The Alligator Goes to the Jackal’s HouseThe Alligator Goes to the Jackal’s House
The little jackal was terribly frightened. He thought, “Is it possible that the wicked alligator has come to hunt for me here in my own house and is waiting inside to catch me?”
Then he called loudly: “What is the matter, house of mine? Every day when I come home you say, ‘All is well, little jackal,’ but today you say nothing, and I am afraid to come in.”
Of course the house did not really speak to him, but he wanted to find out if the alligator was there, and the alligator believed his words. The stupid creature thought, “I shall have to speak just as the house would speak or this tiresome little jackal will not come in.”
He made his voice as small and soft as he could, and said, “All is well, little jackal.”
Then the jackal knew that the alligator was in his house, and he was more scared than ever. However, he contrived to respond in a cheerfulvoice: “All right, little house! I will come in as soon as I have been to the brook for a drink of water.”
When the alligator heard these words he was filled with joy. He lay quite still under the leaves thinking: “Now I will have that little jackal at last. This time he shall not escape me.”
But while he waited, the jackal gathered together a great heap of dead wood and brush and piled it against the door of the house. When it was big enough, the jackal set fire to the heap. It blazed up with a great noise, and the wicked alligator was burned to death.
Then the little jackal danced about singing:
“The alligator’s dead, and I am glad!Oh, ring-a-ting-a-ting; oh, ring-a-ting-ting!The alligator’s dead, and I am glad!”
After that the little jackal went wherever he pleased in safety, and he ate so many figs and so many crabs that he became as fat as fat could be.
In Italy dwelt a woman named Janella who had eight children. Seven of them were sons, but the youngest was a daughter.
After the sons grew up they went off to see the world. They went on and on until they came to a wood in which dwelt an ogre. This ogre had been blinded by a woman while he lay asleep, and ever since then he had been such an enemy to womankind that he devoured all whom he could catch.
When the youths arrived at the ogre’s house, tired out with walking, and faint with hunger, they begged him, for pity’s sake, to give them something to eat.
The ogre replied that if they would serve him he would supply them with food.They would have nothing else to do but watch over his safety, each in turn, a day at a time.
This seemed a very satisfactory arrangement to them, and they consented to remain in the service of the ogre. So he let them have all the lower part of the house to live in.
After the brothers had been gone from home a long time, and no tidings of them were received, Channa, their sister, dressed for a journey and went to seek them. On and on she walked, asking at every place she came to whether any one had seen her seven brothers. Finally she got news at an inn of where they were, and away she went to the ogre’s house in the wood.
There she made herself known to her brothers and was received with great joy. After the greetings were over the youths told her to stay quietly in their part of thehouse so the ogre would not be aware of her presence. They also cautioned her to give a portion of whatever she had to eat to a cat which lived there. Otherwise the cat would do her harm.
Channa heeded their advice and got along very well. She shared her food with the cat, always doing it fairly to the last morsel, and saying, “This for me—this for thee.”
But one day when the ogre sent the brothers out to do some hunting they left Channa a little basket of peas to cook. While shelling the peas, she found a hazel nut among them, and as ill-luck would have it she ate the nut, forgetting to give half to the cat. The latter, out of spite, ran to the hearth and put out the fire.
Then Channa left the room and went upstairs to the blind ogre’s part of the house. She asked him for a few coals, and when he heard a woman’s voice he said: “Welcome,madam! Just you wait a while.” Afterward he began to sharpen his teeth with a whetstone.
She saw that she had made a mistake in not obeying her brother’s orders, and she ran back to the room below. There she bolted the door and placed against it stools, tables, chests, and in fact everything she could move.
As soon as the ogre had put an edge on his teeth he groped his way to the door and found it fastened. So he proceeded to kick it to break it open. The seven brothers came home while he was making all this disturbance, and the ogre accused them of treachery.
Things might have gone badly had it not been for the cleverness of Grazio, the eldest, who said to the ogre: “She has fortified herself so securely inside that you cannot get at her. Come, I will take you to aplace where we can seize her without her being able to defend herself.”
