AT A TAILOR'S SHOP G111

 AT A TAILOR'S SHOP

I was wandering through the streets when I caught sight of a tailor's shop. I wanted very much to get a new suit and throw off my old clothes. But ... I had nothing in the world but a million-pound note. However, I could not resist the temptation. I went in and asked if they had a cheap suit. The fellow I spoke to made no answer at first, looked me up and down, noticed that I was almost in rags, then said, “Just a minute.”

I waited till he had finished his work. Then he took me into a back room, where the rejected suits were kept. He looked through the suits and selected the cheapest one for me. I put it on. It didn't fit, but it was new and I was anxious to have it, so I said shyly:

“Could you wait a few days for the money? I haven't any small change on me.”

The fellow looked at me coldly and said, “Oh, you haven't? Well, of course, I know that gentlemen like you carry only large notes.”

I was hurt and said, “My friend, you shouldn't judge a stranger always by the clothes he wears. I'm quite able to pay for this suit. I simply didn't wish to put you to the trouble of changing a large note.”

“Why do you think we can't change your note? On the contrary, we can.”

I handed the note to him and said: “Oh, very well, I apologize.”

He received it with a smile, and then as he looked at the note, his smile froze. Holding the note in his hand, he stood there dumbfounded. The owner of the shop came up to see what was the matter.

I said, “There isn't any trouble. I'm just waiting for my change.”

“Come, come; get him his change, Tod; get him his change.”

Tod answered, “Get him his change! It's easy to say, sir; but look at the bill yourself.”

The owner took a look, gave a low whistle, then made a dive for the rejected clothing and began to snatch it this way and that, talking all the while excitedly, as if to himself.

"To sell such a suit as that to a millionaire! Tod's a fool. Ah, here's the thing I'm after. Please get those things off, sir, and throw them into the fire. Do me the favor to put on this shirt, and this suit. Ah, it's just the thing, the very thing! The trousers are all right; now the waistcoat; aha, right again! Now the coat— sir! Look at that, now! Perfect—the whole thing!"

I expressed my satisfaction.

"Quite right, sir, quite right. But wait till you see what we'll make for you to your own measure." Before I could get in a word he had measured me, and was giving orders for evening suits, morning suits, shirts and all sorts of things. “They will be ready the day after tomorrow,” he said.

“But I can't give these orders, unless you can wait some time, or change the note.”

“I can wait all my life, sir. Tod, you will send these things to the gentleman's address. Put down the gentleman's address and ...”

“I'm changing my hotel. I'll drop in and leave the new address, ”I said.

“Quite right, sir, quite right. One moment — let me show you out, sir. Good day, sir, good day.”

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA G110

 THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

The Great Wall of China, the longest wall in the world, runs a cross north China like a huge dragon. It winds its way from west to east, across deserts, over mountains, through valleys, till at last it reaches the sea. It is one of the wonders of the world. And it was one of the few man-made objects on earth that could be seen by the astronauts who landed on the moon.

The Great Wall has a history of over twenty centuries. The first part of it was built during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.—476 B.C.). During the Warring States Period (475 B.C.—221 B.C.), more walls were put up to defend the borders of the different kingdoms.

In 221 B.C., the kingdom of Qin united the different parts of China into one empire. To keep the enemy out of his empire, Emperor Qin Shi Huang had all the walls joined up. Thus the Great Wall came into being. Since then, it has often been added to, rebuilt and repaired, especially during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The Great Wall, which is called in Chinese “The Ten-Thousand-li Great Wall”, is actually more than 6,000 kilometres long, 6-7 metres high and 4-5 metres wide. In most places it is wide enough for five horses or ten men to walk side by side along the top. It has great gateways which connect the main roads of north China.

Every few hundred metres along the Wall there are watchtowers, where soldiers used to keep watch. When the enemy came, fires were lit and at the same time guns were fired to warn soldiers at other towers. One column of smoke with one gunshot meant an enemy troop of about 100, two columns with two shots meant 500. In this way, a warning message could be sent 500 kilometres within a few hours.

