Korean Children's Favorite Stories Read online

  The young brother heard the commotion and came running out of the house. He saw the snake just in time and, with a great cry, chased it away.

  The bird that had fallen from the nest had broken a leg. "Oh, you poor little thing," the brother said, "it must be painful." He gently lifted the bird from the ground, put medicine on its leg, and bound it carefully with a bit of white cloth.

  Ten, twenty days passed. The baby swallow with the broken leg was soon well again. It was strong enough to fly now. It no longer needed to wait for its mother to bring it food. It swooped through the great sky, swiftly and freely, in search of insects and bugs.

  Summer passed and autumn came. The swallows left for their winter home in the south. The swallow with the broken leg was now a big bird. Reluctantly, it too joined the migrating birds and left the village.

  Early the next spring, the swallows came back to their old nest. They had travelled a long way, over seas and over mountains, but they had not forgotten their old home. The happy swallows swooped under the eaves of the straw-thatched hut. The humble hut of the younger brother again echoed to the merry chirping of birds.

  The swallow that had broken its leg the year before also returned. As if to repay the younger brother's kindness, it carried in its beak a pumpkin seed. The bird dropped the seed in a corner of the poor brother's yard, where it soon sprouted and shot forth a tendril that gradually climbed up to the roof of the poor man's home.

  By autumn, three big pumpkins, so large that each made an armful, were ripening on the vine. The younger brother was overjoyed and cut down one pumpkin. 'This is a rare thing to have such large pumpkins. One such pumpkin alone would be enough to feed many people. I must take some of it to the villagers." So thinking, the younger brother cut the pumpkin in two.

  What should happen then! Out of the pumpkin trooped a host of carpenters. Some carried axes, some saws, some planes, and some hammers. Each carried some kind of tool. After the carpenters had all come out, there came a flow of building materials—timbers, planks, window frames, and doors. In a twinkling of an eye, the carpenters built a large mansion and then disappeared from sight.

  The younger brother was completely dumbfounded at this strange and unexpected happening. He then began wondering what the other pumpkins might contain. He gingerly cut open the second pumpkin.

  Out came a host of servants. There were farmhands too, with plows and spades and rakes. There were also maids, carrying water jugs on their heads, and seamstresses, with needles in their hands. When they had all come out, they lined up before the younger brother and, bowing deeply, said together, "Master, we are here to serve you. Please tell us what you would like us to do."

  From the third pumpkin there flowed silver and gold in such quantities that the younger brother was completely dazed. Overnight, he became the richest man in the village, and soon he was the owner of vast lands, purchased with the money that had come from the third pumpkin.

  The greedy older brother was totally green with envy. His every waking thought was how to become as wealthy as his younger brother. One day he came over to visit his brother, whom he had ignored for so long in the past. Slyly he asked, "Say, my dear brother, how did you manage to become so rich?"

  The honest younger brother did not hide anything, but told him everything that had happened. The older brother, when he heard the story, thought greedily of a plan. As soon as early summer came the next year, he took a baby swallow from one of the nests in the eaves of his house and broke its leg. Then he put medicine on the broken leg, bound it with a piece of white cloth, and put the bird back into its nest. In autumn this swallow flew away to the south.

  The older brother could scarcely contain his joy. I've only to wait a short while longer. Then that swallow will return and bring me a pumpkin seed too."

  Sure enough, the swallow whose leg had been broken on purpose returned the next spring to the elder brother's house and brought back a pumpkin seed in its mouth.

  The older brother took the seed and planted it in a corner of his yard. Every day he gave it water and cried, "Hurry and grow big! Hurry and grow big!" He did not forget to mix a lot of manure into the ground where the pumpkin seed had been planted.

  In time, out came a green sprout. It grew and grew, stretching its vine up over the roof. In time, too, three pumpkins took shape and ripened. The pumpkins were much larger than those that had grown at his younger brother's house.

