(Continued from previous page)

"And backbreaking labor," she told herself,  "Buddha smile on me.  Don't let me marry a farmer."

The Torayamas ate their night meal.  Sanko smiled at her mother.  The mother smiled and sipped from a bowl of bean soup.  They both looked at Chi holding a sugared sweet potato between the chopsticks. 

Sanko sensed a whiff of fertilizer and heard a knock at the door.  She opened the door, and Chi

(Continued on next page)