kipping and jumping, so he shut his
eyes and pretended to be asleep, but all the time watched anxiously what
the children would do. They sat down in a ring, as before, and the big
boy came close to Cho's head and lifted the stone. He put down his hand
to lift the Mallet, but no mallet was there.

One of the children said, "Perhaps that lazy old farmer has taken our
Mallet." So the big boy laid hold of Cho's nose, which was rather long,
and gave it a good pinch, and all the other children ran up and pinched
and pulled his nose, and the nose itself got longer and longer; first it
hung down to his chin, then over his chest, next down to his knees, and
at last to his very feet.

It was in vain that Cho protested his innocence; the children pinched
and pummeled him to their hearts' content, then capered round him,
shouting and laughing, and making game of him, and so at last went away.

Now Cho was left alone, a sad and angry man. Holding his long nose
painfully in both hands, he slowly took his way toward his brother
Kane's house. Here he related all that had happened to him from the very
day when he had behaved so badly about the seed-rice and silkworms'
eggs. He humbly begged his brother to pardon him, and, if possible, do
something to restore his unfortunate nose to its proper size.

The kind-hearted Kane pitied him, and said: "You have been dishonest
and mean, and selfish and envious, and that is why you have got this
punishment. If you promise to behave better for the future, I will try
what can be done."

So saying, he took the Mallet and rubbed Cho's nose with it gently, and
the nose gradually became shorter and shorter until at last it came back
to its proper shape and size. But ever after, if at any time Cho felt
inclined to be selfish and dishonest, as he did now and then, his nose
began to smart and burn, and he fancied he felt it beginning to grow. So
great was his terror of having a long nose again that these symptoms
never failed to bring him back to his good behavior.

THE SELFISH SPARROW AND THE HOUSELESS CROWS

A Sparrow once built a nice little house for herself, and lined it well
with wool and protected it with sticks, so that it resisted equally the
summer sun and the winter rains. A Crow who lived close by had also
built a house, but it was not such a good one, being only made of a few
sticks laid one above another on the top of a prickly-pear hedge. The
consequence was that one day, when