Book excerpt: Tells the fable of an Asian man named Basket Weaver who made baskets for housewives & others. But the most important baskets were the ones he made for the newborn babies. These were the beds they would sleep in, & into each he wove the spirit of the child. One day he saved a drowning cat from a spring. She stayed with him, & he called her Catches Many Mice. In the autumn a messenger came from the Emperor. The Empress had given birth to her first child & the basketweavers of the four provinces were ordered to weave a bed for her. The weaver of the best one will be chosen to live in the palace as the official Basket Weaver; the losers will be sent to work in the mines for 7 years. Basket Weaver wins, with the help of Catches Many Mice.