The Boy Who Drew Cats and Other Japanese Fairy Tales Read Online Free PDF

that it became the cause of much thought and anxiety to the dying mother. She knew that in one so poor and friendless as her child it would be likely to prove a misfortune instead of a blessing.
    Feeling her end to be very near, the mother called the maiden to her bedside, and, with many words of love and warning, entreated her to continue pure and good and true, as she had ever been. She told her that her beauty was a perilous gift which might become her ruin, and commanded her to hide it, as much as possible, from the sight of all men.
    That she might do this the better the mother placed on her daughter’s head a lacquered wooden bowl, which she warned her on no account to take off. The bowl overshadowed the maiden’s face, so that it was impossible to tell how much beauty was hidden beneath it.
    After her mother’s death the poor child was, indeed, forlorn; but she had a brave heart, and at once set about earning her living by hard work in the fields.
    As she was never seen without the wooden bowl, which, indeed, appeared a very funny head-dress, she soon began to be talked about, and was known in all the country round as the Maid with the Bowl on her Head.
    She was known in all the country round
as the Maid with the Bowl on her Head.
    Proud and bad people scorned and laughed at her, and the idle young men of the village made fun of her, trying to peep under the bowl, and even to pull it off her head. But it seemed firmly fixed, and none of them succeeded in taking it off, or in getting more than a glimpse of the beautiful face beneath.
    The poor girl bore all this rude usage patiently, was always diligent at her work, and when evening came crept quietly to her lonely home. Now, one day, when she was at work in the harvest field of a rich farmer, who owned most of the land in that part, the master himself drew near. He was struck by the gentle and modest behavior of the young girl, and by her quickness and diligence at her work.
    Having watched her all that day, he was so much pleased with her that he kept her in work until the end of the harvest. After that, winter having now come on, he took her into his own house to wait upon his wife, who had long been sick, and seldom left her bed.
    Now the poor orphan had a happy home once more, for both the farmer and his wife were very kind to her. As they had no daughter of their own, she became more like the child of the house than a hired servant. And, indeed, no child could have made a gentler or more tender nurse to a sick mother than did this little maid to her mistress.
    After some time the master’s eldest son came home on a visit to his father and mother. He had been living in Kyoto, the rich and gay city of the Mikado, where he had studied and learned much. Wearied with feasting and pleasure, he was glad to come back for a little while to the quiet home of his childhood. But week after week passed, and, to the surprise of his friends, he showed no desire to return to the more stirring life of the town.
    The truth is, that no sooner had he set eyes on the Maid with the Bowl on her Head than he was filled with curiosity to know all about her. He asked who and what she was, and why she was always seen with such a curious and unbecoming head-dress.
    He was touched by her sad story, but could not help laughing at her odd fancy of wearing the bowl on her head. But, as he saw day by day her goodness and gentle manners, he laughed no more. And one day, having managed to take a sly peep under the bowl, he saw enough of her beauty to make him fall deeply in love with her. From that moment he vowed that none other than the Maid with the Bowl should be his wife. His relations, however, would not hear of the match. “No doubt the girl was all very well in her way,” they said, “but after all she was only a servant, and no fit mate for the son of the house.” They had always said she was being made too much of, and would one day or another turn against