But nothing further happened. She bound her hair back neatly, smiled, and left the house on some errand like any good, wifely wife. Goro slipped down and out of the house, picking up his tools on the way. He went back into the forest, found a comfortable tree and sat down against its trunk to smoke his tiny pipe and think. "I must have married one of the monsters the priests and old men talk about, a yamam'ba. A 'mountain-mother'. Hmm," he nodded, bit his lip, and squinted his eyes. "Now why do you suppose they call them that?" he asked a squirrel that sat upright near his left foot, like an attentive, furry little doctor. "They come from the mountains--fine. But what's motherly about them, I do not understand. "Squeerp!" said the squirrel, and ran halfway up the tree. From there it peered down and examined Goro's head. He tilted his head back so that the squirrel could get a better look and told it that, at any rate, this was no kind of wife for a good man. Then he stood up and began to walk home, looking down at the ground, kicking thoughtfully at fallen leaves and occasionally scratching his head. He came out from among the trees and across the yard of his home, dragging his feet like a man who has walked a long way. He started speaking as soon as he put down his tools. "Wife, I have been thinking about our marriage and--it hurts me to say it, you understand--but it was too sudden. No--don't interrupt," he said, though his wife had shown no sign of breaking in. "I'm very sorry, but I feel that we're simply not suited to each other." "All right, husband, I'll leave," she answered in quite an ordinary voice, "even if it makes me unhappy. Could you do only one thing for me before I go? Nothing much--I'd like you to make me a tub--as a kind of souvenir. A very large one. For bathing in." "The simplest thing in the world," said Goro, glad to get off so easily. "I have one ready, it happens. The very one I was sitting against when you came out of the forest. A very sound tub, one of my best." "It has a lid, I hope," she said. "All of my tubs have lids," said Goro. "Well-fitting lids. Water stays warm in _my_ tubs, even without a fire, once that lid is on. Come, I'll show it to you." He led her out to the tub. "See? There's the lid, right up against it," he said, thumping the tub with his fist. "Feel that wood! Isn't it a beauty?" She looked into the tub and agreed that it was getting harder and harder to find real quality in tubs. "Too bad there's that large hole in it," she said. "Hole?" said Goro. "Hole? A hole in one of my tubs? Impossible ... where's that hole!" He put his hands on the edge to raise himself and peered over. "There. Bottom right," she said. "Can't you see it?" "Oh, the bottom ..." said Goro, leaning further over the edge. "It's too dark to--" She seized Goro's trousers in a firm grip and heaved.