"Yes, sir. I am sure I am very sorry for what I have done. Please, may
I ask for the ball?" said Tsunéhei, bowing humbly.

For a while Zempachi made no answer, but at length he said--

"Do you know, villain, that your dirty football struck me in the
face? I ought, by rights, to kill you on the spot for this; but I will
spare your life this time, so take your football and be off." And with
that he went up to Tsunéhei and beat him, and kicked him in the head,
and spat in his face.

Then Tsunéhei, who up to that time had demeaned himself very humbly,
in his eagerness to get back the football, jumped up in a fury, and
said--

"I made ample apologies to you for my carelessness, and now you have
insulted and struck me. Ill-mannered ruffian! take back the
ball,--I'll none of it;" and he drew his dirk, and cutting the
football in two, threw it at Zempachi, and returned home.

But Zempachi, growing more and more angry, called one of his servants,
and said to him--

"That fellow, Tsunéhei, has been most insolent: go next door and find
out Shôzayémon, and tell him that I have ordered you to bring back
Tsunéhei, that I may kill him."

So the servant went to deliver the message.

In the meantime Tsunéhei went back to his master's house; and when