You knew his love, O-Sode-San. You touched his hand. O-KATSU-SAN But what is that? To her--my little girl--I gave all my dreams. I felt her baby hands in mine and in the night I could reach out to her. I lived for her. And then, one day--Obaa-San, I had known the joy of motherhood and I had known the ecstasy of--child--and now--Her little life with me was only a dream of spring, but still my back is warm with the touch of her babyhood. The little toys still dance before my eyes. Oh, that was long ago.--Now all is black. OBAA-SAN All blackness can never fill a mother's heart.--O-Katsu-San, you have known the baby's hand in yours. But I am old--and I have never known, can never know.--I'd go to the lowest hells if once I might but know the touch of my own child's hand. THE TREE Hai! Hai! Hai OBAA-SAN Just once--for one short day--to fill the empty place in my heart that has always been empty--and a pain-- O-SODE-SAN Who is that man, Obaa-San? OBAA-SAN There? That is a stranger seeking for Kyushu. O-KATSU-SAN He seems to wish to speak to you. OBAA-SAN A strange man. 'Twas he who seemed to make me unlock my heart to you. O-SODE-SAN Then shall we go.--And we'll return, Obaa-San. OBAA-SAN Grandmother! O-KATSU-SAN We'll laugh no more. [_They leave. Obaa-San turns to the tree. The Gaki enters, strangely agitated._ THE GAKI Obaa-San, for so they called you, tell me--did you say you'd go to the lowest hells if you might know the touch of your own child? OBAA-SAN Forever--could I but fill this emptiness in my mother-heart. THE GAKI Would you really pay? OBAA-SAN Yes, yes. But why do you ask?--Who are you? THE GAKI I am a stranger bound for Kyushu. OBAA-SAN Why do you, too, make sport of me? THE GAKI Go you into your house and come not till I call. [_Obaa-San obeys under a strange compulsion._ THE TREE Hai! Hai! Hai THE GAKI You can not feed me now. That cry was the wind amongst your branches. Come. I bid you come to life, to human form. THE TREE I do not wish to come. THE GAKI I bid you come! [_When he touches the trunk of the tree, Aoyagi steps forth. She is small. Her little body is swathed in brown and from her arms hang long sleeves like the branches of the weeping willow. At first she shrinks. Then freedom takes hold on her and she opens her arms wide._ THE GAKI You are free. AOYAGI Free! THE GAKI As free as one in life. You are bound to the tree as one might be bound to his body in a dream--but you may wander as one wanders in a dream--free until the waking--then when the tree suffers, you shall suffer. Though you be leagues away, you shall suffer.--But first you shall dream.--Now you are to be the daughter of Obaa-San. AOYAGI Oi! THE GAKI Do not call yet.--You are to wed the first young man who passes here and you are to follow him. AOYAGI But--Obaa-San? THE GAKI She shall feed me with her new-made misery. AOYAGI No--no--she loved me so! THE GAKI