Seeing her delight, the Alo Man grinned and showed all his white teeth.
“Perhaps they will bring you luck,” he said, “as the youngest sister’s beads did in the story.”
Of course, after that, every one wanted to hear the story.
The Alo Man settled himself cross-legged on a mat, all the listeners squatted down within easy hearing distance, and he began the story of the String of Beads.
I often am reminded [he said] of the three sisters who lived in a land many days’ journey from here. Each of them had a string of beads, but the youngest sister, her beads were of red coral, and the others, their beads were only common cowrie shells. Naturally, they hated her, and one day when they had all been bathing in the river, the older sisters hid their beads in the sand.
“See,” said the eldest sister as the youngest sister came out of the water, “we have thrown our beads into the river, where there is a strong water-goblin who will give us back twice as many. Throw your own beads into the river and then you will have two strings of coral beads, and two is always better than one.”
“Except when you have a lame foot,” said the other sister, giggling.
The youngest sister believed what they said, and threw her beads into the river, and they went down, down, down to the bottom of the deepest pool and did not come up again.
Then the two elder sisters laughed and took their own beads and hung them round their necks, and filled their water jars and went home.