Every morning when the sun rose and the birds began to twitter and sing, the girl rose and looked in her mirror. There she saw the bright, happy face that she remembered as her mother's.
Every evening when the shadows fell and the birds were asleep, she looked again. She told it all that had happened during the day. When it had been a happy day the face smiled back at her. When she was sad the face looked sad, too. She was very careful not to do anything unkind, for she knew how sad the face would be then.
So each day she grew more kind and loving, and more like the mother whose face she saw each day and loved.
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This favorite story of "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow" is from Mrs. Williston's Japanese Fairy Tales. (Copyrighted. Used by permission.)
THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW
VERSION BY TERESA PEIRCE WILLISTON
In a little old house in a little old village in Japan lived a little old man and his little old wife.
One morning when the old woman slid open the screens which form the sides of all Japanese houses, she saw, on the doorstep, a poor little sparrow. She took him up gently and fed him. Then she held him in the bright morning sunshine until the cold dew was dried from his wings. Afterward she let him go, so that he might fly home to his nest, but he stayed to thank her with his songs.
Each morning, when the pink on the mountain tops told that the sun was near, the sparrow perched on the roof of the house and sang out his joy.