Tales of a Korean Grandmother by Frances Carpenter

Author:Frances Carpenter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8048-1043-2
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

THE ANT

THAT

LAUGHED

TOO

MUCH

OK CHA and Halmoni were laughing. All the others, grownups and children, were laughing, too. Their olive-skinned faces were crinkled with smiles, and their narrow, almond-shaped eyes twinkled with fun. The Inner Court rang with the sound of their merriment.

The cause of it all was Yong Tu. He was trying to stand on his head as he had seen the funny acrobats do at the fair in the city the day before. It had been a splendid fair, with clowns and ropedancers, and tumblers who could do many more tricks than turning themselves thus upside down. Yong Tu could imitate the antics of the clowns, but he had no strong straw track, high up in the air, on which to try the ropedancing. It was perhaps a good thing, for he was having enough difficulty on the ground, pretending to be a traveling tumbler.

The boy's long braid of black hair kept getting in his way, until Halmoni loaned him a woman's hairpin to fasten the braid up on the crown of his head. This made his sister Ok Cha laugh louder than ever. She laughed and laughed, until her very sides ached.

"Take care, Jade Child," her grandmother warned her. "Take care, or like the ant that laughed too much, you will meet with disaster."

"What happened to the ant, Halmoni?" the little girl asked, with one eye still on Yong Tu. He had tired of trying to get his feet up into the air and was now rolling about on the ground, playing with Dog.

"You shall hear, blessed girl," the old grandmother said, hoping to calm the giggling child. "This ant was a wise old ant and greatly respected in the garden where she lived. Everyone came to her for advice, and so it was not at all strange that the earthworm should choose her to act as a go-between and find him a wife.

"'I badly want a good wife, Omoni,' the earthworm said to the ant. Someone who will take care of my clothes and prepare my rice and kimchee. Find me a young wife, a healthy and strong one. I know you will choose wisely.'

"The ant agreed, and she was thinking over the problem one sunny afternoon, when she met a strong, healthy centipede.

"'How would you like to become a bride?' the ant asked the young centipede.

"'Well enough! Well enough!' was the centipede's reply. 'But you must tell me first about the bridegroom.'

"'The bridegroom is industrious. He is calm. He is patient,' the ant replied with enthusiasm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.