STRANGE LEGENDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 14 May 1938, Page 11

STRANGE LEGENDS

THE CHINAMAN AND HIS SON Long ago a poor Chinaman and his only son lived together in a miserable hut, and supported themselves by selling the produce of their garden. The man worked in the garden all day, and taught the boy how to dig, and sow seed, and graft, and tend the plants. One day the father came home with a strange seed tied in a piece of cilk. and he showed it to the boy, and told him it was precious. It was a little flat seed like a tiny moon, and the boy

asked his father what it was called. j "A melon seed,” replied the Chinaman. Tt is the first I have ever had. It is the beginning of prosperity. Some day we will grow melons fit for the Emperor's table, and I shall have enough money to educate you and make you a wise man. But always remember that all your good fortune came from a tiny seed.” "I will,” replied his son. He was not very interested in the | seed. He liked fishing better than I gardening, and flying a kite better j ; than fishing. All the same he tended j the seed carefully, for he was a good i boy, and when the sun went down after a hot day he carried water to it and soon it began to sprout. After that it grew rapidly and the Chinaman watched eagerly for the first bloom. THE ACCIDENT Alas! weeds grew as quqickly as the melon, and one evening when the boy was making a kite, his father told him to weed the garden. He went sulkily. He had a very sharp knife with which he cut the weeds out of the ground, and he thought it was hard to be obliged to work in the garden when he wanted

to finish his kite. He was weeding all round the precious melon when suddenly his knife slipped and he cut the plant off at the root. That of course, was the end of it! “It was an accident,” faltered the boy when his father came running up. > The Chinaman took a little cane and beat his son till he fell to the ground. When he had recovered, the lad ran away to the great sage called Confucius, and told him how cruel his father had been to him. “No,” said Confucius. “You have been cruel to your father.” “I?” cried the boy. “But I work hard and water the plants—” “You have made your father sin,” interrupted Confucius. "You were careless. You were thinking about your kite and that is why you cut the melon off at the root. By so doing you caused your father’s temper to rise, and it will be against you that you made a kind man act cruelly. You should not have put yourself in the way of your father’s cane. He has suffered far more than you because he loved the melon. You must take all the blame upon yourself.” Now the boy had never looked at it from that point of view, but he admitted that Confucius was right, and he went home and begged his father’s pardon for having roused his temper. His father forgave him. After that they were the best of friends, and never again did the boy act in such a way as to make himself the cause of anger. HAPPY? OR SAD? This morning I feel so gay, so gay,

And whistle and sing all day. all day! Wherever I go, the world seems the same, And living is just like a glorious game. The day before I felt sad, so sad, All grizzling and grumpy, bad, so bad! The people I met were as glum as could be, With never a song or a smile for me. And oh! I've discovered why, yes why! The world just echoes your laugh or cry. If you groan or grouse, why everything’s wrong . . . Just keep on smiling—and' life is a song!