Slowly, Shandan and Mao Dan'er grew up, and Mao Dan'er never called Sister Shandan, because he thought it was so shameless to have such a little thin sister who wanted him to "cover" everywhere. He never called her by her name, and he didn't think that was good either—after all, a sister is a sister.

Although Shandan longs for his tall and strong brother to call him his sister, it doesn't matter if Mao Dan'er doesn't call her, anyway, she is a sister or not.

In a blink of an eye, the two reached the age of going to school, Mao Dan'er carried a blue cloth schoolbag, and Shandan carried a pair of flower cloth schoolbags carefully sewn by her mother for her, and the two of them happily went to school together every day.

The school is three or four miles away from home, called Xijiahe, and the children on the nearby grassland all walk a few miles to go to school together.

Walking through the green grass in summer, smelling the fragrance of flowers and herbs, the two of them walked while playing, and when they went to school, the time was tight, and the two went to school without delay.

When the sun on the Mongolian plateau is always high in the sky at the end of school, they have their own livelihood – the endless pastures are the paradise of their childhood. It carries their carefree, happy, and rich childhood.

They will quietly follow the quail to find the nest, once on the way home from school, a quail suddenly turned over and appeared beside them, the two thought that the quail was injured and easy to catch, so they hurriedly put down their schoolbags and desperately chased after them. I didn't want the quail to run with them like that, but when they caught up with them immediately, it swayed and flew up again and fell down, and after a while it ran out for a long distance, but the quail suddenly flew away without a trace.

The two of them panted and went back to pick up their bags and go home. Shandan was so tired that he couldn't breathe, his little face was flushed, and Mao Dan'er took Shandan's schoolbag and carried it on his back. Shandan is really tired, where has his usually thin body run like this? Mom has always told Shandan that he is not in good health, and he must not do things recklessly, but take his time. So Shandan usually doesn't even run very much, let alone run like this.

Just a few steps away, Shandan fell to the ground with his head, which frightened Mao Dan'er!

"Sister, sister, what's wrong with you? what's wrong with you?" he cried out anxiously as he carefully picked up Shandan. In his heart, his sister is always a sister, and he unconsciously shouted "sister" in a hurry.

When Shandan heard Mao Dan'er call her "sister", her heart blossomed, she tried her best to get up, and told Mao Dan'er: "I'm fine, but my legs are so weak that I don't have the strength to fall." ”

Mao Dan'er told Shandan to rest first, and he wanted to find her some bird eggs to cook and eat at night. Mao Dan'er gently pulled the grass away with his hands, and he searched around earnestly, "Found it! Found it! Four finch eggs!"

Shandan couldn't care about being tired, and hurriedly ran to see it.

A hemispherical bird nest woven with withered grass is hidden under a tall sheep's ear grass, the wide and thick leaves of the sheep's ear grass are the big umbrella of the bird's nest, no matter the sun and rain will not cause harm to the bird's nest, all things are animist, it is so hidden, so beautiful!

There were four gray eggs in the nest. The egg was small, only the size of a broad bean, and they did not dare to use their hands to reach for the egg, whose shell was as thin as a cicada's wings, so they took the nest together.

The dead grass in the bird's nest is one inch thick, strong and impermeable, so that even if the mother and father are not there, the rainwater on the grass will not soak into the bird's nest, and neither the eggs nor the hatched birds will be soaked in water.

Mao Dan'er saw that Shandan didn't have the strength to walk, so she insisted on carrying Shandan on her back, squatting down and hunching her back and waiting. Shandan repeatedly said that he could walk without carrying it, but he couldn't bend over and hunch his back motionless, so he carefully held the bird's nest and climbed onto Maodan'er's back, so the sister and brother staggered home, Shandan didn't dare to tell Sù's mother about the fall, but Mao Dan'er was fast-talking: "Auntie, my sister fell and boiled the finch eggs for her to eat." ”

Shandan's mother was terrified! She immediately picked up her daughter on the kang and looked at her from head to toe.

