Long-long ago there lived an old man with his wife, and their married son. They lived poorly. Once an old man told his son:
– Let’s go behind the Great Wall and start trading, otherwise we can’t make both ends meet.
– That’s a good idea, – his son said.
After they’d made a decision, they told it to the old woman and her daughter-in-law. They were both glad, and soon the old man and his son gathered some money and went behind the Great Wall.
They stayed in the town called Guchine and started trading. Their business was really good, and the profit was big enough.
Once they decided to send a letter to their relatives, but neither could write and so they asked one man to do it. But he didn’t know the hieroglyphs well and instead of writing, “The trade is good, we hired one man”, he wrote, “The trade is good, one man died”.
They gave the letter to one traveler who was going to their native town and asked him, “When you go back, please, bring us an answer”.
The traveler came to their relatives, gave them this letter and said, “Your relatives asked you to write an answer. I’m going back to Guchine in a couple of days, and I’ll come to you to get your answer”.
When the traveler was returning, he came for an answer, but he saw a funeral sign on the gate and decided not to bother them.
On arriving to Guchine, he told the old man and his son that somebody had died. So they were sad and tried to guess who had died. Then they decided to return back home. The next day they left the town. Soon they reached the junction. One road led to the uncle (who was his mother’s brother) and the other led to their own house.
The old man told his son, “Will you, please, go to your uncle and find out who had died”. So the son went to his uncle and the old man went to the village.
The old man entered the yard and saw his daughter-in-law, but didn’t see his wife. The daughter-in-law saw her father-in-law, but didn’t see her husband. An old man thought that his wife had died, and his daughter-in-law thought that her husband had died. But they didn’t say a word, and just started crying.
The son went to his uncle and saw his mother. The mother thought that her husband had died and the son thought that his wife had died. They were crying loudly for a long time.
Soon his uncle said, “You can’t help your grief with tears. Let’s go home, and I’ll go with you”.
When they arrived home they heard someone crying there. When they entered the hall, they saw that everyone was alive. The uncle was surprised and asked: ”Who are you mourning?” So they began to find out why that strange thing had happened and realized that one hieroglyph had been mixed up in the letter.
Well, you see what might happen if a person who doesn’t know how to write, starts writing a letter.

EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Give the English equivalents:

давайте уйдём за Великую стену и займёмся торговлей; доход был немалый; наняли одного человека; они отдали письмо путнику; я собираюсь уезжать в Гучыне и зайду за ответом; он увидел на воротах траурный знак; слезами горю не поможешь; оплакивать; в письме был перепутан всего один иероглиф.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1) Where did the old man and his son want to go?
2) What did they tell their relatives?
3) Their relatives liked the idea of going behind the Great Wall, didn’t they?
4) What was their trade like?
5) What did the man who was writing the letter mix up?
6) Who gave an answer to the relatives?
7) Why did the traveler not enter their house when he came for the answer?
8) Who actually died?
9) Where did the son and his father go after they’d known about their relatives?
10) Why did the son think his wife had died?