  "How lucky I am!" the older brother said. "Thank Heaven! Now everything is set. I shall be much richer than my younger brother." He could not help dancing about in joy and anticipation.

  Finally the time came and he cut the first pumpkin. But what should appear? Not carpenters, but a swarm of demons with cudgels in their hands.

  "You inhuman and greedy monster! Now you'll get what you deserve!" the demons cried, and they began beating the older brother in turns.

  After a while the demons disappeared. The older brother was all blue with bruises, but still he had not learned his lesson. "This time, for sure, I'll find much treasure," he thought, and cut open the second pumpkin.

  But this time a host of money collectors came out crying, "Pay your debts! Pay your debts! If you don't we'll take away everything we can lay our hands on."

  And they did! They grabbed everything in sight. In a flash, the older brother's home was completely emptied of all it contained, leaving only a shell.

  The older brother cursed himself for having cut open the second pumpkin, but it was too late. And still he could not give up his dreams of an easy fortune. He stuck a knife into the third pumpkin and split it open. What should come out but a flood of yellow muddy water. It came bubbling out in an unending stream. It flowed in such quantities that soon his home, his garden, and his fields were covered with yellow mud.

  The older brother finally could stand it no longer. With a cry of anguish he fled to the shelter of his younger brother's house.

  The kind-hearted younger brother greeted him with open arms and treated him very well. The older brother suddenly realized how selfish and mean he had been. He became a humble and contrite man.

  The younger brother gave his elder brother half of everything he had—paddies, fields, servants, and money—and from that time on the two lived on the most friendly of terms.

  Once a hungry old tiger was walking through the woods, looking for something to eat. By chance he came upon a baby rabbit. The old tiger's eyes glistened to see such a juicy morsel.

  "I'm going to eat you up," he told the rabbit.

  The baby rabbit, though very small, was a clever fellow. He coolly answered, "Just wait, Mr Tiger. I'm still too young and small to make a good meal. I have something much tastier for you. I shall give you some rice cakes. When you toast them over a fire, they are really delicious."

  As he said this, the rabbit stealthily picked up eleven small white stones. He showed them to the tiger.

  The greedy tiger became very interested. "But," he said, "how do you eat these?"

  The rabbit answered, "Here, I'll show you. You toast them over a fire until they are red-hot, and then you eat them in one gulp. HI go and find some firewood so that you can have some right away." The rabbit gathered together some twigs and sticks and started a fire. The tiger put the eleven stones on the fire and watched them toast.

  When the stones were getting hot and red, the rabbit said, "Mr. Tiger, wait a while. If you put soy sauce on the cakes, they will taste even more delicious. I shall get some for you. You must wait now and don't eat any while I am gone.... Let's see, there are ten rice cakes, aren't there?" So saying, the baby rabbit skipped into the woods and ran away.

  As the stones reddened with the heat, the tiger began licking his lips in anticipation. He started counting what he thought were rice cakes.

  "One, two, three.... Why," he said in surprise, "there are eleven cakes, not ten."

  He started counting them over again, but, no matter how many times he counted, there was always one too many.
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  "The baby rabbit said there were ten. If I ate one, he wouldn't know the difference," the tiger said to himself.

  So he quickly took the reddest one from the fire, popped it in his mouth, and gulped it down greedily. But, oh, it was hot! So very, very hot! The tiger not only burnt his mouth and tongue, but his stomach as well. He squirmed with pain. He moaned and groaned and rolled all over the ground.

  All of which served the old tiger right for being so greedy. It was some time before he could eat anything again.

  One day, much later, the tiger met the baby rabbit again.

  "Say you, you bad rabbit! What a time you gave me the other day. I'll not let you go this time. Now I'll really eat you up." And the tiger's eyes burned with anger.

  But the baby rabbit did not look a bit frightened. With a smile, he answered, "Don't be so angry, Mr. Tiger. Please listen to me. I have found a way to catch hundreds and thousands of sparrows. All you have to do is to keep perfectly still with your mouth wide open. The sparrows will come flying right into your mouth and make a nice feast for you."

