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