With this thought, the man's eyes brightened and he continued now
more alertly down the road, staring intently at the ground and
knocking little pebbles around with his cane. After a little, he
thought he saw something ahead. Mending his pace somewhat, he
hurried (as an old man with a cane hurries) up to the object, which
he now believed to be a quarter. When he stooped down to pick it
up, however, he found it to be merely a bottle cap, covered with red
ants eating the remaining sugar. "Just what I was looking for!"
exclaimed the old man with glee, even though the ants began to sting
him on the thumb and forefinger. "Bottlecaps can be very useful."
So he put the new possession into his pocket and once more began his
stroll, still watching the ground.
He had hardly begun to wonder what he might find next, when, there,
just a little way off, he saw a pearl lying in the roadbed.
"Surely," he thought, "nothing is round or shiny exactly like a
pearl, so I could not be mistaken this time." So he began to amble
over without delay. As he came nearer, his joy increased. "Hee
hee!" the old man laughed, before stifling his mirth lest he call
attention to himself and bring competitors for his newfound
treasure. He even paused a moment and looked around to see if
anyone had noticed him or the pearl.
The way seemed clear so he closed the final distance, reached down,
and picked it up. Instantly he was aware that this was no pearl,
but just a partly dried up chicken brain, which must have fallen off
some farmer's cart, or been left by some animal in haste. "Just
what I was looking for!" the old man said very joyfully. "Chicken
brains make real good soup." Into his pocket with the bottle cap
went the brains, and down the road with his cane went the old man.
It was not long after this that he saw another, much larger item in
the road before him, which looked, from where he now was, just
exactly like a fat roll of paper money. Blessing his astrological
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