  The old tiger licked his lips and asked, "Oh, is that so? What else am I supposed to do?"

  "Oh, it isn't difficult at all. All you need to do is to look up at the sky and keep your mouth open. I'll chase the sparrows out of the bamboo thicket into your mouth."

  Once again the old tiger did as he was told.

  The baby rabbit hopped into the bamboo thicket and set fire to a pile of dry leaves and twigs. The sound made by the burning leaves and twigs was just like the fluttering of thousands of sparrows.

  The tiger, meanwhile, kept gazing up at the sky, his mouth wide open. "Why, it does sound as if the birds are flying this way," he thought. And he kept right on staring up at the sky, his mouth wide open, waiting for the sparrows to fly into it.

  From a distance, the baby rabbit cried, "Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!" pretending he was chasing a multitude of sparrows.

  "Mr. Tiger, Mr. Tiger, a lot of birds are flying your way now. Don't move! Just wait a while longer." So saying, the baby rabbit scampered away to safety.

  The fire came closer and closer to the tiger, and the noise became louder and louder. The tiger was sure the birds were coming his way, and he patiently waited. Soon the noise was all about him, but not a single sparrow popped into his mouth.

  "That's funny," thought the tiger, and he took his eyes from the sky and looked around him. To his surprise, there was one great ocean of fire all about him as far as he could see.

  The tiger became frantic with fear as he fought his way through the burning woods. Finally he managed to come through alive, but his fur was all sizzled black. And his skin looked like newly tanned hide.

  It was soon winter. Once again the tiger became ravenously hungry. As he stalked through the forest looking for food, he came to the bank of a river. There he saw his old friend, the baby rabbit, eating some vegetables.

  The tiger roared angrily at the rabbit, "How dare you fool me about the sparrows! I won't let you get away with anything this time. I will eat you up for sure." He ground his teeth and ran up to the rabbit.

  The rabbit smiled as usual and said, "Hello, Mr. Tiger, it's quite some time since we last met, isn't it? Look, I was just fishing with my tail in the river. I caught a big one, and it was delicious. Don't you think river fish are very tasty?"

  The hungry tiger gulped with hunger and said, "You were fishing with your tail? Show me how it is done."

  "It isn't very easy," the rabbit replied, "but I'm sure you will be able to do it. All you need to do is to put your tail in the water and shut your eyes. I shall go up the river a little and chase the fish this way. Remember, you mustn't move. Just wait a little, and you'll have many fish biting at your tail." The old tiger did exactly what the rabbit told him. He put his tail into the river, closed his eyes, and waited.

  The rabbit ran up the river bank and hopped about here and there, pretending to chase the fish down to where the tiger was waiting. The winter day was beginning to end, and the water became colder and colder.

  "The fish are beginning to swim your way, Mr. Tiger," the rabbit shouted. "They will be biting on your tail any minute. Don't move!" Then the rabbit ran away.

  The river began to freeze over slowly. The old tiger moved his tail a wee bit. It was heavy. "Ah, good! I must have caught a lot of fish on my tail. Just a while longer and I shall have a good catch," he told himself.

  He waited quietly and motionless until midnight. "Now I shall have lots of succulent fish to eat," he thought.

  So he tried to pull his tail out. But it wouldn't move! What had happened? Why, his tail was frozen tightly in the ice.

  "Oh, I have been tricked again by that rabbit," moaned the tiger. But, it was too late to do anything.

  When it became light, the villagers came to the river and found the old tiger trapped in the ice. Thus the greedy old tiger was finally caught and taken away. And that was one tiger who never ate another rabbit.

  Day in and day out, the rain poured down in sheets. The small river flowing by the village rose higher and higher. One day the dikes broke. The muddy river water surged through the gap, sweeping everything in its path—houses, people, cows, and horses. Everywhere there was death and devastation.

