Mark And His Talent

Hongyu Mi

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Once, in the woods, there lived a poor man named Mark who lived in a small cottage he built himself. Weeds grew out of the cracks between the old wooden walls. Inside was a small wooden bed he had made himself and an nearly broken table. There was no electricity, and all the light he had came from a small fireplace behind the low table. He didn’t have a job. But he did have a great talent– he could talk to animals. He could talk to the bears in the woods and the birds around his cottage. His life was largely made up of chatting with these animals, and it remained like this for a long time until…

One day when he was sitting in his cottage, he heard a knock on his door. It was a man he had never met before.

The man said, “Hi I’m Sam. My dog never listens to me. Can you help me?”

Mark said, “Of course! Where is your dog.”

“Here!” said Sam, and showed him a ruffled looking dog.

Mark said to the dog, “What’s your name?” in dog language.

The dog said, “My name is Bob.”

Mark said, “I command you to listen to Sam.”

Sam commanded, “sit.”

Bob sat down. Sam was so happy. He gave Mark a million dollars. Mark then bought a new house and new furniture. He lived happily after that day.