Translation:The High Mountains/67

Spyros had a bulging pocket. He was hiding something in there and said nothing. Foudoulis fixed his eye on Spyros's pocket and in the end asked him:

—Is it a pear? —You can't eat this, replied Spyros. And he brought a stone out of his pocket.

When the others saw it from afar, they said to him laughing:

—And now Spyros is going to put stones in his box. But once they got nearer, they saw that the stone Spyros had collected wasn't like the others. It was very black and heavy. And it shone in different places, as if it were silver.

—Perhaps there's iron in it, said the Engineer, when they showed him the stone. Then he told them that there are many stones like that in the ground, and big ones too, which contain metal. Some contain iron, others copper, others lead. And even silver and gold.

The mountains provides all this.

While Spyros was listening to what the Engineer was saying about metals, he looked at the other children and felt proud. His stone gave them the opportunity to learn all that. So even Spyros has found something useful!