  Just then there appeared in the raging waters an old man, rowing a small boat. He was a gentle and kind man. He could not bear to remain in safety while listening to the cries of people stranded on treetops and on rooftops. He rowed his small boat here and there, helping as many people as he could to places of safety.

  Just as he was about to leave he saw a small child struggling in the water. He pulled the child into his boat. He next saw a deer swimming by. The deer too he saved. A little while later a snake came swimming by. The old man looked carefully and saw that it had hurt itself. It couldn't swim very well. A snake is not a very pleasant thing, but the old man felt sorry for it.

  He reached into the swirling waters and pulled the snake into the boat. When he reached high ground, the old man let the snake and the deer go free. But the child had nowhere to go. He had lost his home, his parents, and his brothers and sisters. He was now an orphan. The old man felt sorry for the poor little boy. He seemed such a clever fellow, with fine features. Since the old man was childless, he decided to adopt the boy as his own. "You will become my boy from this day," the old man said, and from then on he cared for him as if he were his own child.

  One day much later the old man was puttering about the house. Suddenly the same deer that he had saved during the flood came to the house. The deer came right up to the old man inside the house, nudged him with its nose as though glad to see him, and made happy sounds in its throat. Then the deer took hold of the old man's sleeve in its mouth and started pulling and kept pulling as though wanting the old man to follow it.

  "You want me to go outside with you, do you?" the old man said. "Yes, that must be it." So the old man went outside with the deer. The deer kept going on ahead, and the old man followed. On and on, toward the mountains. Up and up they climbed. The old man didn't know where they were going. Neither could he imagine what the deer wanted.

  Just as they crossed a mountain divide, the deer stopped short and waited for the old man to catch up. There in the mountain was a cave. The deer led the old man to the mouth of the cave and then went in ahead. The old man followed. And in the middle of the cave he found a large box filled to overflowing with gold and silver, shining with such dazzling brightness as to blind the eyes. The old man took this treasure home.

  Thanks to the deer, the old man was now very wealthy. He bought a large mansion and many fields and paddies. He came to live a life of plenty. And his adopted son quickly learned to live an easy-going life. He learned to be selfish and extravagant.

  He spent money like water, he made friends with good-for-nothing youths, and he frittered his days away in idleness.

  The old man began to worry over the future of his son. He tried to advise the young man, but his wor
ds fell on deaf ears. Eventually the young man came to talk back to his foster father. He went from bad to worse and, in time, even started spreading a very bad lie about his father.

  "That old man didn't get his money from the deer. That's a big lie. He stole all of it during the flood from people who were washed away." This was the lie the young man spread all over the village. When this lie came to the ears of the overlord, the old man was hauled off to the overlord's castle for questioning.

  "That's simply not true," the old man insisted. "The deer really did lead me to the money in a cave."

  But no matter how earnestly and how often the old man repeated this to the castle officials, they still doubted him.

  "Even your son, whom you brought up yourself for so many years, says you stole your wealth," they said. "Isn't that sufficient proof of your crime?" And they threw him into the castle dungeon.

  There was nothing the old man could do about it. He spent long hours and days in the dungeon, crying and wait ing for the day he would be brought out to hear his sentence.

  But one day while the old man sat despondently in the dungeon, something came moving across the floor. It was the snake the old man had saved during the flood. The snake quietly slithered across the cell to where the old man was sitting and suddenly bit him sharply on the ankle. Then it quickly slipped out again.

  The old man was very upset. "How unfortunate I am! No matter how lowly a creature may be, to think that it would do such a terrible thing after I went to the trouble of saving its life! I should never have shown pity for that snake." First it was his son and now it was the snake. The old man had saved both from the raging waters, and they had turned against him in ingratitude. The thought filled the old man with such anguish that he felt his heart would burst. He pressed the snake bite with his hands and let the tears stream unashamedly down his cheeks.