Question

Write an essay by developing the following hints:
Refugees pouring into Beijing - cold welcome by the city dwellers - cursed by the native workers - the new horde of refugees - not beggarly - each carrying baskets slung upon a pole - an old man - the fate of his son and daughter-in-law - a passerby taking pity giving money - the reason for the starvation - keeping the silver coin for buying seeds.

Answer 1

Pearl Buck, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1938, in her 'The Refugee' narrated the plight of refugees.
The city of Beijing was full of refugees, begging at every door. Swarming into every unskilled trade and service, lying dead on the street at every frozen dawn. The city dwellers did not like their entry fearing that they would be out of their jobs since those refugees were ready to earn by any means.
The refugees were from one region. They dressed similarly. There were a few lads in the throng, a few children sitting in baskets slung upon a pole across the shoulders of their fathers but there was no young girls, no young infants. Though there was no food material with them, each one carried a bedding and an iron cauldron.
The last one of that long procession of silent men and women, was a little old man. He was struggling hard to walk. Suddenly, unable to go no more, he set his bundle gently near a noodle vendor's stand. A man passing by gave the old man told that kind hearted man that they did not beg, they had good land an they had never starved. As the river flooded, they had no seed because they ate them all. The old man asked the vendor only a small bowl of noodle, which he fed his grandson with. He added that his son and daughter-in-law were drowned when their dikes broke. The vendor asked the old man what the latter would do with the silver coin. The old man replied that he had decided to spend the money on buying seeds to sow. His decision proved that :Land is dearer than anything else".