelt on the polished wood outside a large room, and, pushing back the white paper screen, told him to enter.
The knight found himself in the presence of the handsome young General Tokimune. On his head he wore a helmet with golden horns and the small plates of his armour were woven together with silken threads of scarlet.
The young General bowed to the knight in answer to his prostrations and said: "Are you the knight Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo?"
"Yes, I am he," answered Sano.
"Then," answered the young man, "I have to present you to some one!"
and he made a sign to an attendant.
Upon this the servant pushed open the screens of an inner room, and the Regent Saimyoji Tokiyori, who had been reported dead for a year, was revealed, magnificently dressed in his robes of office. Over his armour he wore a sacerdotal robe of rich brocade, and on his head a white head-dress.
Bewildered by all the strange things that were happening to him, and fearful of he knew not what, the knight had kept his face to the ground.
He heard the rattle of armour and the swish of heavy silk moving towards him over the mats, and he wondered if it were not all a dream.
Then a voice said: "Oh, Sano Genzaemon--is it you? It is long since I saw you! Look up! Don"t be afraid! Don"t you know me?"
The poor knight knew at once that he had heard that voice before, and at last found courage to raise his head and to look at the resplendent figure that addressed him.
An exclamation of surprise burst from the lips of Sano, for he recognized in the personage who addressed him the priest whom he had sheltered on the night of the great snowstorm a year agone.
"You are surely," said Sano after a pause, "the travelling priest who pa.s.sed that night of the great snowstorm under my roof last year, are you not?"
"Yes, I am that priest, and also I am the Regent Saimyoji Tokiyori."
"Oh!" exclaimed Sano, bowing to the ground, "pardon my rudeness to you that night, for I did not know who my august visitor was," and his heart filled with fear at the remembrance of his unceremonious behaviour on that occasion.
Then the ex-Regent spoke again, and this time solemnly: "Sir Sano, you have no need to apologize, far from that. Do you remember what you said to me that night when the snowstorm took me to your house? You told me that through unfortunate circ.u.mstances you were now obliged to work like a farmer, yet if ever the occasion arose that should sound the call of knights to arms, you would, regardless of your shabby accoutrements, answer the summons and come forth in the spirit of a _samurai_ to do glorious deeds worthy of your sword once more before you died! Herewith I give you back the thirty villages in the district of Sano, of which you were robbed by your unworthy kinsman. And do you think I have forgotten your kind action when you burned your precious trees, the last relics of your prosperous past, to minister to my comfort during that terrible storm? The glow of that fire remains in my heart to this day.
By way of expressing my thanks for your hospitality that cold and dreary night, in return for the _Matsu_ [pine tree], I am going to give you the village of _Matsu-ida_, in the province of Kodzuke; in the place of the _Ume_ [plum tree], the village of _Umeda_, in the province of Kaga; and for the _Sakura_ [cherry tree], you shall have _Sakurai_, a village in the province of Etchiu."
As the knight listened to these golden words of fortune, which dropped like jewels from the mouth of the beneficent Regent, it seemed to him as if he must be dreaming, it was all so unexpected. He could not speak, for the tears rose to his eyes, and sobs of joy choked his utterance.
When at last he looked up, he was alone. He made his way out of the mansion as in a trance, oblivious of all around him. The news of his promotion and of the favour he enjoyed in the estimation of the Regent had already spread outside, and the men who had laughed and jeered at him before now smiled graciously and bowed respectfully as he pa.s.sed along the ranks.
So Sano Genzaemon returned to Kodzuke, not as a poor farmer, but as a lord under the special favour of the Regent, having won the esteem of all his countrymen by his knightly conduct in adversity.
All rejoiced that faithfulness, honesty, and kindness had received their just reward, and none more than the good Regent Tokiyori.