Kathleen Gray Nelson

“ You could live in my palace and have many servants to wait upon you, and if I were the most beautiful woman, you could become the richest man in the kingdom. It would be a sad thing for the pearl to crumble away and never be worn by a woman, and also for the great Cave Man to die a wretched death—perhaps of hunger—in this dirty hole.”
“If I were only free I could bring you the pearl,” the wizard answered. “No one save me can ever get it, for it is watched by a dragon with eyes that are always open and teeth that are sharp and cruel.” ”

“ He could only turn up his nose and snarl slowly, for he was trying with all his might to plan what to do next. He was the richest fox in the world—the only living creature with nine golden tails—but what good were they to him if these silly creatures would not wait on him and worship him? In all the years he had lived among them he had been greedy and selfish and cross and ugly, and now he had not a single friend. ”

“ The wonderful wood, so dark, so still, so cool, put on patches of color with the passing month, and in the few spots where the sunshine sometimes crept, the trees grew vivid with the burning glory of autumn or pale and cold with the first blue blossoms of spring, then softly pink with azalea blooms or bright as a glowing sunset with the flowers of peach and cherry. ”

“ The frog hopped away when it saw him coming, the grasshopper whirred up to the top of the tallest tree, the owls rolled their eyes at him, flapped their wings and away they went, and even the lazy old tortoise, that every day came out to take its nap in a little spot of sunshine, tried to crawl away in a hurry when it heard him coming, and sometimes in its haste rolled all the way down the river bank. ”

“ At night she slept on a pillow of shining black wood, and on it were sprawling, straggling letters of gold that spelled the name of the Baku, for the Baku in Japan has the body of a horse, the face of a lion, the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the tail of a cow and the feet of a tiger, and it [Pg 31] eats up evil dreams. In fact, it never eats anything else, and yet it is always fat. ”

“ The old woman crept closer to him.
“What did you say about a pearl?” she whispered breathlessly.
“Ah, it is a pearl fit for a Queen,” he said, pursing up his lips. “It is big as the egg of a swan, shaped like a perfect pear and white as a dragon’s tooth. The woman who wears it hung around her neck all men will adore. She will always be young, always the loveliest lady that was ever seen.” The eyes of the Queen glittered greedily.
“Where is that pearl, wizard?” she [Pg 56] asked, grasping his arm so tightly that her claw-like fingers dug into his flesh. But the wizard only smiled. ”

“ Sometimes they would eat and sleep all day, and at night, when the green eyes of the owls shone like lanterns and the fireflies lit up the wood with their little lamps, they would meet in a wonderful dell all lined with moss softer than velvet carpet, and there they would romp and play until morning. ”

“ Oh, if he could only take off his golden tails long enough to whip the saucy monkey! And how very nice one of those downy little chicks would taste!
“I have all the gold in the wood,” he [Pg 83] said at last. “I am your King and you are too stupid to know it.”
“Only men are ruled by a man because he has gold,” said the wise old tortoise. “We know better. Had you been brave and kind and good we would now be proud of you. But you have thought only of yourself, now help yourself. You have all that you wanted—be satisfied.” ”

“ Sometimes in the day when she lingered by the lake and watched the little gold fish dart about like flames in the clear water and jump up on the bank to get the lard cakes and rice balls she had brought them, she sighed, and for no reason at all scolded the mincing, bias-eyed lady who carried a gorgeous parasol over her. ”

“ And she added if he were smart enough to never, never let the dogs get after him, when he was a thousand years old a dragon would give him nine golden tails. It was true no one had ever seen a fox with more than one tail, but in the Kojiri, or Tails of Ancient Things, which was written on the bark of the oldest trees, it had always been told that there would be one fox who would in this way become the hero of his race, and perhaps he would be that very one if he learned to be clever and careful. ”

“ The snail had been heard to stoutly declare he wouldn’t run from it anyway, but as the orang-outang reminded him, it was very easy to be brave before you saw it coming, but he had heard of snails that got in such a hurry they left their houses behind them. The bear asked the very important question: “How many legs has a dragon?” And when the tortoise said it must have at least a million, since a centipede had a hundred, the bear was comforted, for as he wisely told the fox, one need not be afraid of anything if it has more than four legs. ”

“ They are nothing but stupid, two-legged animals. I see plainly now that it is more honor to be even a common gray fox than the wisest man in the world. Oh, that I had never seen that miserable dragon! ”

“ There he fell down, a heap of skin and bones, and called feebly for the dragon. When this terrible creature [Pg 48] came out it blew fire and smoke at him in awful wrath.
“I thought you wanted to be a fox with nine golden tails. Why have you disturbed me?” it thundered.
“A fox with nine golden tails is a nice thing to talk about,” the poor fox whimpered, “but a wise man is better than a dead fox, even if it had twenty golden tails, so make me a wizard, Great One, and then will I trouble you no more.” ”