Then they led the ogre by the hand to the edge of a deep pit, where they gave him a push that sent him headlong to the bottom. After that they got shovels and covered him with earth.
By and by they returned to the house and Channa unfastened the door. They told her to be more careful in future, and to beware of plucking any grass or other plant that might grow on the spot where the ogre was buried, or they would be changed into doves.
“Heaven keep me from bringing such a misfortune on you!” Channa exclaimed.
They took possession of all the ogre’s goods, made themselves masters of the whole house, and lived very comfortably and merrily there until spring. Then it happened one morning when the brothers had goneoff on some errand, that a poor pilgrim came to the ogre’s wood. He was looking up at an ape perched in a pine tree when the creature threw a heavy cone at him. This struck him on the head so hard that the poor fellow set up a loud cry.
Channa heard the noise and ran to where he was sitting on the ground hanging on to his bruised head. She took pity on him and plucked a tuft of rosemary which was growing on the ogre’s grave near by. Then she hurried to the house and made a plaster of it with bread and salt. In a few minutes she rejoined the pilgrim and bound the plaster on his head. After that she had him go with her to the house where she gave him some breakfast. When he finished eating she sent him on his way.
Scarcely had the pilgrim gone when seven doves came flying into the room, and said: “Behold your brothers turned to birds and made companions of snipes, woodpeckers, jays, owls, rooks, starlings, blackbirds, tom-tits, larks, kingfishers, wrens, and sparrows. We shall be persecuted by hawks, and hunters will try to shoot us. Ah! why did you pluck that accursed rosemary and bring such a calamity on us? Doves we must remain for the rest of our lives unless you find the Mother of Time. She can tell you how to get us out of our trouble.”
Channa was greatly distressed over what she had done, and said she would start at once searching for the Mother of Time.She urged them to make the ogre’s house their home until she returned.
Away she went and journeyed on and on until she came to the seashore, where the waves were banging against the rocks. A huge whale came to the surface close at hand, looked at her, and asked, “What are you seeking, my pretty maiden?”
She replied, “I am seeking the Mother of Time.”
“Hear then what you must do,” the whale said. “Go along the shore, and when you come to a river, follow it up to its source. There you will meet some one who will show you the way. But do me one kindness. After you have found the old woman, ask her how I can swim about safely without so often knocking on the rocks and being thrown up on the sands.”
“I will gladly do that for you,” Channa said.
Then she thanked the whale and walked on along the shore. At length she came to a river and followed it up to its source in a beautiful open country of meadows starred with flowers. There she met a mouse who said to her, “Where are you going all alone, my pretty maiden?”
“I am seeking the Mother of Time,” Channa replied.
“You have a long way to go,” the mouse commented. “But do not lose heart. Go to yonder mountain, and you will obtain more news to help you in your search. And when you find the Mother of Time, will you do me one favor? Ask her what we mice can do to get rid of the tyranny of the cats.”
Channa promised to do this for the mouse, and trudged off toward the mountain. When she got to it she sat down on a stone to rest. Some ants were busy close by, and one of them addressed Channa, saying,“Who are you and whither are you going?”
She answered, “I am an unhappy girl who is seeking the Mother of Time.”
“Then keep on over the mountain to a large plain, and there you will get more news,” the ant said. “After you find the old woman please ask her how the ants can live longer. We store up a great deal of food, and this seems to me a folly while our lives are so short.”
“Be at ease,” Channa responded. “You can be sure that I will do your errand.”
Then she toiled on over the mountain to the great plain, where a wide-spreading old oak tree called to her as she was passing. “Whither are you going so sad, my little lady?” it said. “Come and rest in my shade.”
She thanked the old oak, but begged to be excused from stopping because she was going in haste to find the Mother of Time.
“You are not far from her dwelling,” the oak announced. “Before you have finished another day’s journey you will get to a high mountain on the summit of which is the home of her whom you seek. If you have as much kindness as beauty you will oblige me by asking her why it is that my fruit which used to be relished by strong men is now only made the food of hogs.”
“It will be a pleasure to do you such a service,” Channa affirmed, and departed.
