From that time forth the badger came no more to the hut.  The priest thought this very strange, but imagined either that the badger stayed away because it did not like to come without the money, or that it had been killed in an attempt to steal it; and he blamed himself for having added to his sins for no purpose, repenting when it was too late:  persuaded, however, that the badger must have been killed, he passed his time in putting up prayers upon prayers for it.

After three years had gone by, one night the old man heard a voice near his door calling out, “Your reverence! your reverence!”

As the voice was like that of the badger, he jumped up as soon as he heard it, and ran out to open the door; and there, sure enough, was the badger.  The priest, in great delight, cried out, “And so you are safe and sound, after all!  Why have you been so long without coming here?  I have been expecting you anxiously this long while.”

So the badger came into the hut, and said, “If the money which you required had been for unlawful purposes, I could easily have procured as much as ever you might have wanted; but when I heard that it was to be offered to a temple for masses for your soul, I thought that, if I were to steal the hidden treasure of some other man, you could not apply to a sacred purpose money which had been obtained at the expense of his sorrow.  So I went to the island of Sado,[81] and gathering the sand and earth which had been cast away as worthless by the miners, fused it afresh in the fire; and at this work I spent months and days.”  As the badger finished speaking, the priest looked at the money which it had produced, and sure enough he saw that it was bright and new and clean; so he took the money, and received it respectfully, raising it to his head.

[Footnote 81:  An island on the west coast of Japan, famous for its gold mines.]

“And so you have had all this toil and labour on account of a foolish speech of mine?  I have obtained my heart’s desire, and am truly thankful.”

As he was thanking the badger with great politeness and ceremony, the beast said, “In doing this I have but fulfilled my own wish; still I hope that you will tell this thing to no man.”

“Indeed,” replied the priest, “I cannot choose but tell this story.  For if I keep this money in my poor hut, it will be stolen by thieves:  I must either give it to some one to keep for me, or else at once offer it up at the temple.  And when I do this, when people see a poor old priest with a sum of money quite unsuited to his station, they will think it very suspicious, and I shall have to tell the tale as it occurred; but as I shall say that the badger that gave me the money has ceased coming to my hut, you need not fear being waylaid, but can come, as of old, and shelter yourself from the cold.”  To this the badger nodded assent; and as long as the old priest lived, it came and spent the winter nights with him.