The Ungrateful Son

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.