The Chinese Dragon's Pearl

The Chinese Dragon's Pearl: (Chinese)

A long time ago in China, a boy and his mother lived by a river. The boy earned money by cutting grass and selling it to villagers. One summer there wasn't any rain. The boy had to travel farther to find grass that wasn't dry and brown. Finally, many miles from the village, there was a patch of nice green grass. He hurried home to sell it. He always went to the same spot where the nice grass was.

After a while, he was tired of walking so long and far. He decided to dig some of the grass up and plant it near his house. So he went to dig it up. When he did, a big pearl rolled out of the earth he had just dug up. He took the pearl and took it home to his mother. The pearl was worth good money, and so his mother hid it for safekeeping in an empty rice jar. The next day, the grass in the nice spot was dead and brown.

"The pearl will by us food," said his mother. She lifted the jar's lid, and saw the rice jar was now filled with rice! The pearl was magic, they realized. That night they put the pearl on top of three coins in the money jar. Morning came and it was full with money!

They told no one about the pearl but the people realized that they were growing richer. One day robbers broke in. In panic, the boy grabbed the pearl and swallowed it. His insides began to burn. He ran to the well, but his stomach stayed on fire. His skin cracked and got scaly. He sprouted horns and wings. In no time at all, he had become a dragon.