One night, after the children had gone to sleep, O-Yuki was sewing by the
light of a paper lamp; and Minokichi, watching her, said:--


"To see you sewing there, with the light on your face, makes me think of a
strange thing that happened when I was a lad of eighteen. I then saw
somebody as beautiful and white as you are now -- indeed, she was very like
you."...


Without lifting her eyes from her work, O-Yuki responded:--


"Tell me about her... Where did you see her?


Then Minokichi told her about the terrible night in the ferryman's hut,--
and about the White Woman that had stooped above him, smiling and
whispering,-- and about the silent death of old Mosaku. And he said:--


"Asleep or awake, that was the only time that I saw a being as beautiful
as you. Of course, she was not a human being; and I was afraid of her,--
very much afraid,-- but she was so white!... Indeed, I have never been sure
whether it was a dream that I saw, or the Woman of theSnow."...


O-Yuki flung down her sewing, and arose, and bowed above Minokichi where
he sat, and shrieked into his face:--