A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

Umetsu Chubei 5^7
child. " Please hold it till 1 come back," said
the woman : " I shall return in a very little
while." " I will hold it," he answered ; and
immediately the woman turned from him, and,
leaving the road, sprang soundlessly down the
hill so lightly and so quickly that he could
scarcely believe his eyes. She was out of sight
in a few seconds.
Umetsu then first looked at the child. It was
very small, and appeared to have been just born.
It was very still in his hands; and it did not
cry at all.
Suddenly it seemed to be growing larger. He
looked at it again. ... No: it was the same
small creature ; and it had not even moved.
Why had he imagined that it was growing
larger ?
In another moment he knew why; — and he
felt a chill strike through him. The child was
not growing larger ; but it was growing heavier.
... At first it had seemed to weigh only seven
or eight pounds: then its weight had gradually
doubled — tripled— quadrupled. Now it could
not weigh less than fifty pounds ; — and still it
was getting heavier and heavier. ... A hundred
pounds — I a hundred and fifty ! — two hun-