A GIFT FROM THE GODS !

"Once upon a very very long time, there was a small boy who had a wicked stepmother. One day, the stepmother beat and drove him out to the outskirts of the village.

While he was there, a good spirit came down from heaven and saw him. Having pity on him, the spirit dug twelve holes in the ground, six on one side and six on the other. He filled the holes with four round seeds each, forty-eight in all. Then he showed the boy how to move the seeds. Without the boy realising it, he had spent the whole day so blissfully that he forgot about his unhappiness and his wicked stepmother. Then it was sundown and the spirit left.

" Left ?"

" Yes, left !"

" Without giving the boy a gift ?"

"Uhn ..!

"I thought it is said that whenever one is lucky enough to meet a good spirit, the spirit was sure to give him a gift !"
"Oh, yes , the spirit left a gift and that gift was the game he was playing with the boy.
Soon the boy was teaching the other children how to play. Even the elderly, the custordians of communal secrets came to him to learn. He had become respected by all. They protected him against his wicked stepmother. They admitted him into their ranks long before his peers and, though he lived long, he was loved by all till his death."