The next day she arrived at the foot of a mountain which had its summit far up among the clouds. There she found an old man, wearied and wayworn, who had lain down on some hay. The moment he saw Channa he knew her, for he was the pilgrim to whom she had ministered. When she told him what she was seeking he responded that at last he could make some return for her kindness.
“My pretty maiden,” he said, “I would have you know that on the top of this mountain you will find a castle which was built so long ago that no one knows when it was built. The walls are cracked, the foundations are crumbling, the doors are worm-eaten, the furniture is worn out, and, in short, everything is gone to wrack and ruin.
“When you are almost to the castle, hide until Time goes out. After he has gone, enter, and you will find an old, old woman, whose face is covered with deep wrinkles, and whose eyebrows are so shaggy she will not be able to see you. She is seated on a clock which is fastened to the wall.
“Go in quickly and take off the weights that keep the machinery of the clock in motion. Then ask the old woman to answer your questions. She will instantly call her son to come and destroy you, but because you have stopped the clock by taking theweights he cannot move. Therefore she will be obliged to tell you what you want to know.”
When the pilgrim finished speaking, Channa climbed the mountain and arrived in the vicinity of the castle quite out of breath. There she waited till Time came out. He was an old man with a long beard, he wore a cloak and carried a scythe, and he had large wings that bore him swiftly out of sight.
Channa now entered the castle, and though she gave a start of fright when she saw the strange old woman, she hastened to seize the weights of the clock and tell what she wanted.
The old woman at once called loudly to her son, but Channa said, “You will not see your son while I hold these clock-weights.”
Thereupon the old woman began to coax Channa, saying: “Let go of them, my dear. Do not stop my son’s course. No one has ever done that before. Let go of the weights, and may Heaven reward you.”
“You are wasting your breath,” Channa responded. “You must say something better than that if you would have me quit my hold.”
“Well then,” the old woman said, “hide behind the door, and when Time comes home I will make him tell me all you wish to know. As soon as he goes out again you can depart.”
Channa let go the weights and hid behind the door. Presently Time came flying in, and his mother repeated to him the maiden’s questions.
Appealing to the Mother of TimeAppealing to the Mother of Time
In reply he said: “The oak tree will be honored as it was of yore when men find the treasure that is buried among its roots. The mice will never be safe from the cat unless they tie a bell to her neck to warn them when she is coming. The ants will live a hundred years if they will dispense with flying, for when an ant is going to die it puts on wings. The whale should make friends with the sea-mouse, who will serve as a guide so that the monster will never go astray. The doves will resume their former shape when they fly and alight on the column of riches.”
So saying, Time went forth to run his accustomed race. Then Channa bade the old woman farewell and descended the mountain. She arrived at the foot just as the seven doves arrived there. Her long absence had made them anxious, and they had come to look for her. They alighted on the horn of a dead ox, and at once they changed to the handsome youths they had been formerly.
While they were marveling at this transformation Channa greeted them and told them what Time had said. Then they understood that the horn, as the symbol of plenty, was what he called the column of wealth.
Now they all started on the return journey, taking the same road by which Channa had come. When they arrived at the old oak and she informed the tree of what Time had said, the oak begged them to take away the treasure from its roots. So the seven brothers borrowed tools in a neighboring village and dug till they unearthed a great heap of gold money. This they divided into eight parts and shared it between themselves and their sister.
After according to the oak tree the honor it so much desired they again tramped along the homeward road, and when they became weary lay down to sleep under a hedge.Presently they were seen there by a band of robbers who tied them hand and foot, and carried off their money.
They bewailed the loss of their wealth which had so soon slipped through their fingers, and they were anxious lest they should perish of starvation or be devoured by wild beasts. As they were lamenting their unhappy lot the mouse whom Channa had met appeared. She told it what Time had said about getting rid of the tyranny of the cats, and the grateful mouse nibbled the cords with which they were bound till it set them free.
Somewhat farther on they encountered the ant which listened eagerly while Channa repeated Time’s advice. Then it asked her why she was so pale and downcast.
So she related how the robbers had tricked them.