It was very difficult to build and rebuild such a great wall over wild and distant country without any modern machines. All the work had to be done by hand. Many people were forced to work on the wall far away from their homes. They lifted earth in baskets, passed bricks from hand to hand and dragged heavy stones with ropes over their shoulders. Their living conditions were terrible. Thousands of men died and were buried under the wall they built. The Great Wall was made not only of stone and earth, but of the flesh and blood of millions of men.

After the Great Wall was rebuilt hundreds of years ago, no more work was done on it until the People's Republic of China was founded. After that, parts of the Wall were repaired. On both sides of it new cities appeared, trees were planted, and deserts became grasslands. The old Great Wall took on a new look.

Today the Great Wall has become a place of interest not only to the Chinese people, but also to people from all over the world. Many of them have come to know the famous Chinese saying: "He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a true man."

LADY SILKWORM G109

 LADY SILKWORM

Long long ago, there lived in Hangzhou a girl called Aqiao. When Aqiao was nine years old, her mother died. Her father remarried and the stepmother was cruel to Aqiao and her brother.

One winter morning, the stepmother told Aqiao to go out and cut some grass for the sheep. The poor girl, with a basket on her back, searched all day from the riverside to the foot of the mountain. But where could she find any green grass in winter? She was tired, cold and hungry, but she was afraid to go home and face her stepmother.

As she walked along, she noticed an old pine tree ahead at the entrance to a valley. Aqiao pushed the branches aside. She saw a brook with red flowers and green grass on both sides. She bent down immediately to cut the grass. She went on cutting and cutting until she came to the end of the brook. She stood up to wipe the sweat off her face. Suddenly she saw a lady all in white standing in front of her. The lady was smiling.

“Little girl, how nice to see you! Won't you come and stay with us for a while?”

Aqiao looked around. To her surprise, she found herself in a different world. There were rows of white houses with trees in front of them. The leaves on the trees were green and large. And there were many other ladies in white, who were singing and picking the leaves from the trees.

Aqiao liked what she saw and decided to stay.

After that, she worked together with the ladies in white. They picked leaves from the trees, and fed them to some little white worms. Slowly, the little worms would grow up and spit out silk to form snow-white cocoons. The lady in white taught Aqiao how to reel the shining silk from these cocoons and how to dye the silk different colors. She told Aqiao that these white worms were called silkworms and the leaves they ate were called mulberry leaves. And all this beautiful silk, she said, would be used to weave colorful clouds in heaven.

Time passed quickly and three months went by before Aqiao knew it.

One day, Aqiao thought of her brother: “Why not ask my brother to come here too?”

Early next morning, without telling the lady in white, she hurried back home. When she left, Aqiao took some silkworm eggs and a bag of mulberry seeds with her. As she walked, she dropped the seeds along the road so that she would know the way back.

When Aqiao reached home, she found that her father had grown old and her brother had become a young man. The cruel stepmother had died.

It had been fifteen years since she left!

“Aqiao! Why didn't you come home all these years? Where have you been?” her father asked.

Aqiao told her father all that had happened. Her father thought that she must have met a fairy.

The next day Aqiao decided to go back to the valley with her brother. But when she opened the door, she found things had changed. The road was lined with mulberry trees. All the seeds she had dropped had grown into trees. She walked along the trail of mulberry trees until she came to the valley. The old pine tree still stood there like an umbrella covering the entrance, but she could no longer find a way to get into the valley. So all she could do was to go back home.

When Aqiao returned home, she found that the silkworm eggs had hatched. She fed mulberry leaves to the silkworms, and started to raise more of them.

It was said that that was how the Chinese first raised silkworms. The lady in white whom Aqiao met in the valley was Lady Silkworm, the fairy in charge of the harvesting of silk.

