"Now for nearly five years, there had been famine. The Shogun blamed the daimyo, and the daimyo blamed the rice merchants, and the merchants blamed the farm landlords, and the landlords blamed the peasants, who, as they died, blamed the gods." (Chapter 1, p. 4).

"It is always bad to be a thief, whether your name is Furukawa the rice merchant or Saburo the rogue. But as long as the government does not see fit to punish the one, we must hope that it fails to catch the other." (Chapter 1, p. 7).

"He had completely humiliated his kind father in front of Yoshida - the man upon whom all their livelihood depended. In the old days men had committed suicide for less." (Chapter 2, p. 15).

""Saburo!" everyone whispered. Once more the people's hero had outwitted the wealthy." (Chapter 3, p. 21).

"But Jiro soon forgot the presence of the men. They became far less...