Season's creating circle round fans. To celebrate the season of giving, we hope you'll consider

giving to WBUR, the NPR station that makes circle round possible. When you make a contribution

to WBUR, we'll give you a thank you gift of your choice, like the adorable new lion stuffed

animal, as well as our picture books, tote bags, t-shirts, water bottles, we've even designed

some special holiday gift bundles for the circle round fans in your life. Grown-ups head

to www.orgslashcircleround and click circle round swag. Thank you and happy holidays!

Produced by the island at WBUR Boston.

Do you have a special elder in your life? Maybe it's a grandparent who makes a mean pancake

breakfast or tells the best bedtime stories. Perhaps it's an uncle and a neighbor who always

makes you laugh with tales from their youth. A Chinese proverb says, the family with an

old person in it possesses a jewel. And in today's story, we'll meet a woman who's

determined to keep that jewel safe.

I'm Rebecca Sheer and welcome to Circle Round. Our story time happens all the time.

Today our story is called plowing the road. It's inspired by tales told in many places,

including Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Haiti, Russia, the Balkans and the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.

Some really great people came together to bring you our folk tale, including Camico Glen,

whom you grown-ups will know from orange is the new black and liza on demand. And in case

you can hear Camico in Baby Shark's big show, Dogs in Space and my little pony, a new generation.

So Circle Round everyone, for plowing the road.

There once lived a king and queen who ruled their land with reason, compassion and wisdom.

The royal couple never had any children, but somehow when the monarchs were old enough to have

heads full of grey hairs and faces full of wrinkles, they received the unexpected news that a baby

...