to feel safe when again the governor sent forth heralds bearing an unreasonable order, seemingly as a boast of his power. His demand was that his subjects should present him with a rope of ashes. The entire province trembled with dread. The order must be obeyed yet who in all Shining could make a rope of ashes?
One night, in great distress, the son whispered the news to his hidden mother. “Wait!” she said. “I will think. I will think” On the second day she told him what to do.
“Make rope of twisted straw,” she said. “Then stretch it upon a row of flat stones and burn it on a windless night.” He called the people together and did as she said and when the blaze died down, there upon the stones, with every twist and fiber showing perfectly, lay a rope of ashes. The governor was pleased at the wit of the youth and praised greatly, but he demanded to know where he had obtained his wisdom. “Alas!
Alas!” cried the farmer, “the truth must be told!” and with deep bows he related his story. The governor listened and then meditated in silence. Finally he lifted his head. “Shining needs more than strength of youth,” he said gravely .
“Ah, that I should have forgotten the well-known saying, “with the crown of snow, there cometh wisdom!” That very hour the cruel law was abolished, and 10th - - custom drifted into as far a past that only legends remain. despotic (adj.) – tyrannical, cruel proclamation (n) – announcement barbarous (adj.) – extremely brutal or mercilessly harsh abandon (v) – desert, give up completely reverence (n) – deep respect mandate (n) – an official order summit (n) – the topmost point of a hill or mountain injunction (n) – an order restraining someone from performing an act shriveled (adj.) – wrinkled and contracted due to old age or due to strain gravely (adv.) – seriously A. Rearrange the sentences given below in the correct sequence. .
The son made up his mind to take back his