The Smart Little Girl I The Smart Little Girl I Once upon a time in a deep forest in China , there was a little town , where almost everyone bred horses . It was the month of January , and the town was preparing to celebrate their biggest holiday of the year -- Horse Day ! Two brothers , one rich and the other one poor , set off from their houses to celebrate this most wonderful of days . The rich brother rode a stallion , and the poorer brother a young mare . In the evening , they stopped beside an empty hut and tethered their horses outside before going to sleep themselves on two huge heaping piles of straw . Next morning , when they saw three horses outside instead of two , they were very surprised ! Well , to be exact , the third horse wasn ' t really a horse . It was a foal , to which the mare had given birth during the night . Soon it had the strength to struggle to its feet , and after a drink of its mother ' s milk , the foal walked its first few steps . The stallion greeted it with a cheerful whinny , and when the two brothers saw it for the first time , the foal was standing beside the stallion . " It belongs to me ! " exclaimed Hong Li , the richer of the two brothers . " It ' s my stallion ' s foal , " he said . Now , Ming Liu , the poorer brother , began to laugh . " Whoever heard of a stallion giving birth to a foal ? It was born to my mare , so it belongs to me , " said Ming . " No , that ' s not true ! It was standing closer to my stallion , and therefore it ' s mine , " said Hong . Soon the brothers started to fight , and only after much argument did they decide to go to town and bring the matter up before the judges there . Still arguing , they headed for the town square where the courtroom stood . But what they didn ' t know was that on this special day , the Emperor of China himself was receiving all who came seeking justice . The brothers were soon ushered into his presence , and quickly enough they told him all about their quarrel . After listening to their story , the Emperor knew perfectly well who the owner of the foal was . He was at a point of giving the foal to the poorer brother when suddenly Ming Liu , who had an unfortunate twitch in his eye , winked at the Emperor . The Emperor was greatly annoyed by this familiarity shown by a simple farmer , and decided to punish him for his disrespect . So instead of offering the foal to Ming Liu , he declared it was difficult , indeed impossible , to say exactly who the foal ' s rightful owner was . < To be continued … > 본 기사 의 모든 저작 권 은 ( 주 ) 틴 타임스 에 있 습니다 .