“Cheer up,” the ant said. “Now I canrequite the kindness you have done me. I know where those robbers hide their plunder. Follow me.”
The ant guided them to a group of tumble-down houses and showed them a pit which the brothers entered. There they found the money which had been stolen from them, and off they went with it to the seashore. The whale came to speak with them, and was rejoiced to learn what Time had said.
While they were talking with the whale, they saw the robbers coming, armed to the teeth.
“Alas, alas!” they cried, “now we are lost.”
“Fear not,” the whale said. “I can save you. Get on my back and I will carry you to a place of safety.”
Channa and her brothers climbed on the whale who carried them to within sight of Naples. There it left them on the shore andthey returned to their old home safe and sound and rich. Thereafter they enjoyed a happy life, in accord with the old saying, “Do all the good you can and make no fuss about it.”
Far away in the country was an old mansion in which dwelt a squire well along in years and his two sons. These sons thought themselves exceedingly clever. Indeed, they were convinced that had they known only half of what they did know, it would have been quite enough.
Both wanted to marry the king’s daughter. She had proclaimed that she would have for her husband the man who knew best how to choose his words, and they were confident that one or the other of them was certain to win her.
Only a week was allowed to prepare for the wooing, but that was plenty long enough for the two brothers. One knew the wholeLatin dictionary by heart. He also knew three years’ issue of the daily paper of the town so he could repeat backward or forward as you pleased all that had appeared in it.
The other had studied the laws of corporation and thought he could speak with wisdom and authority on matters of state. Besides, he was very expert with his fingers and could embroider roses and other flowers or figures in a manner that gave his friends great pleasure.
The old father gave each of the sons a fine horse. He presented a black horse to the one who knew the dictionary and the daily paper by heart, and the other, who was so clever at corporation law, received a milk-white steed. Just before they started, the young men oiled the corners of their mouths that they might be able to speak more fluently.
The squire had a third son, but nobody thought him worth counting. He was not learned as his brothers were and was generally called “Blockhead Hans.” While the servants stood in the courtyard watching the two clever youths mount their horses Hans chanced to appear.
“Well, well!” he said, “where are you off to? You are in your Sunday-best clothes.”
“We are going to the royal court to woo the princess,” they replied. “Haven’t you heard what has been proclaimed throughout all the countryside?”
They told him about it, and Hans shouted, “Hurrah! I’ll go too.” The brothers laughed at him and rode off.
“Dear father,” Blockhead Hans said, “I must have a horse. Perhaps I can win the princess. If she will have me, she will. If she won’t have me, she won’t.”
“Stop that nonsense!” the old man ordered. “I willnot give you a horse. You can’t speak wisely. You don’t know how to choose your words. But your brothers—ah! they are very different lads.”
“All right,” Hans said, “I have a goat. If you won’t give me a horse, the goat will have to serve instead. He can carry me.”
So he put a bridle on his goat, got on its back, dug his heels into its sides and went clattering down the road like a hurricane. Hoppitty hop! What a ride!
“Here I come!” Blockhead Hans shouted, and he sang so that the echoes were roused near and far.
Once he stopped and picked up a dead crow. Presently he overtook his brothers as they rode slowly along on their fine horses. They were not speaking, but were turning over in their minds all the clever things they intended to say, for everything had to be thought out.
“Hello!” Blockhead Hans bawled, “here I am. Just see what I found on the road.” And he proudly held up the dead crow for them to look at.
“You foolish lad,” his brothers said, “what are you going to do with it?”
“I shall give it to the princess,” he answered.
“Do so, certainly!” they said, laughing loudly and riding on.
Blockhead Hans thought he would continue the journey in their company, but he saw an old wooden shoe by the roadside. Such a prize was not to be neglected, and he got off his goat and picked it up. Then he cantered along the highway till he came up behind his brothers.
“Slap, bang! here I am!” he shouted. “See what I have just found? Such things are not to be picked up every day on the road!”
Blockhead Hans and the Dead CrowBlockhead Hans and the Dead Crow
The brothers turned round to learn what in the world he could have found.
“Simpleton!” they said, “that cracked old shoe is absolutely worthless. Are you going to take that to the princess?”
