【Story of Taiwan】Mysterious gift—a Hakka Tale
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/culture/biweekly/461/images/d3.jpg
A-Dong was a hardworking farmer. He left his hometown to work for a city landlord, Mr. Chang. A-Dong had worked three years without going back home. The kind landlord knew that A-Dong missed his family a lot. One night, Mr. Chang said to the farmer, “A-Dong! For three years, you’ve always been a great servant. You must miss your family a lot. Why don’t you take a couple days off?”
A-Dong thanked Mr. Chang sobbingly, “thank you so very much, you are very kind.”
After a couple days of preparation, A-Dong packed his bag with gifts for everyone, including new dress for Mother, nice hat for Father, and candies and dolls for his sons and daughters. He prepared a mysterious gift only for his wife. After everything was packed, A-Dong returned home excitingly.
When he reached the door home, the whole family went out welcomed him. Everyone wanted to tell him about things happened in these couple years.
When the sun went down, A-Dong gave gifts to everyone. The family was thrilled to see A-Dong bring gifts home. A-Dong told his wife, “I brought you something very special, open this gift!” The wife opened it, and saw a very delicate flat-shaped plate. She looked into the gift carefully. Suddenly she started to cry, “Although I didn’t make money for the family, I was a good mother to your children, a good daughter-in-law to your parents. How dare you! Bring a woman home! What should I do?” A-Dong was surprised by his wife’s reaction. Then his mother looked into the gift curiously. Then she said,” A-Dong! Look what you’ve brought! An ugly and old woman!”
A-Dong knew there was a mistake, so he explained to his family about the gift. Finally, everyone understood what was going on. The family laughed and said, “Oh! This mysterious gift is a ‘mirror’!”
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/culture/biweekly/461/english5.htm
页:
[1]