Shandan's mother asked while checking, "Why did you fall?"

Mao Dan'er looked at the aunt's anxious and terrifying expression on the side, knew that she was in trouble, and slipped back to her house next door.

Shandan told his mother because he was chasing an injured quail with Mao Dan'er, and he didn't think about it so much, but after chasing the quail, he fell down when his legs were weak when he walked, and he didn't feel any pain, and now he doesn't feel uncomfortable. If you fall on the thick and lush grass, you will definitely not be injured if you don't hit a rock. Besides, when I came back, I was carried back by Mao Dan'er, and I was fine.

Since Shandan was born, he has been frail, and Shandan's mother has always felt guilty and has been carefully caring for her daughter. After a closer inspection, I found nothing, and finally put my mind at ease. Holding Shandan in his arms, he once again told Shandan to be careful no matter what he does.

Shandan lay on his mother's lap and said mysteriously: "Mom, tell you a secret: Mao Dan'er called me sister today!"

"Really? why?"

"Because I fell, he called me sister in a hurry. ”

Shandan's mother caressed her daughter's little pale but joyful little face and showed a hint of a smile.

In the evening, Tie Dan'er came back from herding, and Shandan asked: "Big, why is it clear that a quail is injured and can't fly up, we chase it for a while, but we don't catch it, it is fine again, and it flies away?"

Tie Dan touched Shandan's head with his rough hands and said, "You have deceived the quail!"

"Why?"

"Because the quail wasn't hurt at all!"

"Didn't get hurt? So why did it flip and fly?"

"For it will lead you away to keep its nest. If you look around there tomorrow, there will be a nest of quail eggs or a nest of small quails. Father looked at Shandan with loving eyes and said.

Shandan immediately ran next door and told Mao Dan the news. The two of them planned to go to school early in the morning to find the quail nest.

At night, the family eats gnocchi by guarding a kerosene lamp on a tall wooden lampstand.

The kerosene lamp is still an aluminum cylinder for the wick stuffed by Shandan with a waste toothpaste bag, and the lid of the ink bottle is scalded with a red wire to make a round hole, and the aluminum cylinder with several white foreign threads rubbed together is used as the wick, and kerosene is poured into the bottle, and the beautiful and delicate kerosene lamp can be put into use. For this reason, my mother praised Shandan, and saw who told him that the lamp was made by Shandan.

Usually, the kerosene lamp is a blacksmith with a thin iron sheet to make the wick tube, the bottle with a large wine bottle, the cover is a thin iron sheet, can not be sealed, accidentally touch the lamp, the kerosene will be sprinkled, the wick is thick and ugly, not only the oil and black smoke but also big. The kerosene lamp made by Shandan has a thin wick, fuel-saving and small smoke, even if it is poured, it can't sprinkle kerosene, but the brightness is about the same. Every day, the brothers and sisters do their homework around the kerosene lamp, and they will no longer be blackened with black noses and black eyes.

The people in the village have waste toothpaste bags and store them, and when the families of students have waste ink bottles, they ask Shandan to make lamps. For a while, everyone praised Shandan for his ingenuity, and he will definitely have a future in the future. It is said that the toothpaste bag has been used for many years, why no one has thought of such a use?

While the family was eating, they listened to Tie Dan'er say that they played a game of "pressing mules": one person bent down and pulled up, several people jumped up, like a wooden horse in gymnastics, and he won the first place tonight.

Shandan was very envious on the side, and asked his brother when he could let her play a trick too?

Tie Dan'er said disdainfully: "Little girl's family, this can't be played." ”

Shandan pursed his lips and was unhappy, and his mother immediately criticized Tie Dan'er: "My sister is small, you have to take care of it more and coax it more." ”

The younger sister Erlian cocked her mouth and said, "It's (yes), it's (yes), and me." ”

Everyone laughed at Erlian's "two and a half mouths (unclear)".