Contes du Japon ancien

Once upon a time in Japan there lives an old man and an old woman. The old man is very kind. He has a little pet sparrow, and he loves it very much.

But the old woman is not kind. She is often angry. One day she makes some rice paste for her washing. The little sparrow eats some of it.

The old woman is very angry. "You bad bird!" she shouts. She hits the sparrow and chases it out of the house. The poor sparrow flies away.

In the evening the old man comes home from the hills. "Where is my sparrow?" he asks.

"I chased it away," says the old woman. "It ate my rice paste."

The old man is very sad. "Oh, my poor little sparrow!" he says. "Where are you now?"

The next day he goes out to look for his sparrow. He walks for a long time. "Little sparrow! Little sparrow!" he calls. "Where do you live?"