Kids Web Japan

The following day, as Yosaku headed out to work, he tripped on a stone on the roadside and fell down. "Ouch!" he exclaimed. When he stood up, he found himself holding a stalk of straw. "I wonder if this straw is what Kannon told me to hold on to. How is this going to make me happy?" Puzzled, he resumed walking.

Suddenly, a horsefly flew by and began buzzing around his face. Yosaku caught it and tied it to the end of his straw. The bug tried to escape, but Yosaku held onto the other end of the stalk, so that the horsefly spun the straw around and around in circles, like an amusing toy. A wealthy boy who was passing by saw this and exclaimed to his elderly attendant, "I want one! I want one!" Yosaku gladly offered it to the boy. In return, the boy's guardian gave him three oranges. "Wow, three oranges for a single piece of straw!" he thought happily, and again started down the road.

Soon he came upon a distressed-looking woman. "Oh, it's hot. I'm so thirsty that I think I'm going to faint! Please give me some water," said the woman. "If these oranges would do, please have them," said Yosaku, handing them to the woman. The woman ate them and soon regained her strength. "You've saved me. Please take this as a token of my thanks," she said, handing Yosaku a bundle of woven silk cloth.