reverence! your reverence!"

As the voice was like that of the badger, he jumped up as soon as he
heard it, and ran to open the door; and there, sure enough, was the
badger. The priest, in great delight, cried out: "And so you are safe
and sound, after all! Why have you been so long without coming here? I
have been expecting you anxiously this long while."

So the badger came into the hut and said: "If the money which you
required had been for unlawful purposes, I could easily have procured as
much as ever you might have wanted; but when I heard that it was to be
offered to a temple for masses for your soul, I thought that, if I were
to steal the hidden treasure of some other man, you could not apply to a
sacred purpose money which had been obtained at the expense of his
sorrow. So I went to the island of Sado,[4] and gathering the sand and
earth which had been cast away as worthless by the miners, fused it
afresh in the fire; and at this work I spent months and days." As the
badger finished speaking, the priest looked at the money which it had
produced, and sure enough he saw that it was bright and new and clean;
so he took the money, and received it respectfully, raising it to his
head.

"And so you have had all this toil and labour on account of a foolish
speech of mine? I have obtained my heart's desire, and am truly
thankful."

As he was thanking the badger with great politeness and ceremony, the
beast said: "In doing this I have but fulfilled my own wish; still I
hope that you will tell this thing to no man."

"Indeed," replied the priest, "I cannot choose but tell this story. For
if I keep this money in my poor hut, it will be stolen by thieves: I
must either give it to some one to keep for me, or else at once offer it
up at the temple. And when I do this, when people see a poor old priest
with a sum of money quite unsuited to his station, they will think it
very suspicious, and I shall have to tell the tale as it occurred; but I
shall say that the badger that gave me the money has ceased coming to my
hut, you need not fear being waylaid, but can come, as of old, and
shelter yourself from the cold." To this the badger nodded assent; and
as long as the old priest lived, it came and spent the winter nights
with him.

From this story, it is plain that even beasts have a sense of gratitude:
in this quality dogs excel all other beasts. Is not the story of the dog
of Totoribe Yorodzu written in the Annals of Ja