ad Inuko got near a
pine-tree in the garden than he began to paw and scratch the ground as
though a mighty treasure lay beneath.

"Quick, wife, hand me the spade and hoe!" cried the greedy old fool, as
he danced for joy.

[Illustration]

Then the covetous old fellow with a spade, and the old crone with a hoe,
began to dig; but there was nothing but a dead kitten, the smell of
which made them drop their tools and shut their noses. Furious at the
dog, the old man kicked and beat him to death, and the old woman
finished the work by nearly chopping off his head with the sharp hoe.

That night the spirit of the dog appeared to his former master in a
dream and said, "Cut down the pine-tree which is over my grave, and make
from it a mill to grind bean sauce in."

[Illustration]

So the old man made the little mill, and filling it with bean sauce,
began to grind, while the envious neighbor peeped in at the window.
"Goody me!" cried the old woman, as each dripping of sauce turned into
yellow gold, until in a few minutes the tub under the mill was full of a
shining mass of kobans.

So the old couple were rich again.

The next day the stingy and wicked neighbors, after boiling a mess of
beans, came and borrowed the magic mill. They filled it with the boiled
beans, and the old man began to grind.

But, at the first turn, the sauce turned into a foul heap of dirt. Angry
at this, they chopped the mill in pieces to use as fire-wood.

Not long after that the old man dreamed again, and the spirit of the dog
spoke to him, telling him how the wicked people had burned the mill made
from the pine-tree.

"Take the ashes of the mill, sprinkle them on withered trees, and they
will bloom again," said the dog-spirit.

The old man awoke and went at once to his wicked neighbors' house, where
he humbly begged the ashes, and though the covetous couple turned up
their noses at him and scolded him as if he were a thief, they let him
fill his basket with the ashes.

On coming home the old man took his wife into the garden. It being
winter, their favorite cherry-tree was bare. He sprinkled a pinch of
ashes on it, and lo! it sprouted blossoms until it became a cloud of
pink blooms, which filled the air with perfume.

The kind old man, hearing that his lord the Daimio was to pass along the
high-road near the village, set out to see him, taking his basket of
ashes. As the train approached he climbed up into an old withered
cherry-tree th