LET’S START!

ONCE UPON A TIME there was an old woman named

Agnes. More than anything, she loved to eat an apple
dumpling for dinner. One day, Agnes said, “I will bake
an apple dumpling tonight!” Looking about, she said,
“I have plenty of flour. I have plenty of butter. I have
plenty of sugar, too. And I have plenty of spice. Why,
I could make ten apple dumplings if I wanted to!”
Then all of a sudden, she stopped. “Oh, dear!” she
said. “I have no apples!”
 In the old woman’s back yard was a tree full of
plums. You never saw more plums as round and red
than those. But you cannot make an apple
dumpling with plums, and there is no use
trying.Agnes could not stop thinking about wanting
an apple dumpling. At last, she had an idea. She
took her basket out to her back yard and filled it
with plums. She covered the basket with a white
cloth and hung it on her arm.
 She said, “There may be those in the
world who have apples, and who need
plums.” And so Agnes went out the
door.
Before long, Agnes came to a yard with
many hens and many geese. What a
noise they made! Ca-ca, quawk,
quawk! In the middle of all these birds
there was a young woman. She was
feeding them corn, and she waved to
Agnes. Agnes waved back. Soon the
two women were talking away.
 The young woman told Agnes about her hens and geese.
Agnes told the young woman about her plums, and how
she hoped to trade them for apples. If she could trade her
plums for apples, she might have an apple dumpling that
very night.
“Ah!” said the young woman when she heard this. “There
is nothing my family likes better than plum jelly with
goose! But I have no apples to trade for your plums.” She
said, “The best I can give to trade with you is a bag of
feathers. Would you take my feathers for your plums?”
 “Well, it is not apples," thought Agnes, “but why not? One
person happy is better than two who do not have what they
want.” The old woman poured the plums into the young
woman's apron. She took the bag of feathers, put it in her
basket, and went on her way.
Agnes said, “Maybe I am no closer to an apple dumpling than
I was before. But at least I am no farther away. And feathers
are more light to carry than plums - everyone knows that!”
Trudge, trudge, up a hill and down. Past a farm, and past a
brook. Then, such a lovely smell filled the air. “Ah!” Agnes
said as she came up to a garden gate. Roses, lilies, lilacs - oh!
never had she seen a more wonderful garden.
 From the garden, Agnes heard the sounds of a man and a woman
talking loudly. They were not happy.
"Cotton!" said the woman.
"Straw!" said the man.
And so they went, back and forth. Then the two of them saw Agnes at
the gate.
“Here is someone who can help us decide,” said the woman. She opened
the gate. “Good mother,” she said. “If you were making a cushion for
your grandfather’s arm chair, would you not stuff it with cotton?”
“Cotton? I do not think I would,” said Agnes.
“I told you so!” cried the man. “Straw is the very thing. And you need
to go no farther than the barn for it.” But Agnes shook her head. “Nor
would I stuff the cushion with straw.”
 “Oh!” said the man and woman. They did not
know what to think! Agnes took out the bag of
feathers very fast. “I have something better,” she
said, handing it over. “Here! A cushion stuffed
with feathers will be one that is fit for a king.”
“My goodness!” said the man. "What a fine
cushion these will make!" said the woman. The
were very happy, and asked what they could give
the old woman in return.
“If you must know, apples would be just the
thing,” said Agnes. “That is what I am looking
for.”
“Ah, but we have no apples!” said the man.
“At least, let us give you something for the
feathers,” said the woman.
 The man and woman cut one flower here, and another there.
Soon they had more lovely flowers than their arms could hold.
Oh, never was there a sweeter bunch of flowers! And they
handed it all to Agnes.
“A good bargain," said Agnes, "and not all of it in the basket.”
For she was glad that the two young people were now happy
with each other. She wished them both well, and went on her
way.
