The Junior Classics V1, by Willam Patten

The Accomplished and Lucky Teakettle

By A. B. Mitford

A LONG time ago, at a temple called Morinji, there was an old

teakettle.  One day, when the priest of the temple was about to hang it

over the hearth to boil the water for his tea, to his amazement the

kettle all of a sudden put forth the head and tail of a badger.  What a

wonderful kettle, to come out all over fur!

The priest, thunderstruck, called in the novices or assistants of the

temple to see the sight; and while they were stupidly staring, one

suggesting one thing and another another, the kettle, jumping up into

the air, began flying about the room.  More astonished than ever, the

priest and his pupils tried to pursue it; but no thief or cat was ever

half so sharp as the wonderful badger kettle.  At last, however, they

managed to knock it down and secure it; and, holding it in with their

united efforts, they forced it into a box, intending to carry it off

and throw it away in some distant place, so that they might no more be

plagued with the goblin.

For this day their troubles were over, but as luck would have it, the

tinker who was in the habit of working for the temple called in, and

the priest suddenly bethought him that it was a pity to throw the

kettle away for nothing, and that he might as well get a trifle for it,

no matter how small.  So he brought out the kettle, which had resumed

its former shape and had got rid of its head and tail, and showed it to

the tinker.  When the tinker saw the kettle, he offered twenty copper

coins for it, and the priest was only too glad to close the bargain and

be rid of his troublesome piece of furniture.  And the tinker trudged

off home with his pack and his new purchase.

That night, as he lay asleep, he heard a strange noise near his pillow;

so he peeped out from under the bedclothes and there he saw the kettle

that he had bought in the temple covered with fur and walking about on

four legs.  The tinker started up in a fright to see what it could all

mean, when all of a sudden the kettle resumed its former shape.  This

happened over and over again, until at last the tinker showed the

teakettle to a friend of his, who said, "This is certainly an

accomplished and lucky teakettle-you should take it about as a show,

with songs and accompaniments of musical instruments, and make it dance

and walk on the tight rope."

The tinker, thinking this good advice, made arrangements with a

showman, and set up an exhibition.  The noise of the kettle's

performances soon spread abroad, until even the princes of the land

sent to order the tinker to come to them; and he grew rich beyond all

expectations.  Even the princesses, too, and the great ladies of the

court, took great delight in the dancing kettle, so that no sooner had

it shown its tricks in one place than it was time for them to keep some

other engagement.

At last the tinker grew so rich that he took the kettle back to the

temple, where it was laid up as a precious treasure and worshiped as a

saint.