THE EAGLE AND THE RICE BIRDS
物必歸原
Once a mother eagle had a nest with three eggs in it and she was very happy while waiting for her three children to come from the eggs. But one day, two schoolboys, named Jeung-Po and Hui-Yin, who knew of her nest, talked together and one of them said, [[148]]“Did you know that the eagle likes the rice birds?” And the other boy replied, “No, she does not, for I have seen her drive them away.”
But the one named Jeung-Po said, “Not only can I make an eagle like a rice bird, but I can make them change natures and live with each other.”
“You can not do that,” answered Hui-Yin.
“Will you give me a piece of silver if I can make the eagle like the rice birds and take them as friends?”
And Hui-Yin said, “Yes, I will give you a piece of silver if you do that, but I know you can not.” And so they clapped hands.[1]
So Jeung-Po went his way hunting, hunting many birds, until finally he found a rice bird’s nest with five eggs in it. He took three of the eggs and put them in the mother eagle’s nest and then he took the three eggs from the eagle’s nest to the nest of the rice bird.