the rich boys Mrs Huang Lan the old woman Happy

  1. 'Please may I have one?'

  2. 'I'm very tired and hungry.'

  3. 'What did you eat yesterday?'

  4. 'Would you like to wear my son's old shoes?'

  5. 'Would you like some rice?'

  1. Look at the picture. What were Happy and the old woman doing when

    Lan was eating her rice? Write the answers in the blanks.

    1. When Lan was eating

her rice, the old woman

  1. When Lan

The old woman carefully put the plum stones in the bowl and said, 'Thank you for the plums. They were good! If you keep these plum stones, you will never be poor. I must go now. I will come back when the floods come.'

'When will the floods come?' asked Happy.

'Do you know the big stone lions in front of the temple?' asked the old woman.

'Yes,' said Happy.

'When their eyes become red, the water in the river will rise very quickly. The water will cover the village. When that happens, I'll come back,' said the old woman. Then she walked to the door and left.

Happy said to Lan angrily, 'The lions' eyes will never be red.

The remade of stone.'

The old woman was wrong. Lan and Happy became poorer and poorer. First Lan hurt her back. She could not work for two weeks. Mrs Huang did not give her any money. Then some insects ate all the vegetables in their little garden. Then Lan opened their last bag of rice. 'What are we going to do?' she said sadly.

'We've got the plum stones,' said Happy. 'The old woman said: You will never be poor if you keep these stones. Perhaps we can

eat them.'

He brought the bowl of plum stones and cracked a stone between his teeth. It broke and there was a beautiful pearl inside it.

'I can't eat this!' said Happy.

'It's a pearl!' said Lan. 'Pearls are very expensive. We can sell them for a lot of money.

They cracked all the plums stones and found a beautiful pearl inside every stone.

'If we tell people about these pearls,' said Lan, 'a thief will come and take them.' So Lan sold only one pearl and put the other pearls in a box.

When they went out, they still wore cheap clothes like poor people. But at home they ate good food. When Happy's shoes became too small, Lan bought him new shoes. Lan and Happy were happy!

Happy always wanted to, say thank you to the old woman. 'She said: I'll come back when the lions' eyes become red,' Happy thought. He looked at the lions every day, but their eyes were always grey.