Year: 1879

The Good Man and the Bad Man.
Ia JAPANESE FABLE-TRAEsLATED BY T. E.


HALIFAX


In the good old times, long ago, there
lived, in village in the province of
Hizen, an old couple noted for their
honesty and simplicity. They. had
bought little dog, Of which they be-
came very fond, treating it as if it had
been one of their children.


One day the old man was out in the
fields with his hoe, when the dog COM
.menced scratching certain place, and
then running to the old man and back
to the spot again, scratching the earth.
This he repeated until the old man was
directed to the spot, much to the dogs
delight. The dog continuing to scratch
the ground, the old man picked up his
hoe, and, with a few sturdy strokes,
turned up an immense heap of gold and
silver coins, which he took home, and
oa examination found himself to have
suddenly become rich man. He was
naturally grateful to his little dog, and
gave it the best of food and the incest
of beds.


Now, in the same country place, there
was wicked old man, who, hearing of
the dogs cleverness in finding buried
treasure, determined to borrow it and
try his luck at becoming rich without
labor, but was refused the loan of the
dog by his master, who feared that it
would not receive kind treatment. So
the wicked old man contrived to steal
the dog, and watched it's movements
anxiously and carefully for some time.
One DAY, seeing it scratching the earth,
he dug down, hoping to find money,
but only disinterred an old skull. En-
ragged at being disappointed by the dog,
after having fed it on meat and other
things, he, in his passion, and like a
wicked old man that he was, killed the
poor animal, and then went to his mas
ter and loudly complained of the poor
dog, trying by his noisy manner to
drown the expression of the blame that
he deserved. But the good old man,
after finding the body of his dog, and
burying it at the foot of large pine
tree in the forest, and close by where
the money was found, cried himself to
sleep in his grief for the loss of his fa-
vorite. In his sleep he dreamed that
the dog came to him and told him to
cut down the very tree, and make from
it an usa1 "a large wooden mortar in
which rice is hulled).


The old man told his wife OF his
dream, and she advised him to do as he
had been directed. So the next day lie
felled the tree, and, cutting off Sec
ton, followed it out. When the a1saI
was finished he tried it by putting in
some rice that. required hulling, and, to
his astonishment, after the first few
blows of the pestle, each grain of rice
was changed into gold coin!


The wicked old man, hearing of this
new stroke of fortune, went to spy on
the good man, and, seeing for himself
the surprising fact of the rice being
turned into money, was filed with fresh
envy at his neighbours good luck, and
accordingly determined to borrow the
a1su. After much persuasion and some
threats he obtained the loan of it; but
his rice turned into filth; at which he
became SO angry that he chopped up
the offending usW and commenced to
burn it, when the owner came to claim
ito find only the remains.


The good old man again dreamed
that the little dog came to him, this
time instructing him to obtain the ashes
and to go to the great highway where
the mobiles passed, and, by sprinkling
the ashes, the cherry-trees-then bare
of blossoms or leaves-would immedi-
ately bud and blossom.


Now, those were the good old days,
when mobiles travelled in state with
their retinues, dressed as beftted their
high station, and rose on horseback, OF
in 720rim07a "a kind of sedan chair,
not, as in these degenerate times, when
even the highesti in the Land condescend