mell of the trees
and flowers might come in.

One day he was standing looking at the mountain opposite, when he heard
a kind of rumbling noise in the room behind him. He turned round, and in
the corner he beheld a rusty old iron kettle, which could not have seen
the light of day for many years. How the kettle got there the old man
did not know, but he took it up and looked it over carefully, and when
he found that it was quite whole he cleaned the dust off it and carried
it into his kitchen.

'That was a piece of luck,' he said, smiling to himself; 'a good kettle
costs money, and it is as well to have a second one at hand in case of
need; mine is getting worn out, and the water is already beginning to
come through its bottom.'

Then he took the other kettle off the fire, filled the new one with
water, and put it in its place.

No sooner was the water in the kettle getting warm than a strange thing
happened, and the man, who was standing by, thought he must be dreaming.
First the handle of the kettle gradually changed its shape and became a
head, and the spout grew into a tail, while out of the body sprang four
paws, and in a few minutes the man found himself watching, not a kettle,
but a tanuki! The creature jumped off the fire, and bounded about the
room like a kitten, running up the walls and over the ceiling, till the
old man was in an agony lest his pretty room should be spoilt. He cried
to a neighbour for help, and between them they managed to catch the
tanuki, and shut him up safely in a wooden chest. Then, quite exhausted,
they sat down on the mats, and consulted together what they should do
with this troublesome beast. At length they decided to sell him, and
bade a child who was passing send them a certain tradesman called Jimmu.

When Jimmu arrived, the old man told him that he had something which he
wished to get rid of, and lifted the lid of the wooden chest, where
he had shut up the tanuki. But, to his surprise, no tanuki was there,
nothing but the kettle he had found in the corner. It was certainly very
odd, but the man remembered what had taken place on the fire, and did
not want to keep the kettle any more, so after a little bargaining about
the price, Jimmu went away carrying the kettle with him.

Now Jimmu had not gone very far before he felt that the kettle was
getting heavier and heavier, and by the time he reached home he was so
tired that he was thankful to put it down in the corner of his roo