“ CHAPTER II NOW Nio Kuro, a Prince and the most famous hunter in the kingdom, had come in his boat down the river that ran through the haunted wood. With him he had brought many servants and his pack of trained leopards, with which he hunted, and which were swifter and had keener scent than any dogs. Possibly Nio Kuro had never heard of this forest, or it may have been that he became so excited when the leopards started on their wild chase that he forgot to be afraid of goblins. ”

“ One of these things was that if he lived to be one hundred years old without ever being chased by a dog, he could become a beautiful woman; if he lived for five hundred years and never a dog pursued him, he could be changed into a mighty wizard who would know more than any man on earth; but, better than all, after a thousand years of peace he [Pg 6] would turn into a celestial fox and have nine golden tails. ”

“ And to-day you may see this very same tail, looking rather old and rusty, in one of the museums of a foreign city, and beside it is a card telling that this is undoubtedly the golden feather that the great King No-Thing-Fan of Japan once wore in his crown, which shows that even very wise people sometimes make mistakes. ”

“ Now a beautiful woman does very well in her place and it is a great honor to be a wise man, but a fox with nine golden tails is the most wonderful thing in all the world. For that reason when the fox was very young, only about sixty or seventy-five, he thought he would refuse to be changed into either a woman or a wizard and would wait for his thousandth birthday. ”

“ At this the animals set up a shout that echoed through the forest. The monkey laughed until he had to hold on to the limb of a tree by his tail to keep from falling off, the bear grinned at first and then let [Pg 79] out loud ha! ha’s! the hen cackled, the owls whoo-ed, the crickets chirped, the pigeons coo-ed with such glee they gurgled and choked, the rooster crowed, the parrot shrieked, the peafowl screamed, the ducks squawked, the frogs croaked and young Luxuriant-Thick-Mud-Master bellowed until the earth shook.
The fox was at first dazed. ”

“ They don’t have half as much fun as a fox.” But as the years went by he grew so tired of skulking and hiding [Pg 7] about, and being nothing but a common, every-day, bushy-tailed gray fox that he almost decided to compromise the matter.
“After all, there are worse things in the world than pretty women,” he said, scratching his ear, “and wise men have their uses.” ”

“ He could tell when it would rain and when a man must plant his crop to reap a full harvest, where money was hidden if it had been stolen and who had taken it, who was the right girl for a man to marry and who was his secret enemy, he knew what would cure the sick, what would drive away evil spirits and everything that any one could ask him. ”

“ The tortoise having lived longer than any of the others, had had time to find out more, and he said there was a huge monster in a far-distant part of the wood that was neither man nor beast, but more dangerous than either. ”

“ Even now the fireflies are putting out their lights and waiting for the dawn. See, here is gold to pay for your journey and food to last you for a week. Hurry back to me with the wonderful pearl, and when I am the [Pg 64] most beautiful woman in the land you shall be the greatest man. ”

“ Nothing will satisfy me except to be a fox with nine golden tails.”
With never a regret he went back to the old life, and hunted mice and creeping things when he got hungry, and when there was neither moon nor stars, ran through the black night to the farm house far beyond the edge of the forest, and came back in the gray of the morning with his lips all bloody and his paws as well—the [Pg 44] signs of his midnight feast in the chicken yard. ”

“ And it was pleasant to wear lovely clothes, and eat sharks’ fins and birds’ nest soup and bamboo shoots and lotus bulbs and other delicacies [Pg 35] that only very rich people can have in Japan. And she was glad to think she wasn’t a fox, hiding out in brier patches, always listening for dogs and sometimes hungry. Surely it was much better to be a Princess than a fox. ”

“ But he was [Pg 87] so busy looking for his shadow that he never thought about anything else, and suddenly the dirt crumbled under his feet and without a moment’s warning he tumbled backward into the river with such a mighty splash and splutter that all the animals got a shower. ”

“ Now the King will know no peace until he [Pg 66] is dead. And whoever brings his head to the city will be a rich man for life.”
“I wish I could be the lucky one,” said another. “I’ve been looking in every boat to-day for him.” It seemed to the frightened Cave Man they must hear his heart beating, so near he was, and perhaps they would had they not been so busy talking. ”

“ He bought her the loveliest gowns of purple and yellow satin, all embroidered in roses and green leaves and jeweled butterflies, and she had servants to wait upon her and fan her and a red and gold jinricksha to ride in. He called her a [Pg 28] queer Japanese word which means Wild Flower, for he said she grew and blossomed in the forest and he transplanted her and made her a Princess. ”