Page 14 - English Expedition Class 2

2 The Boy Who Drew Cats

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you liked to do one thing and did just
that? Let us now read a folk tale from Japan about a boy who loved to draw cats.

Once there was a boy who loved to draw.
His name was Joji. Joji grew up on a farm
with lots of brothers and sisters. The others

were a big help to their father and mother,
but not Joji. He did nothing for hours but
draw in the dirt with a stick and what he
drew was just one thing.

Cats.
Cats, cats and more cats. Small cats, big
cats, thin cats, fat cats.
‘Joji,’ his father told him, ‘you must stop

drawing all those cats! How will you ever
be a farmer?’
‘I’m sorry, Father. I’ll try to stop.’
He did try. But whenever Joji saw one

of the farm cats go by, he forgot about his
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chores and drew another cat.
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‘Joji will never make a farmer,’ said the farmer sadly to his wife.
‘Maybe he could be a priest,’ she told him. ‘Why don’t you take him to the temple?’

So the farmer brought Joji to the priest at the village temple. The priest said, ‘I will
gladly teach him.’
From then on, Joji lived in the temple. The priest gave him lessons in reading and
writing. Joji had his own box of writing tools with a brush, an ink stick and a stone.

Joji loved to make the ink. He poured water in the hollow of the stone. He dipped the
ink stick in the water. Then he rubbed the stick on the stone and there was the ink for
his brush!

1 chore: dull, routine household work 2 make: (here) become
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