So the old woman put just one rice-grain into the pot, as the oni told her, and began to stir it with the paddle; and, as she stirred, the one grain became two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, and so on. Every time she moved the paddle the rice increased in quantity, and in a few minutes the great pot was full.
After that, the funny old woman stayed a long time in the house of the oni, and every day cooked food for him and for all his friends. The oni never hurt or frightened her, and her work was made quite easy by the magic paddle, although she had to cook a very, very great quantity of rice, because an oni eats much more than any human being eats.
But she felt lonely, and always wished very much to go back to her own little house, and make her dumplings; and one day, when the oni were all out somewhere, she thought she would try to run away.
She first took the magic paddle and slipped it under her girdle, and then she went down to the river. No one saw her, and the boat was there. She got into it and pushed off, and, as she could row very well, she was soon far away from the shore.
But the river was very wide, and she had not rowed more than one-fourth of the way across when the oni, all of them, came back to the house.
They found that their cook was gone, and the magic paddle, too. They ran down to the river at once, and saw the old woman rowing away very fast.
Perhaps they could not swim; at all events, they had no boat, and they thought the only way they could catch the funny old woman would be to drink up all the water of the river before she got to the other bank. So they knelt down, and began to drink so fast that, before the old woman had got half-way over, the water had become quite low.
But the old woman kept on rowing until the water had got so shallow that the oni stopped drinking, and began to wade across. Then she dropped her oar, took the magic paddle from her girdle, and shook it at the oni, and made such funny faces that the oni all burst out laughing.
But, the moment they laughed, all the water came up that they had drunk, and so the river became full again. The oni could not cross, and the funny old woman got safely over to the other side, and ran away up the road as fast as she could. She never stopped running until she found herself at home again.
After that she was very happy, for she could make dumplings whenever she pleased. Besides, she had the magic paddle to make rice for her. She sold her dumplings to her neighbors and passengers, and in quite a short time she became rich.