Not so long ago in a far away town of Guilin, China there lived four
children, Ming, Mao, Chen and Yuan . Everybody in Guilin and all of China
was very excited. The Dragon Festival (Chinese New Year) was approaching.
Everybody was sweeping out their houses, buying new clothes, painting their
doors and preparing for the banquet. The whole town was filled with happiness.Mao,
Ming , Chen and Yuan had formed a club. They decided that they should have
one last club meeting before the new year. They even swept and painted their
clubhouse. However, they also decided that they should do something in the
festival. They decided that they would make a dragon to go in the parade.
"Let's make it green," suggested Mao.
"It should be red," demanded Yaun.
"Stop fighting!" said Chen. "How about when we go home tonight we will all make a certain part of the dragon."
"I will make the head," said Ming.
"I should, because I am a better artist than you," demanded
Yuan.
"If we do it that way, everybody will want to make the head,"
said Chen. "I will get two hats. In one I will put the words head,
body, feet and tail. In the other one I will put Chen, Ming, Mao and Yuan.
Is that fair ?"
Everybody agreed. It turned out Mao would make the head, Chen would make
the body, Yuan would make the feet, and Ming would make the tail.
The next day, the second to last day until the new year, they met again.
The head was bigger than the tail, which was smaller than the feet. They
were all larger than the body, which was essentially a sphere. It was totally
out of proportion. "This is terrible," said Mao
"You are not kidding" agreed Ming. "We have to do this
over again, and FAST. Let's keep the same body parts but make them all certain
lengths and colors to make sure that our dragon is in proportion."
By the time of the parade they had constructed a beautiful and colorful
dragon. They were very pleased with the pleasant surprise they had made
for everybody.
The moral of the story is "too many cooks spoil
the broth."
The End