Wakaima and the Clay Man (2)

Wakaima and the Clay Man (2)


Finally the crops were ready.

The time had come to gather in the harvest.

One evening Wanjovu came in with a large basket filled with beautiful ears of corn and fine white potatoes.



He cooked them very carefully, and he and Wakaima ate every one.

" How good the corn is, how sweet ! " said Wakaima.
" I have never eaten finer potatoes. "

The next evening Wakaima came in with a basket full of corn and potatoes.
" These are probably not as good as yours, " he said.
" But we will try them. "

Wanjovu looked them over. They looked very much like the corn and potatoes from his own garden.

He said nothing. He cooked them carefully, and they ate them for supper.

The next morning when Wanjovu went to hi farm, he saw that someone had been there in the night and stolen some of his corn and some of his potatoes.

That evening he said to Wakaima:
" Someone got into my farm last night and stole some of my vegetables. "

Wakaima pretended to be very much excited.
" Some thief got into my farm, too. " he said.
" What are we going to do about it ? "

Now Wakaima had stolen the things from Wanjovu himself.
He had no vegetables in his garden.

" We must do something to keep the thief away, " Wanjovu answered.
" I will think it over and work out a plan. "

The next day Wanjovu went to the river and got a large quantity of clay.
With it he made a clay man, with arms outstretched.

Carefully he carried the clay man to his farm and set it up between the corn and the potatoes.

When he had finiswshed it was quite dark.

(つづく　2/5)