Read Online Tales of a Korean Grandmother by Frances Carpenter - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Frances Carpenter
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The good fortune came to a poor couple named Lah, who lived in a hut on the Diamond Mountains. Both the man and his wife were unhappy because under their grass roof there was no son to pray to their spirits when they should have gone beyond the Earthly Gates. And they were too poor to adopt a boy to bring up as their son, who might perform this service for them.
"Their fields on the mountain sides gave this couple only enough rice to keep them alive. The cabbage, turnips, and peppers they could raise in their rocky garden made only enough kimchee for their own eating bowls. They had hens which laid a few eggs, and they found honey in the nests of the wild bees in the rocks. So they did not starve.
"For buying their clothes and their salt they depended on the fish which Lah caught in the nearby mountain lake and which he sold in the village in the valley below. So you can guess he was distressed when, one morning, he saw that his lake had dried up and the fish had all disappeared. On the bank sat a giant frog, as big as a man. It was just finishing drinking up the lake water.
"'Wicked frog,' poor Lah' scolded. 'What demon possessed you to drink up my lake and to devour my fish? Have I not enough trouble without such a disaster?'
"But the frog only bowed politely and replied in a soft voice, 'Honorable sir, I, too, regret the disappearance of the lake, for that was my home. Now I have no shelter. Pray give me refuge under your roof.'
"At first, Lah refused, as he had good reason for doing. But the gentle words of the frog softened his heart. His wife also objected when her husband led the giant frog into their hut. But it was lonely there on the mountain side, and the woman was interested in the good tales the frog told. She brought in leaves to serve as his bed, and she thoughtfully fetched water to make it comfortably damp to suit a frog's taste.
"Early the next morning, Lah and his wife were wakened at dawn by the sound of loud croaking. The din was as great as that of soothsayers trying to drive evil spirits from the stomach of a sick man. Hurrying out on their veranda, they saw the giant frog lifting his croaking voice to the heavens. But their eyes soon turned away from the reddening eastern sky to the shining treasures they saw in their courtyard.
"Our New Year gifts could not compare with those the frog had provided for his good hosts. There were strings upon strings of copper cash, and valuable silver coins, too. There were fat bags of rice, great jars of kimchee, packets of seaweed, and good salt fish. Rolls of cotton and silk cloth; hats, padded stockings, and new quilted shoes; fans, pipes, and rich ornaments of silver and gold! Ai, who can say what there was not in the fortune that frog brought to Lah and his wife?
"In the fine sedan chair the frog gave her, Lah's wife began to take journeys down into the inner courts of the valley houses. She made friends with the women there, and from them she learned more and more about the people of that neighborhood.
"'Tell me about Yun Ok,' the frog always asked when the woman returned. Yun Ok, or Jade Lotus, was the youngest daughter of the richest yangban in all that northern province. She was, so the gossip of the inner courts had it, by far the most beautiful girl in the land. Her skin was like a pale cloud. Her eyes and her hair were as black as a raven's wing. Her form was as graceful as bamboo bent by the spring breeze.
"'It is Yun Ok I must marry, Omoni,' the frog said to Lah's wife, whom he now was permitted to think of as his mother. 'Go, honorable Lah, go now and ask for Yun Ok for my bride.'
"'I shall surely be paddled.' Lah trembled at the thought of asking the great yangban s daughter to marry a frog. But the golden words of the frog persuaded him. He went, clad in such fine clothes that the servants of the yangban swiftly admitted him to his Hall of Guests.
"Now the two older daughters of this family had married worthless young men, and the proud
"Their fields on the mountain sides gave this couple only enough rice to keep them alive. The cabbage, turnips, and peppers they could raise in their rocky garden made only enough kimchee for their own eating bowls. They had hens which laid a few eggs, and they found honey in the nests of the wild bees in the rocks. So they did not starve.
"For buying their clothes and their salt they depended on the fish which Lah caught in the nearby mountain lake and which he sold in the village in the valley below. So you can guess he was distressed when, one morning, he saw that his lake had dried up and the fish had all disappeared. On the bank sat a giant frog, as big as a man. It was just finishing drinking up the lake water.
"'Wicked frog,' poor Lah' scolded. 'What demon possessed you to drink up my lake and to devour my fish? Have I not enough trouble without such a disaster?'
"But the frog only bowed politely and replied in a soft voice, 'Honorable sir, I, too, regret the disappearance of the lake, for that was my home. Now I have no shelter. Pray give me refuge under your roof.'
"At first, Lah refused, as he had good reason for doing. But the gentle words of the frog softened his heart. His wife also objected when her husband led the giant frog into their hut. But it was lonely there on the mountain side, and the woman was interested in the good tales the frog told. She brought in leaves to serve as his bed, and she thoughtfully fetched water to make it comfortably damp to suit a frog's taste.
"Early the next morning, Lah and his wife were wakened at dawn by the sound of loud croaking. The din was as great as that of soothsayers trying to drive evil spirits from the stomach of a sick man. Hurrying out on their veranda, they saw the giant frog lifting his croaking voice to the heavens. But their eyes soon turned away from the reddening eastern sky to the shining treasures they saw in their courtyard.
"Our New Year gifts could not compare with those the frog had provided for his good hosts. There were strings upon strings of copper cash, and valuable silver coins, too. There were fat bags of rice, great jars of kimchee, packets of seaweed, and good salt fish. Rolls of cotton and silk cloth; hats, padded stockings, and new quilted shoes; fans, pipes, and rich ornaments of silver and gold! Ai, who can say what there was not in the fortune that frog brought to Lah and his wife?
"In the fine sedan chair the frog gave her, Lah's wife began to take journeys down into the inner courts of the valley houses. She made friends with the women there, and from them she learned more and more about the people of that neighborhood.
"'Tell me about Yun Ok,' the frog always asked when the woman returned. Yun Ok, or Jade Lotus, was the youngest daughter of the richest yangban in all that northern province. She was, so the gossip of the inner courts had it, by far the most beautiful girl in the land. Her skin was like a pale cloud. Her eyes and her hair were as black as a raven's wing. Her form was as graceful as bamboo bent by the spring breeze.
"'It is Yun Ok I must marry, Omoni,' the frog said to Lah's wife, whom he now was permitted to think of as his mother. 'Go, honorable Lah, go now and ask for Yun Ok for my bride.'
"'I shall surely be paddled.' Lah trembled at the thought of asking the great yangban s daughter to marry a frog. But the golden words of the frog persuaded him. He went, clad in such fine clothes that the servants of the yangban swiftly admitted him to his Hall of Guests.
"Now the two older daughters of this family had married worthless young men, and the proud
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