By A. B. Mitford
Many hundred years ago there lived an honest old woodcutter and his wife. One fine morning the old man went off to the hills with his bill hook to gather a faggot of sticks, while his wife went down to the river to wash the dirty clothes. When she came to the river, she saw a peach floating down the stream; so she picked it up and carried it homeward with her, thinking to give it to her husband to eat when he should come in. The old man soon came down from the hills, and the good wife set the peach before him, when, just as she was inviting him to eat it, the fruit split in two and a little baby was born into the world. So the old couple took the babe and brought it up as their own; and because it had been born in a peach, they called it Momotaro, or Little Peachhing!
By degrees Little Peachling grew up to be strong and brave, and at last one day he said to his old foster parents—
“I am going to the ogres’ island, to carry off the riches they have stored up there. Pray, then, make me some millet dumplings for my journey.”
So the old folks ground the millet and made the dumplings for him; and Little Peachling, after taking an affectionate leave of them, cheerfully set out on his travels.
As he was journeying on, he fell in with an Ape, who gibbered at him, and said,
“Kia! kia! kia! where are you off to, Little Peachling?”
“I’m going to the ogres’ island, to carry off their treasure,” answered Little Peachling.
“What are you carrying at your girdle?”
“I’m carrying the very best millet dumplings in all Japan.