Hi! It's me, Professor Panda! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season and I wish each and every one of you a very happy 2010!
I want to start out the new year with a really simple reading comprehension exercise. It is a cute little folktale from Japan called
The Wonderful Teakettle. It is from a book, published in 1904 by Teresa Peirce Williston, titled
Japanese Fairytales and will soon be republished by Shisei-Do Publications with the original illustrations by Ogawa Sanshi.
Please read the this simple story. You can read it several times if you want and in 5 days, I will publish a short quiz to see if you understood everything you read. Please enjoy our story.
THE WONDERFUL TEAKETTLE
The old priest was happy because he had found a new treasure. As he climbed the hill to the temple where he lived, he often stopped to pat his beautiful brass teakettle. When he reached the temple, he called the three boys who were his pupils.
“Look here!” he cried to them. “Just see the beautiful kettle I found in a little shop I passed. I got it very cheap, too!”
The boys admired it, but smiled a little to themselves, because they could not see what he wanted with an old brass kettle.
“Now go on with your studies, “ said the priest. “ I will hear you recite after a while.” So the boys went into the next room, and the old priest sat down to admire his prize. He sat and looked at it so long that he grew sleepy; and nod - bob went his head until in a moment, he was fast asleep.
The boys in the next room studied very hard for a few minutes, but they were boys and no one was there to watch over them; so, you can imagine what they were doing by the time the priest was fast asleep. Suddenly, they heard a noise in the next room.
“There, the priest is awake,” whispered one.
“Oh, dear! Now we will have to behave,” said the second.
The third one was more daring. He crept up and peeped through the screen to see if it really was the priest. He was just in time to see the new teakettle give a spring into the air, turn a somersault, and come down in the form of a furry, little badger, with a sharp nose, bushy tail, and four little feet.
How that badger did scamper and dance! It danced on the floor! It danced on the table! It danced up the side of a shōji screen!
“Oh, my! Oh, my!” cried the boy, tumbling backward. “It will dance on me next! Oh my!”
“What are you talking about?” said the other two. “What will dance on you?”
“That goblin will dance on me! I know it will! It danced on the floor and it danced on the table, and it danced on the screen, and now I know it is coming to dance on me!” said the boy.
“What do you mean?” said the others. “There is no goblin here.” Then they all looked through the screen and there sat the kettle, just as it had been before.
“You little silly!” cried one of the other boys. “Do you call that a goblin? That looks very much like a teakettle to my eyes.”
“Hush!” said the third boy. “The priest is waking up. We had better get to work again.”
The priest woke up and heard the busy lips of his pupils. “What good boys I have!” he thought. “Now, while they are studying, I will just brew myself a cup of tea.”
He lit his little charcoal fire, filled his kettle with fresh water, and put it over the fire to heat.
Suddenly, the kettle gave a leap up into the air, spilling the hot water all over the floor! “Hot, hot! I’m burning!” it cried. And, like a flash, it was no longer a kettle but a little furry badger, with a sharp nose, bushi tail, and four little feet.
“Oh, help! Help! There is a goblin!” shrieked the priest. In rushed the three boys to see what was the matter. They saw no kettle at all, but in its place, was a very angry badger prancing and sputtering around the room.
They all took sticks and began to beat the badger, but suddenly, it was only a brass kettle again that answered, “Clang, Clang!” with every blow.
When the priest saw that he could gain nothing by beating the kettle, he began to plan how he might get rid of it. Just then, the tinker came by.
“This is my chance,” thought the priest. And so he called, “Tinker, Tinker, come and see what I have for you. Here is an old kettle I found. It is no use to me, but you could mend it up and sell it.”
The tinker saw that it was a good kettle, so he bought it and took it home. He pressed it carefully into shape again and mended all the broken places and once more, it was a fine looking kettle.
That night, the tinker awoke and found a badger looking at him with his small, bright eyes.
“Now see here, Mr. Tinker,” said the badger. “I think that you are a kind man, so I have something to tell you. I am really a wonderful teakettle, and I can turn into a badger whenever I wish, as you can see. I can do other things too, more wonderful than that!”
The kindhearted tinker said, “Well, if you are a badger, you must want something to eat. What can I get for you?”
“Oh! I like a little sugar now and then,” replied the badger, “and I don’t like to be set on fire or beaten with sticks. However, I am sure that you will never treat me that way. If you wish to take me around to different villages, I can sing and dance on the tightrope for you.”
The tinker did exactly that; and crowds came to see the wonderful kettle. Those who had seen it once came to see it again; and those who had not seen it, came to see why the people liked it so well.
At last, the tinker became rich. Then he put his beloved teakettle in a little temple on top of a hill, where it might always rest and have all the sweets it wanted.
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