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The Heart-stone

CHAPTER ONE

(The city of Ur, in Mesopotamia, about 3000 BC)

Shunnu leaped from the window. He landed as lightly as a deer on the path. His bare feet slapped against the flag stones as he ran down the street.

"You better hurry boy!" his mother shouted, "Or you'll be late for school!"

But Shunnu knew all the short cuts. He slipped through the alleys, running as fast, and arrived just in time. The teacher was beginning to count the class.

"Why are you always late?" he asked, as Shunnu slipped into his desk.

"I was sleeping!" giggled Shunnu.

"You probably stay up too late!" said the teacher, "What were you doing?"

"Playing Ur with my father!" said Shunnu.

The teacher sighed

"Try to stay awake, he said

All the boys took the clay tablets. The morning would be spent learning to write. To make the words they must press a stylus into the clay. It was hard work, and soon their fingers begin to hurt.

But Shunnu didn't mind the mild pain in his fingers, because today the writing lesson was a list of gemstones. He knew all their names already. His father was a jeweler, and he had already begun to help make the beautiful jewelry which his father sold at the open market.

The morning passed, and the class stopped for lunch. Shunnu took out his dried figs and bread and sat in the sun with the other kids. Shafts of bright sunshine cut between tall building and filled the school yard with warmth. He could hardly wait to get home because he had nearly finished making a gold necklace.


When school was finished, Shunnu ran back through the city and went to the workshop. He took up his tools and began to shape the final part of the jewellery he was making - a precious stone waited in a little drawer close by. It was a piece of carnelian, red and smooth. It was shaped like a heart, and it fitted exactly into the middle of the string of stones.


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