Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/68



years ago there lived a poor old bamboo-cutter, whose great sorrow it was that Heaven had sent no child to cheer his wife and himself in their old age. Every morning he went into the woods in search of the lithe bamboo, which he would split lengthwise or cut into joints, and these he would take home with him, and his wife would turn them into useful or ornamental articles for the household, and sell them.

While working at his task one day in a small grove of the slender trees that he had discovered, he was surprised by a soft, bright light which suddenly flooded the spot in which he was, and he was astonished to see that all this brilliance came from one bamboo.

Marvelling at the beautiful sight, he went to this bamboo stem, in the hollow of which was a tiny, but exceedingly beautiful, little girl, about three inches in height.