Chapter Three Kojo and the Treasure

Few days later,Kojo gathered his fishing gear and got ready for another day's business.He went to the river and pulled out his little boat from it's secured shelter on the banks .He pulled it to the river before getting into it.Then he paused to exchange pleas- antries with a few fellow fishermen around the river bank.

" Nice evening to you" he called,waving.

"Hey,Kojo" the men replied."it's a good day to go fishing, isn't it?

" Right you are are ,sir",said Kojo

" And may the God of heaven be with you ".

" As with you, brother".

Kojo looked out into the river.There were a few boats already sailing ahead.But the river was quite big.Very soon,all the boats will be so far apart that each one would appear to be the only fishing boats out on the river.

He pulled out his paddles from underneath a pile of old fishing nets, buckets and clothes, and carefully fixed them in the gunwales.He was humming a quiet tune as he began paddling his boat out into the river.He paddled through very far into the river.He paddled through a tunnel of tall Palm trees.,keeping his eyes on the flight of birds and the half moon overhead.The surrounding was quiet,the surface of the calm.

After a while,he stopped paddling and cast his net wide into the river.He watched the net sink slowly beneath the surface as he lifted his water bottle to his mouth to quench his thirst.Then he frowned lightly saying to himself,," this fishing business is really hectic".

Then he sat back and allowed the gentle sea breeze to blow over his face.He closed his eyes for a moment ,relishing the flow as his boat bobbled up and down slowly on the gentle river.Then he remembered the little fish he caught few days ago.The thought made him smile softly.

" I hope that little fish stays out of my net today," he said to himself." I don't think I'll let it off so easily this time ,no".Kojo also remem- bered the strange dream he had on the same night he caught the little fish " mmmmh..." he thought " what strange dream it was.I must be losing my mind because of poverty".

He smiled awkwardly and grunted inau- dibly to himself .Then he got up stretched and started pulling in his net .It felt heavy ,laden with a burdensome catch of fish.Excited ,Kojo began to pull up the net quickly .Then he stopped for a moment, apprehensive.

" I hope it's not another silly little fish," he said quietly.But as the net came up above the surface of the water,what Kojo saw made his heart stop momentarily .Then it began to beat again quickly and painfully.

" What's this ",what Kojo's net had caught was not another little fish ,no.What his net caught that night was treasure! Yes,he caught lots of treasures in his net just like you would catch fishes ! Kojo stared in unbelief.Thats right,his net had pulled in a catch of gold,silver and precious ornaments.All over the net,various beautiful objects glittered and shone radiantly.

This was really unbelievable! Timi felt alarmed .He blinked and scratched his eyes to be certain he was not dreaming.But it was real; as real as the tree nearby,blowing gently in the wind.He hesitated,feeling a bit terrified.Then he reached out a shaky hand and took one of the treasures - a trinket embellished with green and purple precious stones.Kojo tuned the ornament back and forth in his hand .He stared hard ,his eyes bulging and jaws dropped.

" My oh my!" he exclaimed.How is this possible?"

Then he put the treasure down in his boat and began to pull in the net He was pulling slowly at first .Then he began to pull it quickly,his heart beating rapidly as one after another beautiful treasure fell into the boat at his feet.When he had finally brought in the net,he collapsed on the floor, exhausted.His eyes were wide open with surprise,fear and excitement all at once.He had never seen that much riches in his life, and he wondered how he was going to tell his friends and neighb- ours about it.Of course,no one would ever believe that he went fishing and he fished out treasures.What he had in front of him inside his boat was without a doubt a pile of princely treasures.

Then he stopped,taken aback suddenly. His mind instantly flashed back to the strange dream he had only recently,on the night he càught the strange little fish which he threw back in the river.He remembered the queenly looking woman he saw in the dream,and the words she spoke to him: " it was my daughter whose life you spared yesterday, fisherman..... your kindness will be rewarded....From this day....your boat will only bring in princely treasures".

Kojo felt goose bumps welling up all over his body.He felt his head swelling .Could this be real,he asked himself.Its unbelieva- ble...But I thought it was only a dream!.Then he knelt before the treasure and began to laugh happily." Thank you!" he shouted into the wind."Thank you very much,Mother of the River ! I'm rich ! Oh,I'm rich !".

He turned his boat around and paddled back to the village as quickly as he could. From that time on, whenever Kojo went fishing,he didn't catch fish like the other fisher -man ; he caught treasures; gold, silver, prec- ious stones and jewelries.He had since accepted is good fate,thanking the Mother of the River for his fortune.

"It's really a surprise how Kojo got so rich" they said ." Where does he get those fine treasures from, anyway?"." I wonder there is something fishy about Kojo's sudden amass of treasures " ,others said ,raising their noses.

"Of course," some agreed, " No one suddenly finds treasures just like that ,no!"

But the more they kept talking the more Kojo became rich because any time he went fishing ,he caught more treasures.And quite expectedly,Kojo became a very rich man in a short time.In fact ,he soon became one of the richest man across the Twelve villages of the region.He became very popular and the numbers of his friends increased and lots of nobles among the with each passing day.