THE PEARL
Said one oyster to a neighboring oyster, "I have a very great pain within me. It is heavy and round
and I am in distress."
And the other oyster replied with haughty complacence, "Praise be to the heavens and to the
sea, I have no pain within me. I am well and whole both within and without."
At that moment a crab was passing by and heard the two oysters, and he said to the one who
was well and whole both within and without, "Yes, you are well and whole; but the pain that
your neighbor bears is a pearl of exceeding beauty."
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