The Tongue Cut Sparrow

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In a little house in a little old village in Japan lived a little old man and his little old wife. One morning when the old woman slid open the screens which form the sides of the Japanese houses, she saw on the doorstep a poor little sparrow. She took him up gently and fed him. Then she held him in the bright morning sunshine  until the

cold dew was dried from his wings.  Afterward, she let him go, so that he might fly home to his nest, but he stayed with her to thank her with his songs. Each morning, when the pink on the mountaintops told that the sun was near, the sparrow