Page:The Allies Fairy Book.djvu/138



hundred years ago there lived an honest old woodcutter and his wife. One fine morning the old man went off to the hills with his billhook, to gather a faggot of sticks, while his wife went down to the river to wash the dirty clothes. When she came to the river she saw a peach floating down the stream; so she picked it up, and carried it home with her, thinking to give it to her husband to eat when he should come in. The old man soon came down from the hills, and the good wife set the peach before him, when, just as she was inviting him to eat it, the fruit split in two, and a little puling baby was born into the world. So the old couple took the babe, and brought it up as their own; and because it had been born in a peach, they called it “Momotaro,” or Little Peachling, for “Momo” means a peach, and “Taro” is the termination of the names of eldest sons.

By degrees Little Peachling grew up to be strong and brave, and at last one day he said to his old foster-parents: