By Rujira  Treesiripong

          Once there was a generous rich man in a small town.         He kept many kinds of animals, including cats and dogs in his house. In the past, animals could speak like people, and dogs and cats were close friends.

          The rich man had a magical thing, a crystal.  Anyone who owned that crystal would become rich and get anything he wished. The news about the crystal was talked from one person to another.  Some thieves heard this news.  One day they broke into the rich man’s house and stole the magical crystal. They kept it in a case in their house.  The rich man felt very sorry, so he became ill.  One of the cats in his house felt very

sorry about this event, too.  It consulted the head of the dogs about how to take the magical crystal back to the rich man.

          “ I’m sorry about our owner’s sickness,” said the cat.

          “ What should we do?” asked the dog.

          “ We must bring the crystal to our master,” said the cat.

          “ That’s a good idea,” said the dog.

          Then the cat and the dog went to the thieves’ house.  The cat caught a rat and asked him where the case was.

          “ Do you know where the case of crystal is?” asked the cat.

          “ No. I don’t know,” said the rat.

          “Anyway you must find it and bring it to me.  If you don’t help, I will eat you,” said the cat.

          “ Ur ….All right,” said the rat.

          The rat was very afraid of the cat, so he bit the case of crystal open and brought the ball to the cat.

          “ Here’s the magical crystal,” said the rat.

          “ Very good, so you are free now,” said the cat.

          After that, the cat took the magical crystal to the dog, and the dog carried it in his mouth.  On the way home, the cat and the dog had to walk across the river.  While they were crossing the bridge, the dog saw a fish in the river.  He wanted to eat it, so he opened his mouth.  Suddenly the magical crystal dropped into the river.  The cat was very angry, and he scolded the dog. The cat was anxious to get the magical crystal back. As the cat was thinking, a crow flew over him.  The cat caught the crow and forced him to catch a fish.  The fish was forced to find the ball and bring it to the cat.  When the cat received the crystal, he quickly took it to the rich man.

          “ Here you are,” said the cat.

          “Oh! Thanks a lot.  You’re very good,” said the rich man to the cat.

          “And where’s the dog?” asked the rich man.  The cat told him about the dog’s mistake and tried to tell him about her own cleverness.  The rich man was very angry.  While the cat was telling the story, the dog walked slowly and weakly towards the house.

          “ Go away! The silly dog must stay under the house, but the clever cat can stay in the house,” shouted the rich man.

          The dog was very angry when he heard that.  From then, whenever the cat went out of the house, the dog would chase her immediately.        

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