Ping Sik and Soon Yen sat by the roadside under a spreading olive tree.
They were on their way to market to sell two little pigs. With the money
to be obtained from the sale of the little pigs, they were to buy caps
and shoes with which to attend school.
“When I get to be a man,” said Ping Sik, “I will be so great and so
glorious that the Emperor will allow me to wear a three-eyed peacock
feather, and whenever I walk abroad, all who meet me will bow to the
ground.”
“And I,” said Soon Yen, “will be a great general. The reins of my steeds
will be purple and scarlet, and in my cap will wave a bright blue
plume.”
“I shall be such a great poet and scholar,” continued Ping Sik, “that
the greatest university in the Middle Kingdom will present me with a
vase encrusted with pearls.”
“And I shall be so valiant and trustworthy that the Pearly Emperor will
appoint me commander-in-chief of his army, and his enemies will tremble
at the sound of my name.”
“I shall wear a yellow jacket with the names of three ancestors
inscribed thereon in seven colors.”
“And I shall wear silk robes spun by princesses, and a cloak of throat
skins of sables.”
“And I shall live in a mansion of marble and gold.”
“And I in halls of jadestone.”
“And I will own silk and tea plantations and tens of thousands of rice
farms.”
“All the bamboo country shall be mine, and the rivers and sea shall be
full of my fishing boats, junks, and craft of all kinds.”
“People will bow down before me and cry: ‘Oh, most excellent, most
gracious, most beautiful!’”
“None will dare offend so mighty a man as I shall be!”
“O ho! You good-for-nothing rascals!” cried the father of Ping Sik.
“What are you doing loafing under a tree when you should be speeding to
market?”
“And the little pigs, where are they?” cried the father of Soon Yen.
The boys looked down at the baskets which had held the little pigs.
While they had been dreaming of future glories, the young porkers had
managed to scramble out of the loosely woven bamboo thatch of which the
baskets were made.
The fathers of Ping Sik and Soon Yen produced canes.
“Without shoes and caps,” said they, “you cannot attend school.
Therefore, back to the farm and feed pigs.”