The Sticky-Sticky Pine
    Once there was a woodcutter.  He was very poor but very kind.  Never would he tear off the living branches  of a tree to make firewood.  Instead, he would gather only the dead branches on the ground.  He knew what happened when you tore a branch off a tree.  The sap, which is the blood of a tree, would drip and drip, just as though the poor tree was bleeding.  So, since he didn't want to harm the trees, he never tore off the branches.
    One day he was walking beneath a high pine tree hunting for firewood when he heard a voice, saying:
"Sticky, sticky is my sap,
For my tender twigs are snapped."
    The woodcutter looked up and, sure enough, someone had broken three limbs off the pine and the sap was running out.  Skillfully, he mended them, saying:

                               "Now these tender twigs I'll wrap,
                                 And in that way stop the sap."

    And he tore a piece from his own clothes to make a bandage.
        No sooner had he finished than many tiny gold and silver things fell
    from the tree. It was money-a lot of it. The surprised woodcutter was almost covered up with it. He looked at the tree and smiled and thanked it. Then he took the money home.
    There was a great amount and he slowly realized that he was now a very rich woodcutter.  Everyone knows that the pine tree is the sign of prosperity in Japan and sure enough the grateful pine had made him rich.
    Just then a face appeared in the window.  It was the face of another woodcutter. Only this wood cutter was cruel and mean.  In fact it was he who had torn the twigs. When he saw the money he said "Where did you get the money. " From that pine tree? " Yes that was the one. Then the tree said" Sticky Sticky Pine". He said" that is just what I want a flood. All of a sudden there was a great flood of sap. From then on he never broke off a branch again.
 

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