Un livre chinois des merveilles

"What will we eat tomorrow? I have no idea!" said Widow Wang to her son, Ming-li. It was early in the morning, and he was going out to look for work.

"Don't worry, Mother," said Ming-li. "I will find a few coins somewhere." He tried to sound happy, but in his heart he did not know where to go.

The winter had been very hard. There was deep snow and a cold, strong wind. The roof of their little house fell in, and Ming-li became very ill. They spent all their money on medicine. When he was well again, he had no job, because another man had taken his place at the shop. Now he was weak, and there was no work in the villages near them.

"He is such a good boy," said the old woman when he left. "No mother ever had a better son. But we have no food. Even the rats have left our house. And look at poor Whitehead and poor Blackfoot!"