Huh?
The woman was confused.
"What's wrong?"
"Why are you saying he's stingy?"
"Big Brother helped you get your kite down from the tree."
"How can you talk about him behind his back?"
The woman furrowed her brow.
She looked thoroughly disapproving.
"But Big Brother is stingy!"
The two children looked stubborn.
"We wanted to trade our kite for Little Fox."
"But Big Brother wouldn't agree."
"Stingy!"
What?
"Little Fox?"
The woman was puzzled.
"What little fox?"
"Big Brother has two little foxes."
The two children widened their eyes.
"One of them has red stripes."
"It's super pretty."
"We really like it."
"...We just wanted to trade our kite with Big Brother for it."
"But no matter what we said..."
"Big Brother just wouldn't agree."
The woman: ...
Anyone would refuse that deal.
Two kites—ones the children had made themselves—in exchange for someone else's—
Since the children liked the little fox enough to offer the kites they'd put so much effort into making, it must really be very pretty.
And such a pretty little fox was probably worth quite a lot.
Even if it wasn't worth as much as she thought, its owner would have formed an attachment to it.
How could he casually agree to give his pet to someone else?
Especially when all they were offering was two kites...
Of course.
She knew.
Those two kites were very important to the children.
They were the first kites the children had made with their own hands.
Their sentimental value far outweighed their material worth.
But that was only true for the children.
To that kindhearted man, these two kites were really just two kites.
And rather crudely made ones at that, by the hands of children.
The drawings on them were childish, too.
"Of