Then the old woman could not help laughing—“Te-he-he!”—and the oni immediately reached down his big hairy hand behind Jizō’s sleeve, and pulled her out—still laughing, “Te-he-he!”
“Ah! ha!” cried the oni.
Then Jizō said:
“What are you going to do with that good old woman? You must not hurt her.”
“I won’t,” said the oni; “but I will take her home with me to cook for us.”
“Te-he-he!” laughed the old woman.
“Very well,” said Jizō, “but you must really be kind to her. If you are not, I shall be very angry.”
“I won’t hurt her at all,” promised the oni; “and she will only have to do a little work for us every day. Good-by, Jizō San.”
Then the oni took the old woman far down the road till they came to a wide deep river, where there was a boat. He put her into the boat, and took her across the river to his house. It was a very large house. He led her at once into the kitchen, and told her to cook some dinner for himself and the other oni who lived with him. And he gave her a small wooden rice-paddle, and said:
“You must always put only one grain of rice into the pot, and, when you stir that one grain of rice in the water with this paddle, the grain will multiply until the pot is full.”