“Of course I shall,” Blockhead Hans replied, and the brothers laughed and rode along.
But the lad on the goat soon brought them to a standstill by hopping off his goat and shouting: “Hurrah! Here’s the best treasure of all!”
“What have you found now?” the brothers asked.
“Oh! something more for the princess,” he said. “How pleased she will be!”
“Why, that is pure mud, straight from the ditch!” the brothers exclaimed.
“Of course it is!” Blockhead Hans responded. “There never was any better mud. See how it runs through my fingers.”
So saying, he filled his coat pocket with it. The brothers did not enjoy these interruptions or his company, and they rode off with such speed that they were hidden in a cloud of dust raised by their horses’ hoofs. They reached the gate of the royal city a good hour before Blockhead Hans did.
Each suitor for the hand of the princess was numbered as he arrived and had to wait his turn. They waited as patiently as they could, standing in line closely guarded to prevent the jealous rivals from getting into a fight with one another.
A crowd of people had gathered in the throne room at the palace to look on while the princess received her suitors, and as each suitor came in all the fine phrases he had prepared passed out of his mind. Then the princess would say: “It doesn’t matter. Away with him!”
At last the brother who knew the dictionary by heart appeared, but he did not know it any longer. The floor creaked, and theceiling was made of glass mirrors so that he saw himself standing on his head. At one of the windows were three reporters and an editor, and each of them was writing down what was said to publish it in the paper that was sold at the street corners for a penny. All this was fearful. You couldn’t blame him for feeling nervous.
“It is very hot in here, isn’t it?” was the only thing that the brother who knew the dictionary could think of to say.
“Of course it is,” the princess responded. “We are roasting young chickens for dinner today.”
The youth cleared his throat. “Ahem!” There he stood like an idiot. He was not prepared for such remarks from the princess. How nice it would be to make a witty response! But he could think of nothing appropriate, and all he did was to clear his throat again. “Ahem!”
“It doesn’t matter,” the princess said. “Take him out.” And out he had to go.
Now the other brother entered. “How hot it is here!” he said.
The princess looked as if she thought him tiresome as she responded: “Of course. We are roasting young chickens today.”
“Where do you—um?” the youth stammered, and the reporters wrote down, “Where do you—um?”
“It doesn’t matter,” the princess said. “Take him out.”
After a while Blockhead Hans had his turn. He rode his goat right into the room and exclaimed, “Dear me, how awfully hot it is here!”
The princess looked at him and his goat with more interest than she showed in most of her suitors and said: “Of course! We are roasting young chickens today.”
“That’s good,” Blockhead Hans commented; “and willyou let me roast a crow with them?”
“Gladly,” the princess responded; “but have you anything to roast it in? I have neither pot nor saucepan to spare.”
“That’s all right,” Blockhead Hans told her. “Here is a dish that will serve my purpose.” And he showed her the wooden shoe and laid the crow in it.
The princess laughed and said, “If you are going to prepare a dinner you ought at least to have some soup to go with your crow.”
“Very true,” he agreed, “and I have it in my pocket.” Then he showed her the mud he was carrying.
“I like you,” the princess declared. “You can answer when you are spoken to. You have something to say. So I will marry you. But do you know that every word we speak is being recorded and will bein the paper tomorrow. Over by the window not far from where we are you can see three reporters and an old editor. None of them understands much and the editor doesn’t understand anything.”
At these words the reporters giggled, and each dropped a blot of ink on the floor.
“Ah! those are great people,” Blockhead Hans remarked. “I will give the editor something to write about.”
Then he took a handful of mud from his pocket and threw it smack in the great man’s face.
“That was neatly done!” the princess said—“much better, in fact, than I could have done it myself.”
She and Blockhead Hans were married, and presently he became king and wore a crown and sat on the throne. At any rate so the newspaper said, but of course you can’t believe all you see in the papers.
Once there was a bad boy named Tom, and the older he grew, the wiser and slyer he thought himself. Many were the tricks he played until no one liked him or trusted him.
