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| There once lived a rich man and his wife. They had no children and loved nobody at all. Instead of sharing a little of the good things of life with beggars who came to ask for charity, they drove them away with curses and heavy blows. To make life easier for themselves, they brought a servant girl from a distant province. It was she who was expected to do every bit of work. It was no use for the poor young creature to work every hour of daylight, in the hope of finishing her tasks and being permitted a little time to walk in the village and have a small rest. That was useless, because if all the work that had to be done was completed, the old wife would quickly think of something else that would keep the girl busy. You can imagine that this poor slave often wept quietly and lamented her fate. The women of the province from which she came were not usually very good to look at; this girl like them, had an unattractive, dark and lumpish face. It was not likely that any rich young man would like her well enough to buy her from the old couple, to be his wife. So she had a whole lifetime of hard work to look forward to, and harsh treatment as well. Yes, there was harsh treatment in plenty, for both the man and wife were so mean and spiteful that the poor maid was beaten with sticks for the least fault. "By what ill-luck am I doomed to a life like this?" the maiden used to ask, lifting her unattractive face to Heaven. These sad words at last reached the ears of the Immortals and the Gods. They were not happy to hear of such misery. One of the Eight Immortals (Ho-ho Tzu) put aside his feather fan and his peach of immortality, and went down to earth to see what was the matter. As soon as he reached the earth he assumed the shape of a wretched beggar, and shuffing painfully along on bare feet, he reached the house of the rich couple Outside the gate he stretched his arm out from his dirty rag of a gown and began to shout loudly for charity. "Noble sir, honorable mother of the house! Give me something to eat. See, I die here of hunger!" It was a good thing that the old couple were out, or Ho-ho Tzu would surely have been greeted with bitter words and sent stumbling away with heavy blows. As it was, there was only the poor serving maid at home, and she, who knew what hunger was, felt very sorry for the poor beggar. She did not dare give him any food from the house. The old couple would have discovered such a thing as soon as they came home, for the first thing they did when they returned from an outing was to make sure that nothing had been taken. Why, I believe that if their maid had given away food, they would have been so furious that they would have beaten her to death. As it was, the maid, at the moment when the beggar began to cry out for food, was stoking the fire with rice straw. This was what was used for fuel in that part of China. Now sometimes a few grains of rice were left on the rice stalks, and the poor girl always hungry herself, had put this grains of rice aside, one by one, whenever she found them. She now had nearly a thousand grains of rice hidden away. Moved with pity at the beggar's plight, she ran quickly and took out her small bag of rice. This she offered to the hungry man. "Take this," she said, a smile of goodness brightening her heavy face. " It is all my own. But go quickly. My master is a hard man. He will beat you if he finds you here. The beggar accepted the bag of rice very gratefully. Then he gave the servant girl an old rag of cloth. "You must always wash your face with this cloth," he said. "But take great care. Do not let anyone else use it." It was a useless-looking scrop, but the servant could see that the beggar wanted to make her some sort of present in this way, so she thanked him very warmly, just as if it had been something valuable. While she was doing so, the old couple came back. They both scuttled up toward the beggar and maid, their hard faces twisted with suspicion. "Have you given this old wretch anything of ours?" snapped the old man. "If she has, we will soon seize it back," screeched the old women, trying to bar the beggar's way. "This man has nothing belonging to you" said the maid servant quite truthfully, turning toward the beggar so that he could support her. But he had disappeared. Ho-ho Tzu had grown tired of being a beggar. For a moment the old manand his wife looked at the spot where the beggar had been. Then they both shook their heads, and no doubt in order to take their minds of the matter, began to beat their servant. Next morning, when she washed, the girl remembered to use the scrap of cloth that the beggar had given her. It was something of her own, and it was the first gift she had since she had been sold to her present master. She used the cloth every morning. After awhile her dark face began to get whiter and whiter; at the same time it became more and more attractive to look at. She soon grew so beautiful that even her master and mistress noticed the change. These envious people guessed that there was some secret to be discovered, and they questioned the poor girl night and day. It was only after a very heavy beating that the maid confessed that it was the old piece of cloth that had turned her ugliness into beauty. Nothing would satisfy the old people but that they should have it, and with threats and blows they took from the maid her precious piece of rag. Gleefully, the next morning, the hursh man and his wicked wife washed their faces with the cloth. When it had made them both beautiful, they intended to hire it out to other ugly people at a high price. After they had thoroughly soaked their faces, they both ran eagerly to the mirror. When they looked in it, two monkey faces grinned back at them, and even while they stood there, stupefied, long monkey hair began to grow all over their bodies. Wild with shame and terror, they ran away into the woods, and were never seen again. The lucky maid, left with a fine house and all their money, could look forward to a happy future. And she did not have to look far, because in no time at all, a rich young man of good character was so struck by her beauty and good temper that he made her his wife. Cricket a place for kids books and magazines.  Submit your web site to 400 search engines free --Super Submission Web site owners! Earn 17cents a click with --Val ueClick |
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