When the butcher heard this he stopped his horse. “There’s the calf I lost,” he said.
Down he got, lifted the calf from his horse to the ground, and scrambled hastily through the hedge, thinking he would lay his hands on the lost calf in a few moments. But as he went through one part of the hedge, Tom went through another, got the calf on his back and hurried through the fields home.
The poor butcher spent his time in vain running hither and thither seeking his calf. At last he returned to his horse, and when he found his other calf gone he concluded the place was bewitched.
“Oh, misfortunate day!” he cried, “what shall I do now? and what’ll Joan say when I get home, for my money’s gone, and the two calves are gone, and I can’t buy her the shawl I promised to get.”
Back he went to the farmer lamenting his loss. But the farmer thought the joke had been carried far enough now. He told him what had happened and gave him his calf and the second payment of money. So the butcher went off well satisfied, for he had had a good deal of fun for his trouble, had he not?
XV—THE BOY IN A PEACH
It was the beginning of summer. On the bank of a river in Japan an old woman kneeled washing clothes. She took the clothes from a basket beside her and washed them in the water, which was so clear that you could plainly see the stones at the bottom and the dartings of the little minnows.
Presently there came floating down the stream a big round delicious-looking peach.
“Well,” the woman said, “I am sixty years old, and never before have I seen so large and handsome a peach. It must be fine to eat.”
She looked about for a stick with which to reach the peach, but saw none. For a moment she was perplexed. Then she clapped her hands, and nodded her head while she sang these words: