The Peanut
Xu Dishan

At the back of our house there was half a mu of unusedland. "It's a pity to let it lie idle like that," Mother said."Since you all enjoy eating peanuts, let us open it up and make it apeanut garden." At that my brother, sister and I were all delighted and sowere the young housemaids. And then some went to buy seeds, some began to digup the ground and others watered it and, in a couple of months, we had aharvest!

"Let us have a party tonight to celebrate,"Mother suggested, "and ask Dad to join us for a taste of our freshpeanuts. What do you say?" We all agreed, of course. Mother cooked thepeanuts in a variety of styles and told us to go to the thatched pavilion inthe garden for the celebration.

The weather was not very good that night but, to ourgreat delight, Father came all the same.

"Do you like peanuts?" Father asked.

"Yes!" We all answered eagerly.

"But who can tell me what the peanut is goodfor?"

"It is very delicious to eat," my sister tookthe lead.

"It is good for making oil," my brotherfollowed.

"It is inexpensive," I said. "Almosteveryone can afford it and everyone enjoys eating it. I think this is what isgood for."

"Peanut is good for many things," Father said,"but there is one thing that is particularly good about it. Unlike apples,peaches and pomegranates that display their fruits up in the air, attractingyou with their beautiful colors, peanut buries its fruit in the earth. It doesnot show itself until you dig it out when it is ripe and, unless you dig itout, you can't tell it bears fruit or not just by its frail stem quiveringabove ground."

"That's true," we all said and Mother noddedher assent, too. "So you should try to be like the peanut," Fatherwent on, "because it is useful, though not great or attractive."

"Do you mean," I asked, "we should learnto be useful but not seek to be great or attractive?"

"Yes," Father said. "This is what I expectof you."

We stayed up late that night, eating all the peanutsMother had cooked for us. But father's words remained vivid in my memory tillthis day.