It was as heavy as a stone, and hard to
carry, but at last she got back with it to her house.
Then, when she took off the lid and looked in, a whole troop of
frightful creatures came bouncing out from the inside, and at once
they caught her up and flew away with her.
* * * * *
BATTLE OF THE MONKEY AND THE CRAB
A monkey and a Crab once met when going round a mountain.
The Monkey had picked up a persimmon-seed, and the Crab had a piece
of toasted rice-cake. The Monkey, seeing this, and wishing to get
something that could be turned to good account at once, said, "Pray,
exchange that rice-cake for this persimmon-seed." The Crab, without a
word, gave up his cake, and took the persimmon-seed and planted it. At
once it sprung up, and soon became a tree so high one had to look far
up to see it. The tree was full of persimmons, but the Crab had no
means of climbing it, so he asked the Monkey to scramble up and get
the fruit for him. The Monkey got up on a limb of the tree and began
to eat the persimmons. The unripe ones he threw at the Crab, but all
the ripe and good ones he put in his pouch. The Crab under the tree
thus got his shell badly bruised, and only by good luck escaped into
his hole, where he lay distressed with pain, and not able to get up.
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