     That day I accompanied Tanaka when he delivered the evening papers. The second day I delivered the evening papers and Tanaka walked along side of me, correcting me if I did something wrong. The third morning was extremely cold. The melting snow covering the road had frozen into ice - - it was very slippery. My hands were freezing. They were so cold I barely move them. Even stuffing the papers into the mailboxes was difficult. Nevertheless, that day I delivered all the papers nearly on time.

     "You're not bad. You've only watched me for two days and already you've memorized two hundred and fifty subscribers," Tanaka praised me as we walked back to the shop. I was proud of myself as well. I'd only made two or three mistakes that day. On Sunday Tanaka didn't have any classes. After we ate breakfast he invited me to go sell subscriptions with him. By then we had become good friends. As we walked along, we would talk about our hometowns, about things that interested us. I was very happy to have found such a sincere, passionate friend in Tanaka. After we both came to a sort of understanding about each other, I told him. "I'd like to start going to school as soon as I can?to study a bit."

     "That's wonderful. We'll both do our best to help each other."

     Every day Tanaka saved some of his food maoney and lent it to me so I could eat. When he noticed that my shoes were torn beyond repair, he bought me a new pair of tabi socks.

VI.
     One day, Tanaka and I walked together out in the suburbs. The air was clear and fresh that day, and we were talking with each other completely openly. It reminded me of when I was young - - I would go to the mountains to pick fruit with my friends, friends with whom I felt completely comfortable. I got that same kind of feeling with Tanaka.

     However, as soon as we got out of the suburbs, everything changed. It wasn't as though we were out for a stroll abymore; we were out there to sell subscriptions. The suburbs of Tokyou were just starting to expand. New living quarters were springing up everywhere and there were new people moving in nearly every day. Our targets for selling subscriptions were these new buildings. Every time we found a new "target," we would push open the door, bow respectfully, and start talking about how wonderful our newspaper was. Sometimes we told the truth, sometimes we lied. When we were lying we had to make it sound like the truth, and when we were telling the truth, we had to play it up even more.

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