THE MAN IN THE MOON

If you look at the full moon you can see an man in it carrying a basket. This Christmas Eve story tells how he came to be there.

Once upon a time a very happy farmer lived with his wife and children in a thatched house there was always enough rice to eat, and often very good fish to go with the rice. When fiestas came, the farmer’s wife made sweet coconut cakes for the children and gave them boiled eggs for supper. So the family lived happily enough in the little house by the woods.

On the night before Christmas, the farmer said to his wife, “What shall we have for our dinner tomorrow?”

“Why, rice and fish.” She answered, “And some sweet cakes for the children and gave them boiled eggs for supper. So the family lived happily enough in the little house by the woods.

On the night before Christmas, the farmer said to his wife, :What shall we have for our dinner tomorrow?”

“Why, rice and fish.” She answered. “and some sweet cakes for the children, because it is Christmas and eggs. Maybe we can have a little chicken to celebrate the fiesta.” “And a little lechon,” said the farmer. “How would you like lechon?”

“Lechon!” gasped the wife. “We are much too poor for that. Where could we get lechon?” Never mind,” answered the farmer. Tomorrow is Christmas, and I have set my on lechon. Leave it me,” and he nodded wisely.

His wife thought that someone have given him a present, because she knew that he had not the money to buy a pig even a very small animal. So she was much excited as she watched him take basket from under the house and go away towards the barrio. Then she dressed the children in their best clothes and looks them off to church to hear the Christmas Eve Mass.

Now, as the farmer went down the road, he laughed to himself. He knew that tonight all the village would go the church, and the houses and gardens would be deserted. “I am safe,” he thought, “and I shall have one of President’s pigs.” So on he went, straight to the President's house, where he knew there was a fine big sow with a family of ten fat little piglets, the finest that he had ever seen. He smacked his lips as he thought of the lechon he would eat next day.

He was over the fence in half a second, and there before him, in the darkness, was the fat white sow with her ten little ones. The farmer looked them over, chose the fattest little pig, and put it hastily into his basket.

Suddenly he heard a voice. Behind him, looking over the fence, was a lovely child riding on a white mule. "What are you doing?" asked the child. "J-j-j-just b-b-borrowing a p-p-p-piglet," answered the farmer, stuttering in his fright. The child's face seemed to get brighter and brighter with an unearthly light. "You steal," said the child, "and on Christmas Eve, a holy night, when you should be in church hearing Mass! Instead, you stay out in the moonlight, stealing pigs. So in the moonlight you shall stay forevermore."

The child rode on to the church, and the farmer as he watched the bright from disappear, felt himself rising, rising, up, up, higher and higher. At last he rose rigth into the moon, where you can see him to this day, still carrying in his basket the piglet which he stole that Christmas Eve.