At last the tinker grew so rich that he took
the kettle back to the temple, where it was laid up as a precious
treasure, and worshiped as a saint.
* * * * *
THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW
Once upon a time a cross old woman laid some starch in a basin,
intending to put it in the clothes in her wash-tub; but a Sparrow
that a woman, her neighbor, kept as a pet, ate it up. Seeing this, the
cross old woman seized the Sparrow and, saying "You hateful thing!"
cut its tongue and let it go.
When the neighbor woman heard that her pet Sparrow had got its tongue
cut for its offense, she was greatly grieved, and set out with her
husband over mountains and plains to find where it had gone, crying,
"Where does the tongue-cut Sparrow stay? Where does the tongue-cut
Sparrow stay?"
At last they found its home. When the Sparrow saw that its old master
and mistress had come to see it, it rejoiced, and brought them into
its house and thanked them for their kindness in old times. It spread
a table for them, and loaded it with rice wine and fish till there
was no more room, and made its wife and children and grandchildren all
serve the table.
At last, throwing away its drinking-cup, it danced a jig called the
Sparrow's dance, and thus they spent the day.
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