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES G108

 THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES

(Continued)

Now at last the Emperor wished to go himself and see the cloth while it was still on the looms. He took with him a few of his officials, including the old Prime Minister and the official who had already been there.

As soon as the weavers heard the Emperor coming, they pretended to work harder than ever, though they were not weaving a single thread through the empty looms.

Isn't the cloth magnificent?” said the official and the Prime Minister. “What a splendid design! And what colors!” they said, while pointing to the empty looms. They thought that everyone else could see the wonderful work of the weavers though they could not see it themselves.

“What on earth can this mean?” said the Emperor to himself. “I don't see anything. This is horrible! But I mustn't let anyone know.”

“The cloth is beautiful,” he cried out loud. “Beautiful! I am very pleased with it.”

The officials could see no more than the Emperor, but they all shouted, “Beautiful! Excellent! Magnificent” and other such expressions. They told the Emperor that he should have new clothes made of this splendid cloth for the coming great procession.

The Emperor nodded. He tried hard to pretend to share in the pleasure of his officials and gave each of the weavers a medal.

The night before the procession, the two men had their lights burning all night long. They wanted everyone to see how hard they were working on the Emperor's new clothes.

At last they cried, “Finished! The Emperor's new clothes are now ready!”

Then the Emperor arrived with all his high officials.

“Now if you will take off your clothes, Your Majesty, we will fit the new clothes on you in front of the mirror,” said the cheats.

The Emperor was then undressed, and the cheats pretended to dress him in his new clothes. The Emperor turned from side to side in front of the mirror.

“How splendid the Emperor looks in his new clothes” everyone cried. “And how well they fit! What a splendid design! What colors?”

“Well, I suppose I'm ready for the procession,” said the Emperor. “Don't you think they are a nice fit?” And he turned again in front of the mirror, in order to make the others think he was looking at his new clothes.

“Yes, perfectly wonderful!” cried his officials.

And so the procession began.

The Emperor walked in the middle of the procession, through the streets of the city. And all the people standing by and those at the windows cried out, “Oh, how splendid our Emperor's new clothes are! What a perfect fit?”

No one dared say that he could not see the Emperor's new clothes.

Suddenly a little child's voice was heard: “But he has nothing on!”

“Good heavens! Listen to that silly child!” said the father.

“Did you hear what the child said?” some people nearby asked each other.

What the child had said was whispered quickly from one to the other.

“I can't see anything at all on the Emperor,” cried one or two of the braver ones.

The cry was taken up and soon everyone was nodding and saying, “BUT HE HAS NOTHING ON!”

The Emperor heard the cries. He felt very silly, for he knew that the people were right. But he thought, “The procession has started, and it must go on!”

So the Emperor held his head higher than ever. And the two officials who were following him took great trouble to pretend to hold up higher the train of the robe that wasn't there at all.

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES G107

 THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES

Many years ago there lived an Emperor, who cared more for fine new clothes than for anything else. He had different clothes for every hour of the day.

One day two cheats came to see the Emperor. They called themselves weavers and said that they knew how to weave cloth of the most beautiful colors and designs in the world. They also said that the most interesting thing about the cloth was that clothes made of it would be invisible to anyone who was either stupid or unfit for his office.

“Ah, what splendid clothes” thought the Emperor. “They are just what I shall have. When I put them on, I shall be able to find out which men in my empire are unfit for their offices. And I shall be able to tell who are wise and who are foolish. This cloth must be woven for me right away.”

The Emperor gave the cheats some gold in order that they might begin their work at once.

So the two men set up two looms and pretended to be working very hard. They asked for the most beautiful silk and the best gold thread. This they kept for themselves. And then they went on with their work at the empty looms until late into the night.

After some time had passed, the Emperor said to himself, “I wonder how the weavers are getting along with my cloth.” Then he remembered that those who were either fools or unfit for their offices could not see the cloth. Though he believed that he ought to have nothing to fear for himself, he wanted someone else to look at the cloth first.

