immon he could find and aimed it at the crab's head. The persimmon
is as hard as stone when it is unripe. The monkey's missile struck home
and the crab was sorely hurt by the blow. Again and again, as fast as
he could pick them, the monkey pulled off the hard persimmons and threw
them at the defenseless crab till he dropped dead, covered with wounds
all over his body. There he lay a pitiful sight at the foot of the tree
he had himself planted.

When the wicked monkey saw that he had killed the crab he ran away from
the spot as fast as he could, in fear and trembling, like a coward as
he was.

Now the crab had a son who had been playing with a friend not far from
the spot where this sad work had taken place. On the way home he came
across his father dead, in a most dreadful condition--his head was
smashed and his shell broken in several places, and around his body lay
the unripe persimmons which had done their deadly work. At this
dreadful sight the poor young crab sat down and wept.

But when he had wept for some time he told himself that this crying
would do no good; it was his duty to avenge his father's murder, and
this he determined to do. He looked about for some clue which would
lead him to discover the murderer. Looking up at the tree he noticed
that the best fruit had gone, and that all around lay bits of peel and
numerous seeds strewn on the ground as well as the unripe persimmons
which had evidently been thrown at his father. Then he understood that
the monkey was the murderer, for he now remembered that his father had
once told him the story of the rice-dumpling and the persimmon-seed.
The young crab knew that monkeys liked persimmons above all other
fruit, and he felt sure that his greed for the coveted fruit had been
the cause of the old crab's death. Alas!

He at first thought of going to attack the monkey at once, for he
burned with rage. Second thoughts, however, told him that this was
useless, for the monkey was an old and cunning animal and would be hard
to overcome. He must meet cunning with cunning and ask some of his
friends to help him, for he knew it would be quite out of his power to
kill him alone.

The young crab set out at once to call on the mortar, his father's old
friend, and told him of all that had happened. He besought the mortar
with tears to help him avenge his father's death. The mortar was very
sorry when he heard the woful tale and promised at once to help the
young crab punis