A sparrow

2014年01月29日

A sparrow

Grateful Crane

Long long ago, there lived an old woman in a village.
She was always in a bad temper.
One day, a sparrow flew down on her garden, chirping a song.
“Be quiet!” she cried so angry and hit her with a bamboo stick.
The bird had its wings hurt severely and ran to the next house where another old woman lived.
Seeing the sparrow warmly, she said.
“How severely you are injured!”
She was such a kind woman that she took care of the bird.
Soon the sparrow got over her injury and was able to fly again.
The kind woman said to the bird.
“Go back to your home in the mountain. Never come again to the unkind woman next-door.”
A few days later, the sparrow flew down on the garden of the kind woman’ house, chirping a song and left a small gourd there.
The old woman picked it up and shook it.
To her great surprise, the more she shook the gourd, the more it produced rice.
She had never been troubled with rice until she passed away.

The end