The Boy Who Drew Cats and Other Japanese Fairy Tales by Lafcadio Hearn, Francis Davis Read Free Book Online Page A

the day, to her in the morning she looked for sympathy and encouragement in whatever might be in store for her.
    So day by day she lived as in her mother’s sight, striving still to please her as she had done in her lifetime, and careful always to avoid whatever might pain or grieve her.
    Her greatest joy was to be able to look in the mirror and say: “Mother, I have been today what you would have me to be.”
    Seeing her every night and morning, without fail, look into the mirror, and seem to hold converse with it, her father at length asked her the reason of her strange behavior. “Father,” she said, “I look in the mirror every day to see my dear mother and to talk with her.” Then she told him of her mother’s dying wish, and how she had never failed to fulfil it. Touched by so much simplicity, and such faithful, loving obedience, the father shed tears of pity and affection. Nor could he find it in his heart to tell the child that the image she saw in the mirror was but the reflection of her own sweet face, by constant sympathy and association becoming more and more like her dead mother’s day by day.

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