The Ungrateful Son

Sacred Texts  Household Tales Index  Previous: Wise Folks  Next: The Shroud 

 
 
 The Ungrateful Son
 
 
      A man and his wife were once sitting by the door of their house, and they
 had a roasted chicken set before them, and were about to eat it together. Then
 the man saw that his aged father was coming, and hastily took the chicken and
 hid it, for he would not permit him to have any of it. The old man came, took
 a drink, and went away.
 
 
      The son wanted to put the roasted chicken on the table again, but when he
 took it up, it had become a great toad, which jumped into his face and sat
 there and never went away again, and if any one wanted to take it off, it
 looked venomously at him as if it would jump in his face, so that no one would
 venture to touch it. And the ungrateful son was forced to feed the toad every
 day, or else it fed itself on his face; and thus he went about the world
 without knowing rest.