"They were good. They would solve their quarrels with the
mediation of the elders, and they worked together when there was a need. The
evenings of feast days were a wonder that makes me homesick when I think about
them. Not to speak of the girls who certainly were the most beautiful and
tender." Adaka smiled and said: "Do not worry young man. The people in this
village are as good as those you have left." The young man went on with an even
determined gait and after a few minutes he was lost in the market crowd.

    After a while another young man arrived. He looked
suspiciously around, appraised Adaka with a long look, and approached him: “I
would like to settle in this place, but how are the people?" Adaka took a long
tune to refill his pipe then asked: “How were the people in the village you have
left?" The young man answered with a sneer: "They are bad. They are envious and
jealous. They never recognized my talent. I am so glad I left them." Adaka put
on a worried look and slowly said: "Then you better not even enter this village.
Here people are exactly as those you have left behind. You will not find any
friend here,"

    The young man turned away in disgust.

    Mphande, Adaka’s granddaughter, who during all the time
had been nearby grinding maize and had stopped to hear the conversation of her
grandfather with passers-by waited for the second young man to leave and then
questioned him in an astonished voice: "But grandfather, you have cheated one of
he two boys! You gave completely different answers to the same question." "You
see, he explained, "People are to us what we want them. If we treat them with
kindness and consideration they will become our friends. If we despise them they
will despise us in turn. The first young man will find friends everywhere he
will go. The second will make enemies everywhere as he imagines them to be so.
The difference is not in my answers, but in their hearts. "