Soon Agnes came upon a young lord, dressed in very fine
clothes and with a gold chain around his neck. But such a frown
on his face! He looked as if he had no friend left in the whole
wide world.
 “A fair day and a good road, my lord,” said Agnes.
“Fair day? Good road?" said the young lord. “Maybe for
you! But for me, the court jeweler did not finish the ring I
gave him to make. Now I must go to my lady love with
nothing in my hands to give her.”
“Is that what is the matter?” said the old woman. “Then
you shall have a gift for your lady!” Agnes handed the
flowers from her basket to the young lord. “Though I may
never have an apple dumpling!” The flowers made the lord
so glad that he smiled from ear to ear.
The young lord said, “A fair trade is no robbery.”
He took the gold chain from around his neck and
put it around Agnes's neck. Then the young lord
skipped away, holding the flowers to his chest.
“Why, it's a gold chain!” cried Agnes. “With this,
I will be able to buy all the apples in the king’s
market I could want, and have coins left to
spare!” She hurried to town as fast as her feet
could go.
But Agnes had gone no more than the turn of the
road when she came upon a mother and her
children, standing in a doorway. Their faces were
as sad as her own was happy.
"What is the matter?" she asked, as soon as she
reached them.
 “Matter enough,” answered the mother, “when the last
crust of bread is eaten and not a coin left in the house to buy
more.”
“What a day!” cried Agnes. “I cannot think of eating an
apple dumpling for supper while those near me have no
bread.” She put the gold chain into the mother’s hands and
rushed off.
But the mother and children, every one of them laughing
and happy, ran up to her.
“We have little to give you,” said the mother, who was the
happiest of all. “But here is a little dog. His barking will
keep loneliness from your house, and our thanks goes with
The old woman did not have the heart to tell them "no."
So into the basket went the little dog, and very snugly he
lay there.
“A bag of feathers for a basket of plums, a bunch of
flowers for a bag of feathers, a golden chain for a bunch
of flowers, and a dog for a golden chain. All the world is
give and take. Who knows if I may have my apple
dumpling yet,” said Agnes as she hurried on.
Sure enough, Agnes had not gone a half dozen yards
when, right before her eyes, she saw an apple tree as full
of apples as her very own plum tree was full of plums.
This apple tree grew in front of a house as much like her
own as if they were two peas in the same pod. And on the
porch of the house sat a little old man.
“That is a fine tree of apples you have!” called out the
old woman as soon as she was close enough to talk to
“Aye,” said the old man. “But apple trees and apples
are poor company when a man is growing old. I
would give them all if I had even so much as a little
dog to bark on my door-step.”
“Bow-wow,” barked the dog in the old woman’s
basket. And in less time than it takes to read the end
of this story, the little dog was barking on the old
man’s door-step. And Agnes was on her way home
with a basket full of apples.“If you try long enough
and hard enough, you can always have an apple
dumpling for supper,” said Agnes. That night she
baked herself a delicious apple dumpling, and ate it
down to the very last crumb.
 ANSWER THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS!

CLICK THE RAISE HAND BUTTON IF YOU WANT TO

ANSWER!
• Why did the old woman
give away her flowers and
her golden chain without
asking for anything in
return?
 •Why did the old
woman finally get her
apple dumpling at the
end?
VERY GOOD!

THANK YOU!
 “BELIEVE IN
YOURSELF AND ALL
YOUR POSSIBLITIES
EVEN THE SMALL
ONE.”
-KIM NAMJOON
 “YOU HAVE THE
POTENTIAL TO BE
ANYTHING YOU WANT.”
-KIM SEOKJIN
 “I HOPE YOU’RE AN
ADULT WHO ALWAYS
RUN AFTER YOUR
DREAMS.”
-MIN YOONGI
“EVERY INDIVIDUAL IS
UNIQUE IN THEIR OWN
WAY.”
-JUNG HOSEOK
“THE WAY WE SPEND
OUR TIMES DEFINES
WHO WE ARE.”
-PARK JIMIN
“YOU’RE THE ONLY
ONE WHO CREATES
YOUR FUTURE.”
-KIM TAEHYUNG
“EVERY EXPERIENCE
MAKES YOU
GROW.”
-JEON JUNGKOOK