One day he asked his grandmother for some money. She had plenty, but she would not give him any. So that evening Tom went to the pasture and caught the old woman’s black cow. He took the cow to a deserted house which stood at a distance from any other, and there he kept her two or three days, giving her food and water at night when nobody would see him going and coming.
Tom made his grandmother believe thatsome one had stolen the cow. This was a great grief to her. At last she told the lad to buy her another cow at a fair in a neighboring town, and she gave him three pounds with which to make the purchase.
He promised to get one as near like the other as possible and went off with the money. Then he took a piece of chalk, ground it into powder, steeped it in a little water and rubbed it in spots and patches over the head and body of the cow he had hidden.
Early the next morning he took her to an inn near the fair and spent the day in pleasure. Toward evening he drove the cow home before him, and as soon as he got to his grandmother’s the cow began to bellow.
The old woman ran out rejoicing for she thought her own black cow had been found, but when she saw the spots and patches of white she sighed and exclaimed, “Alas,you’ll never be the kindly brute my Black Lady was, though you bellow exactly like her.”
“’Tis a mercy you know not what the cow says,” Tom remarked to himself, “or all would be wrong with me.”
The old woman put her cow to pasture the following morning, but there came on a heavy shower of rain, which washed away the chalk. So the old woman’s Black Lady came home at night and the new cow went away with the shower and was never heard of afterward.
But Tom’s father had some suspicions, and he looked closely at the cow’s face and found some of the chalk still remaining. Then he gave Tom a hearty beating and turned him out of the house.
Tom traveled about from place to place, and by hook or by crook contrived to make a living till he reached the size and yearsof a man. He was always planning ways to get hold of other people’s money, for he did not like to exert himself to earn what he needed.
Once he met a party of reapers seeking work. At once he hired the whole company of about thirty and agreed to give them a week’s reaping at ten pence a day, which was two pence higher than any had gotten that year. This made the poor reapers think he was a very honest, generous, and genteel master.
Tom took them to an inn and gave them a hearty breakfast. “Now,” he said, “there are so many of you together, it’s quite possible that while most are honest men, some may be rogues. You will have to sleep nights together in a barn, and your best plan is to give what money you have to me to keep safe for you. I’ll mark down each sum in a book opposite the name of the manwhose it is, and you shall have it all when I pay you your wages.”
“Oh! very well, there’s my money, and there’s mine, and here’s mine,” they said.
Some gave him five, six, seven, and eight shillings, all they had earned through the harvest. Tom now went with them out of the village to a field of standing grain, remote from any house, and set the men at work. Then he left, telling them he was going to order dinner for them, but in reality he set off at top speed to get as far away from them as possible, lest, when they found out his trick, they should follow and overtake him.
Soon the farmer to whom the grain belonged saw the reapers in his field and came to ask what they were about. “Stop!” he cried, “I have given you no orders to reap this grain, and besides it is not ripe.”
At first they persisted in keeping on withthe work, but finally the farmer convinced them that they had been fooled, and the reapers went away sorely lamenting their misfortune.
Tom escaped, but it was a rough life he led, and he was always in fear of punishment for his many misdeeds. At last he concluded he had had enough of depending on his wits for a livelihood and decided he would go to work.
So he hired himself to an old miser of a farmer with whom he continued several years. On the whole he made a good servant, and though he sometimes played tricks on those about him, it was his habit to make good any damage he did.
His master was a miser, as I have said, and he and his help ate supper with no other light than that of the fire, for he would not furnish candles. Tom did not like this, andone night he thrust his spoon into the middle of the soup dish where the soup was hottest and clapped a spoonful into his master’s mouth.
“You rascal!” his master cried, “my mouth is all burned.”
“Then why do you keep the house so dark?” Tom asked. “I can’t half see, and what wonder is it if I missed the way to my own mouth and got the spoon in your mouth, instead?”
After that they always had a candle on the table at supper, for his master would feed no more in the dark while Tom was present.
One day a butcher came and bought a fine fat calf from Tom’s master. He tied its legs, took it on the horse’s back in front of him, and off he went.
“Master,” Tom said, “what do you say to playing a joke on that fellow? With yourleave I’ll get that calf away from him before he has gone two miles, and he won’t know what has become of it either.”
