Half-Light over Warm Seas 



(^Japanese) 



THE BOAT of Masatoshi Komuro appeared suddenly out of the 

 pale gray mist between the island and the headland. It swung 

 right, under the overhanging, flat-topped pine trees, as it headed 

 into the narrow bay. The girls on the beach were the first to see 

 it, for almost everybody else was working indoors drying things 

 that had become sodden during the long period of rainy weather. It 

 was still early in the morning, and none of the boats which had left 

 for the fishing grounds late the evening before, when the rains had 

 stopped, should have been returning so soon. The village was almost 

 without fish because the weather had been so bad, and the farmers 

 were waiting eagerly for supplies so that they could get back to their 

 early planting. At first the girls thought there must have been a 

 serious accident of some kind to have caused Masatoshi, of all men, 

 to come rowing home in such a hurry. They all gathered at the 

 water's edge. 



As soon as the boat was within hailing distance, the steersman stood 

 up in the stern and, cupping his hands, started shouting to the girls 



