“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.