And O Ume San married the fisherman and they lived happily ever after.
Footnotes
[26] A Japanese never asks for a wife himself. He always sends a professional matchmaker who is called a “Go-between.”
[27] November.
[28] Goddess of Autumn.
THE WATERFALL WHICH FLOWED SAKÉ
Once there was a poor woodcutter who toiled early and late for a living. He worked harder than others, because he loved his old father and mother dearly, and wished to give them all the good things of life. But though he was more diligent than any other woodcutter of the village, he never seemed able to gain enough sen to buy saké and tea, but only enough for rice and bread.
One day he climbed high up on the mountain to find the best wood. It was a very steep mountain, and no one else would try to climb so high. So he worked alone. Chop, chop, his axe broke the stillness and soon he had a goodly pile of logs.
Stopping for a moment to rest, he saw a badger lying asleep under a tree, and he thought to himself, “Aha, my fine little beastie! You will make a fine morsel for my father’s supper. He and my mother have not tasted meat for many a day.”
The longer he looked at the badger, however, the less he wanted to kill him. He was such a little creature and it seemed mean to kill a sleeping thing and one so much smaller than himself!