Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/340

wife carried home with great glee, for they were now rich. The neighbour, who in the meanwhile had seen everything through the hedge, became very envious, for, as he said to himself, why should not he also find a treasure? So he borrowed the dog and went into his field, where he too had a Yenoki tree, and made the dog begin digging there. But when he got his spade and dug deeper he could find nothing but dirt. Furious at his disappointment he killed the dog and buried him in the hole he had dug. When the dog’s master heard of this he was very sad, and asked his neighbour to give him the tree under which the dog was buried, which was agreed to; whereupon he cut it down and made a rice mortar of a part of the trunk. This mortar turned out to have miraculous properties, for it not only pounded the rice itself, but multiplied it, and made it into cakes which lasted indefinitely. The neighbour then borrowed the mortar, but was not able to profit by it, as it changed the rice into dirt; so he burnt it. Then our old man begged for the ashes of the mortar, which were given him; and, accidentally spilling some of them on a withered Peach tree, he saw to his astonishment that the tree instantly blossomed. The fame of this spread all round the country-side, and he was summoned to the palace of the daimio, who had many withered Peach trees, which our friend made to blossom; at which the daimio was so delighted that he