“You can try,” the master said, “but I don’t believe you can do it.”
So Tom went into the house, got a pretty shoe with a silver buckle to it that belonged to the servant maid and ran across a field till he got ahead of the butcher. He threw the shoe into the middle of the highway and hid behind a hedge. The butcher came riding along with the calf before him.
“Hey!” he said, “there’s a fine lady’s shoe. If it wasn’t that this calf makes it a great trouble to get off and on I’d alight and pick the shoe up. But after all what is the use of one shoe without its neighbor?”
On he rode and let it lie. Tom then slipped out from behind the hedge, secured the shoe, and ran across the fields till he again got before the butcher. He threw theshoe into the middle of the road and once more crouched behind the hedge and waited.
Along came the butcher, and saw the shoe. “Now,” he said, “I can have a pair of good shoes for the lifting. I’ll take them home and put my old woman in a good humor for once.”
Down he got, lifted off the calf, tied his horse to the hedge, and ran back, thinking to get the other shoe. While he was gone Tom picked up the calf and the shoe and tramped off home.
The butcher did not find the shoe he went back to get, and when he returned to his horse the other shoe was gone and so was his calf. “No doubt the calf has broken the rope that was about its feet,” he said, “and has run into the fields.”
So he spent a long time searching for it amongst the hedges and ditches. Finallyhe returned to Tom’s master and told him a long story of how he had lost the calf by means of a pair of shoes, which he believed the devil himself must have dropped in the roadway and had picked up later and the calf too.
“I suppose I ought to be thankful,” he said in concluding, “that I have my old horse left to carry me home so that I don’t have to walk.”
“Wouldn’t you like to buy another calf?” Tom asked.
“Why, yes,” the butcher responded, “if you have one to sell.”
Tom then brought from the barn the very calf that the butcher had lost, but as Tom had made a fine white face on it with chalk and water, the butcher did not recognize it. So the sale was made, its legs were tied and it was hoisted onto the horse in front of the butcher. As soon as he was gone, Tom toldhis master he believed he could get the calf again.
“Oh, no!” the farmer said, “you’ve fooled him once and he’ll be on the lookout for mischief now. But you can try if you want to.”
Away ran Tom through the fields until he got ahead of the butcher near where he had taken the calf from him. There he hid behind the hedges and as the butcher was passing he put his hand on his mouth and cried, “Baw, baw!” like a calf.
When the butcher heard this he stopped his horse. “There’s the calf I lost,” he said.
Down he got, lifted the calf from his horse to the ground, and scrambled hastily through the hedge, thinking he would lay his hands on the lost calf in a few moments. But as he went through one part of the hedge, Tom went through another, got thecalf on his back and hurried through the fields home.
The poor butcher spent his time in vain running hither and thither seeking his calf. At last he returned to his horse, and when he found his other calf gone he concluded the place was bewitched.
“Oh, misfortunate day!” he cried, “what shall I do now? and what’ll Joan say when I get home, for my money’s gone, and the two calves are gone, and I can’t buy her the shawl I promised to get.”
Back he went to the farmer lamenting his loss. But the farmer thought the joke had been carried far enough now. He told him what had happened and gave him his calf and the second payment of money. So the butcher went off well satisfied, for he had had a good deal of fun for his trouble, had he not?
It was the beginning of summer. On the bank of a river in Japan an old woman kneeled washing clothes. She took the clothes from a basket beside her and washed them in the water, which was so clear that you could plainly see the stones at the bottom and the dartings of the little minnows.
Presently there came floating down the stream a big round delicious-looking peach.
“Well,” the woman said, “I am sixty years old, and never before have I seen so large and handsome a peach. It must be fine to eat.”
She looked about for a stick with which to reach the peach, but saw none. For a moment she was perplexed. Then sheclapped her hands, and nodded her head while she sang these words:
“Far waters are bitter, near waters are sweet—Leave the bitter, come to the sweet.”
She sang the words three times, whereupon, strange to say, the peach rolled over and over in the water till it came to the shore in front of her.
