on his journey, arriving at the woman’s house several days later.
Liu told the woman, “Ru Shou believes your daughter will speak once she sets her eyes upon the man she is to marry.”
Just then the woman’s daughter walked into the room. She looked at Liu for a long time, and then she spoke. “Who is this, Mother?”
The woman was so happy to hear her daughter’s voice that she immediately agreed to let Liu have her hand in marriage. So Liu once again went on his way, now even happier than before because he had with him his new wife, Ling.
At last he reached his home by the shores of Olive Lake. His mother cried with happiness when she saw him and met Ling. She was overjoyed when he showed her the precious gifts he brought with him: the gold and silver, the oranges, and the giant pearl.
“Everything would be just perfect,” said Liu, caressing the luminous pearl in his palm, “if only the waters of Olive Lake would come back to life.” He looked at the lake’s stagnant black waters, trying not to breathe in its stinky fumes.
As soon as he spoke these words, the lake began to transform before his eyes, turning from inky blackness to crystalline clearness. Liu, his mother, and Ling all rushed to the lake’s edge in amazement. How was it possible?
“That pearl,” Liu’s mother said, as the lake came alive with hundreds of wiggling fish, “that pearl is magical. It just granted your wish!”
Ling, Liu, and his mother had all they needed from that moment forward, and Liu never again had to wonder why he worked so hard yet stayed so poor.
Why Cats and Dogs
Don’t Get Along
Some creatures never seem to get along. But this wasn’t always the case when it came to cats and dogs: a long time ago, they lived together as friends. This changed forever when a man named Shu saw his luck take a turn for the worse.
“Mmmmm,” said Shu, holding a fistful of gleaming white rice to his nose. “Your rice smells absolutely heavenly!”
The farmer smiled. “Thank you,” he said appreciatively. “I assure you it smells even better once it’s cooked. Like perfume!” Pushing a hand into his oxcart until rice was up to his elbow, he pulled out a handful of it. The polished white grains sifted through his hand as he spoke. “So would you like to buy some?”
Shu shook his head. “Oh, no,” he said. “I, too, sell rice, and I have more than enough for me and my two pets. But thank you for stopping by.”
True enough, Shu always had piles of rice (and a fine variety, too), from which he made comfortable living. He and his pets—a cat and a dog—lived happily in a small house in a village by a river.
But Shu did not grow rice. He did not grow anything. In fact, everyone in his village wondered where his rice came from, but that was Shu’s secret. No one knew, except—of course—his pets, who were his family.
You see, Shu had once given a travelling monk his last bowl of rice and a place to rest. Even though Shu had hardly any food for himself and his pets, he shared what little he had with the monk, whose cheeks were hollow and very pale.
After the monk had eaten every grain of rice in his bowl, he handed Shu a silver coin. “For your kindness I will give you this magic coin,” he said. “Put this coin in a barrel with a few grains of rice, and the barrel will soon be full.”
Shu looked at the coin and then into the monk’s eyes, sure he was joking. But the monk seemed totally serious. “No matter how much rice you take from the barrel,” he promised, “it will always be full.”
Shu had tried out the coin as soon as the monk disappeared down the road. Much to his delight, the few grains of rice he placed in his barrel magically filled it to overflowing. Shu and his pets would never go hungry again. Not only that, Shu could sell the rice and use the money to buy other things!
But one day Shu opened his rice barrel and found that it wasn’t full. He waited and waited, but it just didn’t fill up the way it normally did. Searching the barrel carefully, Shu soon discovered that the magic coin was gone!
Near panic, Shu tried to think of an explanation. Had he been robbed? He wondered. No, it wasn’t likely. Maybe the coin had accidentally slipped into the rice he’d sold to someone. Oh, what was he going to do? Without the coin, he wouldn’t have any more rice to sell.
Shu’s cat and dog hated to see their beloved master in such distress. They did everything they could to cheer him up. The cat gave Shu all the birds she could catch, while her friend the dog tried to take Shu’s mind off their troubles with many games of fetch. But nothing worked. Figuring their noses could sniff out the precious coin if they tried hard enough, the cat and dog decided to team up and search the whole village. They searched and searched, smelling every crack and corner until they had scoured the whole town, but didn’t have any luck.
“Well,” said the dog, tired but still hopeful, “we’ve looked everywhere on this side of the river, and it’s not here. It must be on the other side. Let’s look there tomorrow.”
Early the next morning, before the sun came up, the two animals set out. Since it was wintertime, the river was frozen and they thought they could easily walk across the ice. But they skidded and slipped, laughing all the way to the other side. They started their search immediately, sniffing everywhere for the coin, and continued day after day, week after week, month after month, refusing to give up. Without the magic coin, they knew their master would go hungry again.
Soon the river began to thaw and the days grew longer. The scent of flowers and growing grass filled the air, sharpening their senses and giving them more energy.
One day, the dog detected a scent that he thought was worth following. “Hey, do you smell that?” he said to the cat.
The cat gracefully swished her tail before sitting down. She raised her nose high up into the wind and inhaled deeply. Yes, she smelled it, too. “Yes! Yes!” she said, her excitement rising. “It’s coming from that house!”
The cat and the dog quickly made their way to a big house by the river. Finding one of the doors unlocked, they followed the faint metallic smell of silver into the house. They padded quietly up a grand staircase and crossed a wide hallway that led to a bright room filled with mirrors. In one corner of the room was a wooden chest.
“The trail ends here,” said the dog, pressing his nose against the wooden floor urgently. “It’s got to be around here somewhere.”
The cat had already climbed on top of the chest. “In here,” she said. “Come. I can smell it.”
The
