Читать книгу Chinese Fables - Lak-Khee Tay-Audouard - Страница 8

The Practical Bride

A bride was being borne in a sedan chair from her father’s house to herbridegroom’s home in the next village. Four porters in jackets of identical color and design carried the gaily decorated chair. Small bells tied to the corners of the canopy kept merry time with the porters’ gait as they jogged along. The tapestry hangings over the canopy roof and sides concealed the passenger within, but everyone knew that a bride was being taken to her new home. The villagers stood outside their doors, waving and calling out well-wishes and farewells as the chair passed by.

Midway to the next village, a loud rrriiippp!!! interrupted the merry tinkling of the bells. CRASH! THUD! The chair fell to the road, taking with it the silken cushion and the bride, and leaving the porters holding a pair of poles with an empty canopy and dangling shreds of rotten rope. The bride picked herself up carefully. Not a single ornament of her elaborate headdress was out of place. She moved to the side of the road to await repairs. But no repairs began, only a chorus of complaints and blame.

“Did you check the chair before we started?”

“Nobody told me to!”

“It was bound to break! See how cheaply it’s put together!”

“Master should have bought a better chair!”

“And he should have sent two chairs as a precaution!”

“Well, what can we do? We have no tools; we have no cord.”

“You run and tell Master to send another chair. We’ll wait here.”

“But it will be dark by the time I get back!”

“And if it rains, where can we go for shelter?”

“Oh! What’s to be done!?”

Out of patience, the bride took charge. She stepped between the poles where the chair had been and ordered the porters to take their places. “Start jogging!” she said firmly. Hidden under the canopy hangings, she kept pace with them. The bells resumed their merry tinkling.

In this fashion the bride jogged to her new home, arriving in state and on time, with every hair ornament in place, and none of the guests the wiser.