mplished and lucky teakettle. You should take it
about as a show, with songs and accompaniments of musical instruments,
and make it dance and walk on the tight rope."

The tinker, thinking this good advice, made arrangements with
a showman, and set up an exhibition. The noise of the kettle's
performances soon spread abroad, until even the Princes of the land
sent to order the tinker to come to them; and he grew rich beyond all
his expectations. Even the Princesses, too, and the great ladies of
the court, took great delight in the dancing kettle, so that no sooner
had it shown its tricks in one place than it was time for them to keep
some other engagement. At last the tinker grew so rich that he took
the kettle back to the temple, where it was laid up as a precious
treasure, and worshiped as a saint.

* * * * *

THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW

Once upon a time a cross old woman laid some starch in a basin,
intending to put it in the clothes in her wash-tub; but a Sparrow
that a woman, her neighbor, kept as a pet, ate it up. Seeing this, the
cross old woman seized the Sparrow and, saying "You hateful thing!"
cut its tongue and let it go.

When the neighbor woman heard that her pet Sparrow had got its tongue
cut for its offense, she was greatly grieved, and set out with her
husband over mountains and plains to find where it had gone, crying,
"Where does the tongue-cut Sparrow stay? Where does the tongue-cut
Sparrow stay?"

At last they found its home. When the Sparrow saw that its old master
and mistress had come to see it, it rejoiced, and brought them into
its house and thanked them for their kindness in old times. It spread
a table for them, and loaded it with rice wine and fish till there
was no more room, and made its wife and children and grandchildren all
serve the table.

At last, throwing away its drinking-cup, it danced a jig called the
Sparrow's dance, and thus they spent the day. When it began to grow
dark, and there was talk of going home, the Sparrow brought out two
wicker baskets and said, "Will you take the heavy one, or shall I give
you the light one?" The old people replied, "We are old, so give us
the light one; it will be easier to carry it." The Sparrow then gave
them the light basket, and they returned with it to their home. "Let
us open and see what is in it," they said. And when they had opened it
and looked, they found gold and silver and jewels and rolls of