The Emperor thought a while and decided to send his old Prime Minister to see the cloth. He thought the Prime Minister a wise, honest man who was more fit for his office than anyone else.

So the old Prime Minister went into the hall where the cheats were working at the empty looms.

“God save me!” thought he old man, opening his eyes very wide. “I can't see anything at all.” But he was careful not to say so.

The men who were pretending to weave asked him to come closer. They pointed to the empty looms and asked him if he liked the design and the colors.

The poor old Prime Minister opened his eyes wider and wider, but he could see nothing on the looms.

“Dear me,” he said to himself, “Am I foolish or unfit for my office? I must never tell anyone that I cannot see the cloth.”

“Oh! It's most beautiful!” said the Prime Minister quickly. “The design and the colors I will tell the Emperor how wonderful they are.”

The Emperor was pleased by what the Prime Minister told him about the cloth. Soon after, he sent another official to find out how soon the cloth would be ready. The same thing happened The official could see nothing, but he sang high praise for the cloth. When he got back, he told the Emperor that the cloth was beautiful indeed.

All the people in the city were now talking about the wonderful cloth which the Emperor had ordered to be woven for so much money. And they were eager to know how wise or foolish their friends and neighbors might be.

(To be continued)

ABRAHAM LINCOLN G106

 ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Abraham Lincoln, the son of a poor family, was born in Kentucky on February 12, 1809. He spent his childhood in hard work, helping his father on their small farm. His mother, whom he loved dearly, died in 1818. Happily for him, his father's second wife was kind to him too. When she saw that Abraham liked reading, she did all she could to help him. But the family was poor and the boy could not get many books. Abraham Lincoln later said himself that he only went to school a little now and a little then. His whole school education added up to no more than one year.

As a young man he was a storekeeper and later a postmaster. He studied law in his spare time and became a lawyer. He was active in politics and was strongly against slavery. In all his political work, he thought of building a free state for all the people.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. Then he worked still harder for freedom for the slaves. Soon the Southern States rebelled. They set up a state of their own, where they would be free to keep Negroes as slaves. Lincoln said that it was not right for the South to break away from the Union. Fighting broke out between the North and the South. This was the American Civil War. The war lasted four years before the North won in the end. The nation was reunited and the slaves were set free.

In 1864, Lincoln was elected President of the United States for the second time. But his enemies, the slave owners in the South and the bankers in big cities, who had grown rich on the work of the slaves, could not let Lincoln continue his work. He, who led the United States through these years, was shot on April 14, 1865, at a theatre in Washington, D. C. and died early the next morning. The whole nation was in deep sorrow at this news, for the people had come to love him as an inspiring leader and a wise, warm-hearted, honest man.

About seventeen months before his death, at the opening of a memorial to the many men who lost their lives fighting for the freedom of the Negroes, Abraham Lincoln told his people that the living must finish the work of those dead; that they must fight for freedom for all—Negroes and whites; that America must strengthen government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Today, Abraham Lincoln is regarded as one of the greatest of all American presidents.

