The Dog’s House

IN THE WINTERTIME, a Dog curled up in as small a space as possible on account of the cold, determined to make himself a house. However when the summer returned again, he lay asleep stretched at his full length and appeared to himself to be of a great size. Now he considered that it would be neither an easy nor a necessary work to make himself such a house as would accommodate him.

冬のあいだ、イヌは寒さのために、できるかぎり小さく体を丸めていたので、自分のために家をつくろうと決心した。ところが夏がまためぐってくると、イヌは体をいっぱいに伸ばして眠り、自分がとても大きく思えた。そこでイヌは、これほどの体が入る家をつくるのは、たやすいことでもないし、必要なことでもないと考えたのだった。