Umé also loved her father. She was grieved that he should speak to her in a tone of rebuke. She whirled about and fluttered to his other side, nestling under his arm and smiling the sweetest of smiles up into his face. "Now I see, O Chichi San, why we fly the brave carp for our boys," she said prettily, "and why we steep the hardy iris flower in their bath water." Her father looked down into her face. "You knew that very well before," he said with a smile. "You have heard of the wonderful strength of the carp ever since Tara was born. You know that every father who flies a paper carp for his son at this festival time does it with the hope that the boy will heed the sign and grow courageous and strong to overcome every obstacle." But Umé still smiled up into her father's face. She felt that he was not yet quite pleased with her. "Will you not come home early from the honorable business and tell us stories of the old war heroes?" she asked softly. "The mother tells them faithfully well, leaving out no brave detail, but she has never fought, as you have done, for our beloved Emperor. It is you alone who can make us feel the joy of battle so that even I wish I could wear a sword and fight with it for our country." Umé had conquered. Her father put his hand upon her head in loving consent. "When our women also are ready to give their lives for Japan," he said, "the country will never suffer defeat." But Umé told her cousin Tei later in the day that one need not always fight to win a victory. CHAPTER VIII THE SINGING INSECTS Umé sat on the edge of the veranda, taking coins from a little silk bag and spreading them out before her. "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go," she counted, up to fourteen. "Fourteen sen," she said. "If I had one more I could buy the kind of singing insect I like best." "What is that?" asked Tara. "It is a kirigirisu." "What shall you buy, then?" asked Tara. "I shall have to buy a suzumushi, and two other honorably cheap ones," Umé told him. "Ask the august father for one more sen," Tara advised. But Umé shook her head. "The august father has given me all the sen he has for me this month," she answered. "How do you know?" "Because I have already asked for one more sen, and that was his honorable answer." "I have one sen which you may have if you will let me call the kirigirisu partly mine," said Tara. "I have a black cricket, a little grass lark, that I caught in our own garden last night, and it chirps so cheerfully that I do not need to buy any other singing insect." "It does not matter whose insect it is," said Umé, "if it only sings." So Tara gave his sen to Umé and she went to find Tei, who went with her down to the street of shops. There, among numberless other booths, the children found one where nothing but singing insects were for sale.