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Ho-Shing sat on a large boulder,
looking down on the valley below. It was summer in China and the valley
was full of orchards of trees, fields of grain and rows of vegetables
growing rapidly in the warm sunshine. The mountains were also covered with
leafy trees and the bamboo was growing taller and thicker with each
sunrise.
"Ho-Shing! Where are you?" called
Yong-Hu. He was in the bamboo nibbling on some tender leaves. "Ho-Shing?"
he called again.
Ho-Shing heard his name. He stood up
and walked towards the bamboo forest. "Yes, Yong-Hu. I hear you. What do
you want?" he asked his friend.
"I want to go for a walk. My legs
are cramped from sitting here too long. Will you go with me?" Yong-Hu
asked.
"I would enjoy a walk. I heard what
sounded like a waterfall on the other side of the forest. Let’s go and see
it," Ho-Shing suggested. "We can drink the water and refresh ourselves."
"Good idea, Ho-Shing. I’m feeling
quite thirsty," Yong-Hu replied.
The pandas trotted off in the
direction of the waterfall. As they neared it, the sound of it cascading
from high above was nearly deafening. The water landed in a deep pool and
then flowed off into a river that meandered down the mountainside to the
valley below. They walked up to the pool. Spray from the falls drenched
their black and white fur. Ho-Shing drank some of the cool water. "It is
very refreshing," he said.
Yong-Hu drank some. "It does taste
good." He drank some more. Just then he noticed something bright orange in
the water. "What’s that?" he asked.
Ho-Shing stood back and looked. "I
think they are goldfish. How unusual to find them up here in the
mountains. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Goldfish are found in
fishponds."
"This is a pond of some sort," Yong-Hu
said. He reached in with his paws and pulled a goldfish out. It wriggled
about in his hands. "Look at its tail. It’s very big." Yong-Hu put the
fish back in the water and it swam quickly to the other side of the pool.
Ho-Shing looked up at the top of the
waterfall. "See how the spray of the water is making it look like a
rainbow?"
Yong-Hu looked up. "Oh, that is
pretty. It is a rainbow. No wonder the goldfish want to live here."
The pandas went behind the
waterfall. It was very noisy and they got even wetter. There was a dark
cave. They went inside. "I don’t like dark caves," Yong-Hu said. "I don’t
want to go any further."
Ho-Shing stopped. He looked around.
He saw several bats hanging upside down. He saw a rat running across the
cave floor. "There’s nothing here. Let’s go back outside where it is sunny
and warm."
The pandas went back to the pool of
water. "Let’s follow the river for a while and see where it goes," Yong-Hu
suggested.
"We know where it goes, but we can
follow it for a while," Ho-Shing agreed. They walked along its banks,
passing trees and bushes, such as, chrysanthemum, jasmine and magnolias.
They stopped to smell them all. Soon they came to a place where the river
dropped straight down to the valley. It was another waterfall. "I think
this is where we turn back," Ho-Shing said. They stood for a while,
looking at the water as it plunged over the edge. They walked back to the
bamboo forest. The crickets began to chirp and a flock of cranes flew
overhead on their way to the valley.
"I think summer in China is the most
beautiful, don’t you?" Yong-Hu asked.
"I think every season is beautiful
in China," Ho-Shing said and began to nibble on the tender bamboo leaves
all around him. |
