Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/98

82 close to his head and lift it up, but there was no paper bag beneath it.

The boy was surprised, and said: "I believe this lazy old farmer has taken our bag," and then he seized Chô's nose, and gave it a good pull.

Chô then jumped up, and the boy repeated what he had said. The children wouldn't believe him when he declared that he had touched neither the stone nor the bag, and they shouted and jeered at him.

But this was not the hardest thing that happened to him; for his nose, which the boy had pulled, began to grow. Larger and larger it became, until at last it reached the ground.

In his anger he struck right and left at the children, and ran from the field, holding his nose from the ground as well as he could.

He went to his brother's house and told him what had occurred. Then a change came over him, and he felt ashamed of himself. He remembered how jealous he had been of Musai, and how he had tried to ruin him by killing his silkworms. He was