Wearily, as if she were spending her last bit of strength, she kept on hoeing the land.

Waving goodbye as he continued on his journey, the stranger wished:  “Better luck next time!”

What they didn’t know was that the stranger was a messenger from Heaven who traveled on earth to inspect individual human conduct in order to bestow rewards—or to inflict punishments.

Mrs. Yao-wen Li is a free-lance writer living in Lawrence, Kansas. She is co-author of the book Sweet and Sour: Tales from China, and has written for many magazines for both children and adults.