“How delighted my old man will be!” she thought as she picked it up.
Then she packed the clothes she had been washing into the basket and hurried home. Soon she saw her husband returning from the mountain where he had been cutting grass. She ran to meet him and showed him the peach.
“Dear me!” the old man said, “it is wonderful. Where did you buy it?”
“Buy it? I did not buy it,” she replied.Then she told him how she got it from the river.
“I feel hungry,” the old man affirmed. “Let us eat the peach at once.”
They went to the house and got a knife. But just as the old man was about to cut the peach he heard a child’s clear voice say, “Good sir, wait!”
Instantly the peach split in two halves, and out danced a little boy less than six inches high. This was so unexpected that the man and woman nearly fainted with astonishment and fright.
“Do not be afraid,” the boy said. “You have often lamented that you have no child, and I have been sent to be your son.”
The old couple were very much pleased, and they did all they could to show how welcome he was to their home. Peach-boy was the name they gave him. The years passed, and he grew to be a man remarkable for hisbeauty, his courage, and, above all, for his great strength.
One day he came to the old man and old woman and said: “Father, your kindness has been higher than the mountain on which you cut grass; and Mother, yours has been deeper than the river in which you wash clothes. How can I thank you?”
“Do not thank us,” the old man replied. “The time will come when we cannot work, and then we shall be dependent on you.”
“But as things are,” Peach-boy said, “I am so greatly indebted to you that I hesitate to make a request that is in my mind.”
“What is it?” they questioned.
“It is that you allow me to go away for a short time,” he answered.
“Go away? Where to?” they asked.
“I would have you know,” he said, “that north of the mainland of Japan is an island inhabited by demons, who kill our peopleand steal our treasure. I want to destroy them and bring back all their stolen riches. For this purpose I wish to leave you.”
The old man was at first speechless with astonishment, but as he considered the matter he was convinced that Peach-boy was not mortal in his origin and therefore was probably safe from injury.
So he said: “You wish to go, and I will not stop you. Indeed, as those demons are the enemies of Japan, the sooner you destroy them and save your country from their depredations the better.”
Preparations for Peach-boy’s journey began at once. The old woman made him some dumplings and got his clothes ready. When the time came for him to start, the old couple saw him off with tears in their eyes.
“Take care of yourself. May you return victorious,” they said.
Peach-boy walked steadily and rapidly along the highway from early morning until midday, when he sat down to eat his dinner. Just as he took out one of the dumplings, a big savage dog appeared.
“Wow! wow!” the dog barked. “You have come into my territory without leave. If you do not at once give me your dinner I will devour you.”
Peach-boy smiled scornfully. “I am on my way to fight the enemies of Japan,” he said. “Don’t try to stop me or I will slay you.”
“I did not know the purpose of your journey,” the dog responded, cowering and putting his tail betweenhis legs. “I humbly beg your pardon for my rude conduct. Please allow me to accompany and help you.”
“You are welcome to go with me,” Peach-boy said.
“But I am very hungry,” the dog told him. “Will you please give me something to eat?”
“Here is a dumpling for you,” was Peach-boy’s response.
When the dog had eaten the dumpling they hurried on. They crossed many mountains and valleys, and one day a monkey sprang down from a tree in front of them and asked, “Where are you going so fast?”
“We are going to fight the enemies of Japan,” Peach-boy answered.
“Then pray allow me to go with you,” the monkey said.
The dog came angrily forward. “Ofwhat use would you be?” he snarled. “I alone accompany this great warrior.”
Monkeys and dogs never can be friends, and of course this speech made the monkey very angry.
“You think a great deal of yourself!” he screeched, and he approached the dog ready to assail him with his teeth and nails.
But Peach-boy stepped between them, saying: “Stop! Do not be so hasty, you two. Stand back, dog. This monkey is not a bad fellow, and I intend to enrol him as one of my vassals.”
Then he gave the monkey half a dumpling to eat. Presently the three went on along the highway. But it was no easy matter to keep the peace between the dog and the monkey. So at last Peach-boy had the monkey march ahead of him with his standard, and the dog follow behind him carrying his sword.