The Narrow Road

8/12/1987

Early one morning an old woman was walking from her village to the town.  She was carrying a big sack of cabbages on her head.  She was taking them to the market, where she hoped to sell them to the people from the town.
   The road which she was on was a very narrow one over a mountain.  There was a cliff on one side and a wall of rock on the other.  There was very little traffic at that early hour, but she was walking very carefully on the side of the road, because she didn't want to have an accident and lose her cabbages which she had grown herself.
   But as the old woman was climbing a steep hill, she suddenly heard a loud bell and a bicycle came around the corner, and passed her, going very fast down the hill.  The old woman had to jump to one side so quickly that the sack of cabbages nearly fell into the ditch.
   She looked up, and saw that a young girl from the town, wearing green trousers and a red blouse, was riding the bicycle.  She was riding without even looking around to see whether the old woman was all right.
   The old woman began to shout, "Come back, Come back, Little lady!  You dropped something!"  The girl heard the old woman's shouts and stopped her bicycle so suddenly that she nearly fell off.  Then she turned and began to push the bicycle back up the hill.  She had ridden on quite a long way past the old woman, and the slope was steep, so she was quite hot and tired when at least she reached her again.
   "What is it?"  she asked "What did I drop?"
   "Little lady"  the old woman answered,
"You dropped your manners."