A Priceless Gift
Long ago, an honest merchant lived in Genoa, ____.
His name was ____, and he went to different places to support his family by trading.
One day, he filled his ship with goods and visited a faraway ____.
There he traded tools for ____ and books for nuts.
Thanks to Antonio, the islanders ____ get what they needed.
One night, Antonio had dinner with the ____ queen at her palace.
When ____ was served, rats appeared, and some servants chased them away with sticks.
Antonio was ____ surprised that there were rats in the palace.
He asked, “Are ____ no cats on this island?”
The ____ looked puzzled.
“What is a cat?” she asked.
The merchant said to himself, “What the islanders here need is ____ tools or books, but cats.”
He brought ____ cats from his ship and let them run free.
“What ____ animals!” cried the queen when she saw all the rats run away.
She gave Antonio a chest that was filled with ____.
Back in Italy, Antonio told his friends about his ____ fortune.
____, the richest merchant in Genoa, heard the story and was jealous.
“Cats are ____,” Luigi thought.
“I’ll bring the queen ____ is really valuable.
I’m ____ that the queen will give me more jewels.”
Luigi packed his ____ with wonderful paintings and other works of art.
He took the gifts to the island.
To get a chance to meet the queen, he ____ the islanders a lie that he was a good friend of Antonio’s.
When the queen heard about Luigi, she invited him to her palace for ____.
Before ____ down at the table, Luigi presented the queen with all his gifts, and the queen thanked him again and again.
“I’ll repay you with a priceless gift,” said the ____.
Luigi ____ the queen whisper in a servant’s ear.
He ____ excited and hopeful.
He was sure that he would receive more jewels ____ Antonio.
After a while, the servant ____ with a box, and the queen presented it to Luigi.
When Luigi opened the ____, he was speechless.
There was a kitten in the box.
“Antonio gave us the priceless cats, and we now have some ____,” said the queen.
“In return for the wonderful gifts you gave us, we ____ to give you what is most valuable to us.”
Luigi realized that, in the ____ mind, the kitten was worth far more than all the jewels in the world.
He tried to look pleased with the ____.
He ____ that was the right thing to do.
____ did not return home a richer man.
But he was ____ a wiser one.