The story jumps forward ten years. Kenji has become a young man in Tokyo, working in a textile factory. He has not visited home in three years. Then, a letter arrives from his younger sister: "Mother is dying. She has been blind for two years. She didn’t want you to worry."
Halfway across the bridge, Kenji, still fuming with adolescent pride, sees an old woman struggling to carry a bundle of firewood. He ignores her and rushes ahead. Returning home empty-handed (he lost the salt trying to skip stones), he expects a beating. Mother-s Lesson - Mitsuko