and it would surely be better
to hush the matter up. He wishes, moreover, to give himself over to
me, and to become my disciple."

"It is as you say," replied the father and mother, speaking together.
"Revenge will not recall our daughter. Please dispel our grief, by
shaving his head and making a priest of him on the spot."

"I'll shave him at once, before your eyes," answered the priest, who
immediately caused the cords which bound Tokutaro to be untied, and,
putting on his priest's scarf, made him join his hands together in a
posture of prayer. Then the reverend man stood up behind him, razor in
hand, and, intoning a hymn, gave two or three strokes of the razor,
which he then handed to his acolyte, who made a clean shave of
Tokutaro's hair. When the latter had finished his obeisance to the
priest, and the ceremony was over, there was a loud burst of laughter;
and at the same moment the day broke, and Tokutaro found himself
alone, in the middle of a large moor. At first, in his surprise, he
thought that it was all a dream, and was much annoyed at having been
tricked by the foxes. He then passed his hand over his head, and found
that he was shaved quite bald. There was nothing for it but to get up,
wrap a handkerchief round his head, and go back to the place where his
friends were assembled.

"Hallo, Tokutaro! so you've come back. Well, how about the foxes?"

"Really, gentlemen," replied he, bowing, "I am quite ashamed to appear
before you."

Then he told them the whole story, and, when he had finished, pulled
off the kerchief, and showed his bald pate.

"What a capital joke!" shouted his listeners, and amid roars of
laughter, claimed the bet of fish, and wine. It was duly paid; but
Tokutaro never allowed his hair to grow again, and renounced the
world, and became a priest under the name of Sainen.

There are a great many stories told of men being shaved by the foxes;
but this story came under the personal observation of Mr. Shominsai, a
teacher of the city of Yedo, during a holiday trip which he took to
the country where the event occurred; and I[77] have recorded it in
the very selfsame words in which he told it to me.

[Footnote 77: The author of the "Kanzen-Yawa," the book from which the
story is taken.]

THE GRATEFUL FOXES

One fine spring day, two friends went out to a moor to gather fern,
attended by a boy with a bottle of wine and a box of provisions. As
they were straying about, they saw