The Fragrant Garden. Day's Lee

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       The Fragrant Garden

      Written by Day's Lee

      Illustrations by Josée Bellemare

      Napoleon Publishing

      Copyright text © 2005 by Day's Lee

      Copyright illustrations © 2005 by Josée Bellemare

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.

      Cover art by Josée Bellemare

      Napoleon Publishing acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

Napoleon Publishing Toronto, Ontario www.napoleonpublishing.com

      Printed in Canada

      09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Lee, Day's, date-

      The fragrant garden / Day's Lee ; Josée Bellemare, illustrator.

      ISBN 1-894917-26-X

      1. Picture books for children. I. Bellemare, Josée, date- II. Title.

      PS8623.E43F73 2005 jC813'.6 C2005-903661-3

      For my nieces and nephews:

      Debbie, Bobby, Sandy, Amy, Brian,

      Samuel and Amanda

      – Day's Lee

      To Gary for his loving support

      – Josée Bellemare

      In the middle of Chinatown,

      squeezed between a Chinese herbal pharmacy

      and a gift shop displaying jade and

      plastic treasures from the Orient,

      was a restaurant named the Fragrant Garden.

      A red and yellow neon sign

      hanging over the front door

      blinked steadily every night.

      Fragrant Garden

       Fragrant Garden

       Fragrant Garden

      It blinked every two seconds.

      Jade knew it blinked every two seconds

      because she timed it with the watch

      her mother had given her

      for her ninth birthday.

      The restaurant was popular

      because it served delicious Chinese food.

      Sunday evening was the busiest night of the week.

      Jade went to the restaurant every Sunday

      to help out.

      She packed cartons of food into bags

      for take-out orders.

      She made sure the bottles of soya sauce

      and the salt and pepper shakers

      on each table were full.

      And, if a customer couldn't decide

      what to order,

      she would do her best to describe the dishes

      and assure them that

      no matter what they chose,

      it would be tasty.

      Although her parents were pleased that

      she helped out with the family business,

      her father shook his head when she asked