Fairy Tales From Many Lands
Copyright© 2024 by Katharine Pyle
The Faithful Dog
From the Japanese
THERE were once a man and his wife who were so poor that they scarcely knew from one time to another whether they would have enough to eat.
One day the man found a starving dog near the house and brought it home with him. “Look!” said he to his wife. “Here is one even more unfortunate than ourselves. See whether you cannot find something in the house for it to eat, for unless you do it will surely die.”
The woman hunted about and found a handful of rice, which she cooked and gave to the dog. After it had eaten it grew stronger, and began to play about and show such pretty tricks that the poor couple were delighted with it.
After this it lived with them in the house and they became very fond of it. What little they had they shared with it, and it grew strong and glossy.
One day the poor couple went out to walk in the garden, and the dog, as usual, followed close to them. When they came to a certain corner, however, it left them and began to scratch at the ground and bark.
“Look!” cried the woman. “Something must certainly be buried there. I wonder what it can be?”
The man called the dog, but it would not leave the corner, and only looked at him and barked again.
“Something must indeed be there,” said the man to his wife. “I will run to our neighbor’s house and borrow a spade, and dig down until I find what it is.”
So saying he hurried away to the neighbor’s, and asked him to lend him a spade.
“What do you wish to do with it?” asked the neighbor, who was a very inquisitive man.
“I wish to dig in a corner of my garden, for I think my dog has found something there.”
The neighbor lent him the spade, and himself went over to the garden to see whether the good man would find anything.
When the dog saw his master return and make ready to dig, he stood aside, wagging his tail with joy.
The man had not dug far when his spade struck something hard, and this, when it was uncovered, proved to be a chest of gold. The good couple were overcome with joy at the sight of such a treasure. They almost lost their senses, and even embraced the dog in their delight.
So happy were they that they did not notice that the neighbor had turned green with envy. “That is a valuable dog,” he said to them at last. “What will you sell him for?”
“Sell him!” cried the good man. “There is not enough gold in all the world to buy him. The only good fortune that has ever come to us has come through him.”
“Then at least lend him to me,” said the neighbor. “Surely you would not keep all the good fortune to yourselves. It may be that he will find a chest of gold for me in my garden.”
The good people were willing to do this, so the envious neighbor fastened a piece of rope about the dog’s neck and led him home with him, and he and his wife took the dog out in the garden and walked up and down and around with him just as the good couple had done. They were obliged to keep the rope about the dog’s neck and drag him along, for they had so often before this thrown hard words and harder stones at him that he would not go with them willingly. But though he was obliged to follow because of the rope he would not bark nor even sniff about, and at last the envious neighbor grew so angry that he killed the dog and buried it under a plane tree in the garden.
The good man waited and waited for the neighbor to bring back the dog, but as he did not do so he went over after a few days to ask for it.
Then the envious neighbor told him he had killed it and buried it under the plane tree.
The good man was filled with grief when he heard that his dog was dead. Sadly he returned to his wife and told her what had happened, and they sat down and wept together as though indeed it had been a child that had died.
But that night the man had a wonderful dream, and his wife also dreamed, and the dreams were exactly the same. In the dreams the dog appeared to them, and said, “Go; ask the neighbor to give you the plane tree beneath which I am buried and make of it a mortar and pestle, and whatever you grind with them shall be changed to gold.”
When the good couple awoke they began each one to tell the other of the dream, and they were filled with wonder to find that their dreams were both the same. “This is very wonderful,” said the man, “and I am sure they must be true dreams, or the dog would not have appeared to us both.”
So as soon as he arose he went over to the neighbor’s and begged and entreated him to give him the plane tree. The envious man refused, but after a time he agreed to sell it to the good man for ten pieces of gold.
The man paid him, and then cut down the plane tree and dragged it home, and made of it a mortar and pestle.
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