round, and while he was gone
the old woman, his wife, did the work of the house and worked in their
own little rice field.

One day the old man went to the hills as usual to cut grass and the old
woman took some clothes to the river to wash.

It was nearly summer, and the country was very beautiful to see in its
fresh greenness as the two old people went on their way to work. The
grass on the banks of the river looked like emerald velvet, and the
pussy willows along the edge of the water were shaking out their soft
tassels.

The breezes blew and ruffled the smooth surface of the water into
wavelets, and passing on touched the cheeks of the old couple who, for
some reason they could not explain, felt very happy that morning.

The old woman at last found a nice spot by the river bank and put her
basket down. Then she set to work to wash the clothes; she took them
one by one out of the basket and washed them in the river and rubbed
them on the stones. The water was as clear as crystal, and she could
see the tiny fish swimming to and fro, and the pebbles at the bottom.

As she was busy washing her clothes a great peach came bumping down the
stream. The old woman looked up from her work and saw this large peach.
She was sixty years of age, yet in all her life she had never seen such
a big peach as this.

"How delicious that peach must be!" she said to herself. "I must
certainly get it and take it home to my old man."

She stretched out her arm to try and get it, but it was quite out of
her reach. She looked about for a stick, but there was not one to be
seen, and if she went to look for one she would lose the peach.

Stopping a moment to think what she would do, she remembered an old
charm-verse. Now she began to clap her hands to keep time to the
rolling of the peach down stream, and while she clapped she sang this
song:

"Distant water is bitter,
The near water is sweet;
Pass by the distant water
And come into the sweet."

Strange to say, as soon as she began to repeat this little song the
peach began to come nearer and nearer the bank where the old woman was
standing, till at last it stopped just in front of her so that she was
able to take it up in her hands. The old woman was delighted. She could
not go on with her work, so happy and excited was she, so she put all
the clothes back in her bamboo basket, and with the basket on her back
and the peach in her hand she hurried homewards.

It seemed