Japanese Children's Favorite Stories Book 1 (9 page)

The Crab and the Monkey

Once a crab and a monkey went for a walk together. Along the way the monkey found a persimmon seed, and the crab found a rice ball. The monkey wanted the crab's rice ball, and being a very clever talker, he finally persuaded the crab to trade the rice ball for the persimmon seed. The monkey quickly ate the rice ball.

The crab couldn't eat the persimmon seed, but he took it home and planted it in his garden, where it began to grow. Because the crab watered it carefully every day, it grew and grew.

The tiny seed finally became a big tree, and one autumn day the crab saw that it was full of beautiful persimmons. The crab wanted very much to eat the persimmons, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't climb the tree. So he asked his friend the monkey to pick the persimmons for him.

Now, the monkey loved persimmons even more than rice balls, and once he was up the tree he began eating all the ripe persimmons, and the only ones he threw down to the crab were hard and unripe. One of them hit the crab on the head and hurt him badly.

The crab was angry and asked three of his friends, a mortar and a hornet and a chestnut, to help him punish the monkey. So the three friends hid themselves around the crab's house one day, and the crab invited the monkey to come to tea.

When the monkey arrived he was given a seat by the fireplace. The chestnut was hiding in the ashes roasting himself, and suddenly he burst out of the fireplace and burned the monkey on his neck. The monkey screamed with pain and jumped up.

In an instant the hornet flew down and stung the monkey with his tail. The monkey tried to run away, but the mortar was hiding above the door and fell down with a thud on the monkey, hurting his back.

The monkey saw there was no escape. He bowed down to the crab and his three friends and said, "I did a bad thing when I ate the Crab's delicious persimmons and threw the unripe ones to him. I promise never to do such a bad thing again. Please forgive me!"

The crab accepted the monkey's apology, and they became friends again. The monkey learned his lesson and never again cheated anyone.

The Ogre and the Rooster

There once was a mountain so high and steep that it seemed to touch the sky. On top of this mountain lived a terrible ogre. He had red skin and a single horn growing out of his head, and he was always doing wicked things to the village people at the foot of the mountain.

One morning the farmers of the village who worked at the foot of the mountain went to their fields and saw their vegetables ruined. Someone had pulled them all up and had trampled on them until there was not a single good one left.

They wondered who could have done such a thing, then saw the ogre's footprints all over the ground.

This made the farmers angry. They were tired of the ogre's tricks, and when they looked at all the ruined vegetables they became angrier. They pointed up at the mountain and cried, "Oh, you wicked ogre! Why don't you quit doing these wicked things?"

The ogre looked down at them from the top of the mountain and answered in a terrible voice, "You must give me a human every day for my supper. Then I'll stop bothering you!"

The farmers had never heard such a request. They shook their tools at the ogre and shouted back, "Who do you think you are, wanting to eat a human every day?"

"I'm the ogre-est ogre in the land," the ogre roared back. "That's who I am! There's absolutely nothing I can't do! Ha, ha, ha!" The ogre's voice echoed loudly through the mountains and made all the trees bend and sway.

"All right then," yelled back the farmers. "Let's see how great you really are! If you can build a stone stairway with a hundred steps in one night, from our fields all the way to the top of the mountain, then we'll do whatever you want."

"Why, I can do that!" the ogre replied. "And if I haven't finished the stairway before the first rooster crows tomorrow morning, then I promise to go away and to never bother you again."

As soon as it grew dark, the ogre crept into the village and put a straw hood over the head of every single rooster so it wouldn't see the sun rising. Then the ogre thought to himself, "Now I'll build that stairway!" And he set to work, building the stairway up the mountain.

The ogre worked so hard and so quickly that he already had ninety-nine steps in place when the sun began to rise in the east. But he only smiled to himself, thinking that the roosters wouldn't be able to crow and that he still had plenty of time to put the last step in place.

But a kind fairy also lived on the mountain. The fairy had been watching the ogre and had seen the mean trick he was playing. So while the ogre was going down the stairway for the last stone, the fairy flew down and took the straw hood off the head of one of the roosters.

The rooster saw the sun rising and crowed loudly, "ko-ke-kok-ko!" This woke up all the other roosters, and they all began to crow.

The ogre was surprised to hear this. "I've lost!" he cried. "And there was just one more step to go." But even ogres must keep their promises, so he stroked his horn very sadly and went far away into the mountains.

No one ever saw the ogre again and the farmers lived very happily at the foot of the mountain. They finished the stairway up the mountain and often climbed it on summer evenings to enjoy the wonderful view.

The Rabbit Who Crossed the Sea

Once there was a white rabbit who wanted to cross the sea. Across the waves he could see a beautiful island and he wanted very badly to go there. But the rabbit couldn't swim and there were no boats around. Then he had an idea.

He called to a shark in the sea and said, "Oh, Mr Shark, which one of us has the most friends, you or I?"

"I'm sure I have the most friends," said the shark.

"Well, let's count them to make sure," said the rabbit. "Why don't you have all your friends line up in the sea between here and that island? Then I can count them."

So all the sharks lined up in the sea, and the rabbit went hopping from the back of one shark to the next, counting, "One, two, three, four, five... " Finally he reached the island.

Then he turned to the sharks and said, "Ha, ha, you dumb sharks! I certainly fooled you. I got you to make a bridge for me, without you knowing about it."

The sharks became very angry. One of them reached up with his sharp teeth and bit off a piece of the rabbit's fur.

"Oh, that hurts!" cried the rabbit and he began weeping.

Just then the king of the island came by. He asked the rabbit what was the matter, and when he had heard the rabbit's story, he said, "You mustn't ever fool others and tell lies again. If you promise to be good, I'll tell you how you can get your fur back."

"Oh, I promise, I promise," said the rabbit.

So the king gathered some bulrushes and made a nest with them. "Now you sleep here in this nest of bulrushes all night," said the king, "and your fur will grow back."

The rabbit did as he was told. The next morning he went to the king and said, "Thank you very, very much. My fur grew back and I'm well again. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Then the rabbit went hopping off along the seashore, dancing and singing. He never tried to fool anyone again.