The Crane Wife

Once upon a time, in a small village in Japan, there lived a poor but kind man. Winter had come early that year, and thick white snow covered everything like a soft blanket. The man shivered in his little wooden house as the cold wind whistled through the cracks. He had very little food and no warm clothes, but he never complained. Every morning, he would wrap his thin coat around himself and go out to find work, hoping to earn enough to buy rice for dinner. The snow crunched under his worn boots as he walked through the quiet village streets. Other people hurried past with their heads down, trying to stay warm. The man looked up at the gray sky and sighed softly. Winter was hard, but he knew that spring would come again someday.