Part 2, Parable Summary

A mother tells her small daughter not to ride her bicycle around the corner. The girl demands to know why. The mother replies that then she cannot see her daughter and she will fall down and cry and the mother will not hear her. It is written in a book, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, "all the bad things that can happen to a child outside the protection of her house." The daughter demands to know what the twenty-six things are. When the mother does not reply, the daughter says her mother does not know anything. She jumps on her bicycle and falls before she reaches the corner.

Part 2, Parable Analysis

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates book figures prominently in some of the stories. Malignant here means "dangerous". The parable indicates that problems will occur with the children of the four women who...