spirit. In time they forgot about their parents’ trickery.
But each still feared being revealed. “If she finds out
how plain I am, she won’t love me!” the husband
mourned. And the wife thought that only her beauty
kept him near her.
But the strain of the magic had begun to wear on
them. One morning the wife went to the water bucket,
saw her reflection—and gasped. She’d forgotten to
strengthen the magic when she woke up! She quickly
transformed herself into a beauty again, glanced at her
still-sleeping husband, and with a heavy heart went to
light the fire.
And one night, when the husband returned with
firewood, he forgot his magic and stepped into the
house as his true self. He didn’t even realize it until
his wife screamed—and then he quickly pretended to
be one of her husband’s friends repaying a favor.
A few days after the O-bon festival, the two of
them were sitting in the house. Each felt restless and
irritable. Suddenly the wife said, “Oh, I wish it would
rain! I love rainy days.”
“Rainy days are terrible!” her husband answered.
“Husband,” she replied tartly, “you are in error.
A sunny day is too hot.”
“And I say it isn’t!” the husband insisted.
This was too much for his wife. “It is!” she shouted.
“You can’t talk to me like that!” the husband
roared, jumping up. But just then thunder broke high
above the house and rain began to fall.
The wife looked out the window. “Ah!” she sud-
denly cried, pointing.
“I don’t see anything,” the husband grumbled.
But she rushed over to him, then pulled him out
the door.
Once outside he saw that, though the sun still
shone, rain was falling everywhere, bright over the land.
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