The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Matsuyama Mirror, by Anonymous

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Matsuyama Mirror

Author: Anonymous

Translator: Kate James

Release Date: September 18, 2009 [EBook #30020]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MATSUYAMA MIRROR ***

Produced by Meredith Bach, Anne Storer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Japanese Fairy Tale Series, No 10.

#The Matsuyama Mirror.#

TOLD IN ENGLISH BY MRS. T. H. JAMES.

[Illustration]

Published by T. HASEGAWA, 17 Kami Negishi, TOKYO.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

[Illustration]

THE

MATSUYAMA

MIRROR.

A long long time ago, there lived in a quiet spot, a young man and his
wife. They had one child, a little daughter, whom they both loved with
all their hearts. I cannot tell you their names, for they have been
long since forgotten, but the name of the place where they lived was
Matsuyama, in the province of Echigo.

It happened once, while the little girl was still a baby, that the
father was obliged to go to the great city, the capital of Japan, upon
some business. It was too far for the mother and her little baby to go,
so he set out alone, after bidding them good bye, and promising to bring
them home some pretty present.

[Illustration]

The mother had never been further from home than the next village, and
she could not help being a little frightened at the thought of her
husband taking such a long journey, and yet she was a little proud
too, for he was the first man in all that country side who had been to
the big town where the King and his great lords lived, and where there
were so many beautiful and curious things to be seen.

At last the time came when she might expect her husband back, so she
dressed the baby in its best clothes, and herself put on a pretty blue
dress which she knew her husband liked.

[Illustration]

You may fancy how glad this good wife was to see him come home safe
and sound, and how the little girl clapped her hands, and laughed with