THE LOST NECKLACE G105

THE LOST NECKLACE

Place: a park in Paris
Time: a summer afternoon in 1870
People: Mathilde Loisel, wife
Pierre Loisel, husband
Jeanne Forrestier, their friend
(Jeanne is sitting in the park. Mathilde walks towards her, she stops and speaks to Jeanne.)
Mathilde: Good afternoon, Jeanne.
Jeanne: (Looking at the other woman) I'm sorry, but I don't think I know you.
Mathilde: No, you wouldn't, but many years ago you knew me well. I'm Mathilde Loisel.
Jeanne: Mathilde! My old school friend. Is it possible? But yes, of course it is. Now I remember. Where have you been all these years, Mathilde? I hope you weren't ill.
Mathilde: No, Jeanne, I wasn't ill. You see here an old woman. But it's because of hard work — ten years of hard work.
Jeanne: But I don't understand, Mathilde. There's only one year between us; I'm thirty-five and you're thirty-four. Can hard work change a person that much?
Mathilde: Yes, it can. Years of hard work, little food, only a cold room to live in and never, never a moment to rest. That has been my life for these past ten years.
Jeanne: Mathilde! I didn't know. I'm sorry. But what happened?
Mathilde: Well, I would rather not tell you.
Jeanne: Oh, come, Mathilde. Surely you can tell an old friend.
Mathilde: Well, ... Well, it was all because of that necklace. Your necklace.
Jeanne: My necklace?
Mathilde: Do you remember one afternoon ten years ago when I came to your house and borrowed a diamond necklace?
Jeanne: Let me think. Ten years ago ... Oh, yes, I remember. You were going to the palace with your husband, I think.
Mathilde: Right. Pierre was working in a government office, and for the first time in our lives we were invited to an important ball.
(The scene changes to that evening in the home of Pierre and Mathilde Loisel.)
Pierre: Yes, Mathilde, we're going to the ball, the palace ball!
Mathilde: I can't believe it!
Pierre: But it's true.
Mathilde: Oh, Pierre, how wonderful! But I haven't got a dress for the ball!
Pierre: What does a new evening dress cost?
Mathilde: About four hundred francs.
Pierre: Four hundred! That's a lot of money. But perhaps, just this once, we'll use what we have to get a new dress for you. This ball is very important to me. I was the only person in my office who was invited.
Mathilde: Thank you, Pierre, you're so kind. Oh! But there's one other thing ...
Pierre: What is it, Mathilde?
Mathilde: I ... I have no jewelry.
Pierre: Jewelry? Do you need jewelry? Why not just a flower?
Mathilde: To go to the palace with just a flower is to say "I'm poor. I haven't got any jewelry."
Pierre: Can't you borrow some jewelry from a friend, Mathilde?
Mathilde: Which friend? My friends are all poor, too.
Pierre: Let me think. How about Jeanne? She married well. Perhaps she has some.
Mathilde: Ah, yes, Jeanne. She married a man with a lot of money. I'll go and see her on Friday, after I get the new dress.
Pierre: I'm sure she has something you can borrow.
(The scene changes back to the park. Mathilde continues to tell Jeanne her story.)
Mathilde: One Friday I came to see you, Jeanne. Remember?
Jeanne: Yes, Mathilde, I remember.
Mathilde: You were very kind. You brought out your jewelry and told me to take anything I wanted.
Jeanne: (Smiling) You were like a little girl. Your eyes became so big.
Mathilde: There were so many things and they were all beautiful. It was hard to choose.
Jeanne: Until you saw the diamond necklace.
Mathilde: Yes, and then I knew I wanted to borrow the necklace. I didn't want anything else, only the necklace.
Jeanne: I'm sure you looked beautiful that evening, Mathilde. You were always a very pretty girl.
Mathilde: Perhaps in those days I was, but everything changed after that night at the palace.
Jeanne: Didn't you have a good time at the ball?
Mathilde: Yes, a very good time, but that was the last time ... the last happy evening for the next ten years.
Jeanne: But why, Mathilde?
Mathilde: On the way home I looked down at my dress and saw that the necklace was gone. I told Pierre. We returned to the palace and looked in every room, but couldn't find it. I never saw your necklace again, Jeanne.
Jeanne: But Mathilde, you brought it back to me the next afternoon. I remember very well.
Mathilde: Yes, Jeanne, I brought a necklace to you. It was exactly like your necklace but it was a different one. I hope it was as good as the one you lent me. It cost us thirty-six thousand francs.
Jeanne: Thirty-six thousand!
Mathilde: Yes, Pierre and I borrowed the money and bought it. During the next ten years we both worked night and day to pay for it. That is why you see this old woman before you now, Jeanne. Well, after all these years we've at last paid off all our debts.
Jeanne: But Mathilde, my dear friend, that wasn't a real diamond necklace you borrowed from me. It was made of glass. It was worth five hundred francs at the most.