nd in it."

The girl opened the box and looked for the first time in a mirror. "Oh,
mother dear!" she cried. "I see you here. Not thin and pale as you are
now, but happy and smiling, as you have always been."

Then her mother said: "When I am gone, will you look in this every
morning and every night? If anything troubles you, tell me about it.
Always try to do right, so that you will see only happiness here."

Every morning when the sun rose and the birds began to twitter and sing,
the girl rose and looked in her mirror. There she saw the bright, happy
face that she remembered as her mother's.

Every evening when the shadows fell and the birds were asleep, she
looked again. She told it all that had happened during the day. When it
had been a happy day the face smiled back at her. When she was sad the
face looked sad, too. She was very careful not to do anything unkind,
for she knew how sad the face would be then.

So each day she grew more kind and loving, and more like the mother
whose face she saw each day and loved.

185

This favorite story of "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow"
is from Mrs. Williston's _Japanese Fairy
Tales_. (Copyrighted. Used by permission.)

THE TONGUE-CUT SPARROW

VERSION BY TERESA PEIRCE WILLISTON

In a little old house in a little old village in Japan lived a little
old man and his little old wife.

One morning when the old woman slid open the screens which form the
sides of all Japanese houses, she saw, on the doorstep, a poor little
sparrow. She took him up gently and fed him. Then she held him in the
bright morning sunshine until the cold dew was dried from his wings.
Afterward she let him go, so that he might fly home to his nest, but he
stayed to thank her with his songs.

Each morning, when the pink on the mountain tops told that the sun was
near, the sparrow perched on the roof of the house and sang out his joy.

The old man and woman thanked the sparrow for this, for they liked to be
up early and at work. But near them there lived a cross old woman who
did not like to be awakened so early. At last she became so angry that
she caught the sparrow and cut his tongue. Then the poor little sparrow
flew away to his home, but he could never sing again.

When the kind woman knew what had happened to her pet she was very sad.
She said to her husband, "Let us go and find our poor little sparrow."
So they started together, and asked of each bird by the wayside