The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth and Raoul Vitale - Read Online

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Summary

In ancient Japan, a struggling artist is angered when his housekeeper brings home a tiny white cat he can barely afford to feed. But when the village’s head priest commissions a painting of the Buddha for a healthy sum, the artist softens toward the animal he believes has brought him luck.

According to legend, the proud and haughty cat was denied the Buddha’s blessing for refusing to accept his teachings and pay him homage. So when the artist, moved by compassion for his pet, includes the cat in his painting, the priest rejects the work and decrees that it must be destroyed. It seems the artist’s life is ruined as well—until he is rewarded for his act of love by a Buddhist miracle.

This timeless fable has been a classic since its first publication in 1930, and this beautifully reillustrated edition brings the magic and wonder of the tale to a new generation of readers.

Published: Aladdin on May 15, 2012

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The Cat Who Went to Heaven - Elizabeth Coatsworth

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Housekeeper

Once upon a time, far away in Japan, a poor young artist sat alone in his little house, waiting for his dinner. His housekeeper had gone to market, and he sat sighing to think of all the things he wished she would bring home. He expected her to hurry in at any minute, bowing and opening her little basket to show him how wisely she had spent their few pennies. He heard her step and jumped up. He was very hungry!

But the housekeeper lingered by the door, and the basket stayed shut.

Come, he cried, what is in that basket?

The housekeeper trembled and held the basket tight in two hands. It has seemed to me, sir, she said, that we are very lonely here. Her wrinkled face looked humble and obstinate.

Lonely! said the artist. I should think so! How can we have guests when we have nothing to offer them? It is so long since I have tasted rice cakes that I forgot what they taste like! And he sighed again, for he loved rice cakes, and dumplings, and little cakes filled with sweet bean jelly. He loved tea served in fine china cups, in company with some friend, seated on flat cushions, talking perhaps about a spray of peach blossoms standing like a little princess in an alcove. But weeks and weeks had gone by since anyone had bought even the smallest picture. The poor artist was glad enough to have rice and a coarse fish now and then. If he did not sell another picture soon, he would not have even that. His eyes went back to the basket. Perhaps the old woman had managed to pick up a turnip or two, or even a peach, too ripe to haggle long over.

Sir, said the housekeeper, seeing the direction of his look, it has often seemed to me that I was kept awake by rats.

At that the artist laughed out loud.

Rats? he repeated. Rats? My dear old woman, no rats come to such a poor house as this where not the smallest crumb falls to the mats.

Then he looked at the housekeeper and a dreadful suspicion filled his mind.

You have brought us home nothing to eat! he said.

True, master, said the old woman sorrowfully.

You have brought us home a cat! said the artist.

My master knows everything! answered the housekeeper bowing low.

Then the artist jumped to his feet, and strode up and down the room, and pulled his hair, and it seemed to him that he would die of hunger and anger.

A cat? A cat? he cried. Have you gone mad? Here we are starving and you must bring home a goblin, a goblin to share the little we have and perhaps to suck our blood at night! Yes! It will be fine to wake up in the dark and feel teeth at our throats and look into eyes as big as lanterns! But perhaps you are right! Perhaps we are so miserable it would be a good thing to have us die at once, and be carried over the ridgepoles in the jaws of a devil!

But, master, master, there are many good cats, too! cried the poor old woman. "Have you forgotten the little boy who drew all the pictures of cats on the screens of the deserted temple and then went to sleep in a