From daybreak till dusk, day after day he roamed aimlessly, climbing
high mountains and crossing deserts. Finally he reached a foreign land.
The people here were very poor. It was hard even to sell out one
ovenful of nang in a month's time. After tramping such a long
way the fourth son felt both tired and hungry. He approached one of the
nang bakeries and with famished eyes scoured the pile of steaming
hot nang displayed on the boards. But because he did not have a
single cent in his pocket, he could not buy one. Then he remembered the
knife he had in his possession. “Since I've been carrying this knife
around, it hasn't brought me a single thing.” He murmured to himself.
“Before his death Father didn't give me any instructions about its use
either, I'll just be starving to death for nothing. Why should I be so
stupid. I'd better exchange it for a slice of nang. It can at
least ease my hunger a little.” Reasoning in this way, and with the
nagging hunger pressing him, he stopped wavering. He drew out the knife
and, mustering his courage, approached the nang shopkeeper.
“Master,” he pleaded, “I'm an orphan and have been tramping a long
distance. I'm now famished with hunger. I want to exchange this knife
for a slice of nang. It's the only property I've inherited from
my ancestors. Would this be possible?”
The shopkeeper ran his eyes over the lad. When he saw his sorry
state, he thought to himself, “Business has been slack these days, and
there have been no customers around. Who knows but perhaps this waif
may bring me luck.” So he agreed to make the exchange.
Thus the fourth son handed over his knife and was given a small slice
of nang, which he instantly gobbled up with a wolfish appetite.
When he had finished his little meal he leaned over a streamlet at the
roadside and, cupping his hands, quenched his parching thirst. Then he
went further afield in search of a livelihood.
After receiving the knife the shopkeeper casually threw it into his
cash-box. In a matter of minutes business became brisk. Customers came
in a continuous stream, and ovenful after ovenful of nang was
baked and sold. Before evening the shop had its little cash-box full to
the brim with money from the day's sales. But let's see what happened
to the fourth son. After roaming for a whole day he had found no place
to settle. When the sun had sunk behind the mountains he again returned
to the nang bakery. But this time, though he felt dreadfully
hungry, he had no other knife to exchange for another slice of nang.
Sitting desolately alone by the roadside he kept gazing at the
shopkeeper and his wife counting their money.
“We've not done at all badly today, eh?” the shopkeeper said to his
wife.
“No, indeed! It's about time fortune smiled at us, I think. But what
a pity, we still have no son. If we had one now, our life would be
better still.”
And this was true! In all their married days his wife had born him
neither son nor daughter. For a long time the old couple had been
hoping to adopt a child. After these few remarks, the shopkeeper then
pointed to the fourth son sitting by the roadside and said to his wife,
“Look over there, that lad is a homeless orphan. This morning he
exchanged a small knife for a slice of nang. And his looks are
not so bad. What about taking him in with us, eh?”
The wife agreed with him and the shopkeeper went over to have a talk
with the lad. Certainly, being so hard pressed with hunger, the fourth
son had no reason to decline the offer. Thus he became the adopted son
of the shopkeeper. He called him “Father” and his wife “Mother.” The
old couple were now very happy and kept grinning from ear to ear. They
lodged him in the assistants' quarters, and handed him back the knife
that he had inherited from his ancestors.
Adventure
