“Wait you still a minute,” says Kanè.
He goes to his chest, and he brings out the mallet. And he rubs it very gently up and down Cho’s long nose, and sure enough it shortened up very quickly. In two minutes it was a natural size. Cho danced for joy.
Kanè looks at him and says, “If I were you, I’d just go home and try to be different.”
When Cho had gone, Kanè sat still and thought for a long time. When the moon rose that night he went out and took the mallet with him. He came to the mossy dell that was shaded with spreading pine trees, and he laid the mallet in its old place under the stone.
“I’m the last man in the world,” he said, “to be unfriendly to the fairies’ children.”
The Bell of Dōjōji.—P. 127.