Page 13 - New Medley 5 Semester 1

“Are cherry seeds lucky?”

asked Rakesh.

“Of course.”

“Nothing is lucky if you put
it away. If you want luck, you

must put it to some use.”

“What can I do with a seed?”

“Plant it.”

So Rakesh found a small
spade and began to dig up a

flower-bed.

“Hey, not there,” said Grandfather. “I’ve sown mustard in that bed. Plant

it in that shady corner, where it won’t be disturbed.”

Rakesh went to a corner of the garden where the earth was soft and

yielding. He did not have to dig. He pressed the seed into the soil with
his thumb and it went right in.

Then he had his lunch, ran off to play cricket with his friends, and forgot

all about the cherry seed.

When it was winter in the hills, yielding soft, productive (soil)

a cold wind blew down from the deodar tree a large evergreen tree that

snows and went ‘whoo-whoo-whoo’ produces cones and has needle-shaped
in the deodar trees, and the garden leaves that stay green throughout the
was dry and bare. In the evenings year, commonly found in the Himalayas

Grandfather and Rakesh sat over bare (garden) garden area lacking
plants or vegetation, exposing the soil
a charcoal fire, and Grandfather underneath
told Rakesh stories—stories about
people who turned into animals, ghosts who lived in trees, beans that

jumped and stones that wept. In turn Rakesh would read to him from

the newspaper, Grandfather’s eyesight being rather weak. Rakesh found
the newspaper very dull—especially after the stories—but Grandfather
wanted all the news.

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