23、 

One day, a young woman said something that hurt her best friend and the friend n  1   met her after that．She regretted it, and wanted to take the w  2   back．

 She asked an older woman for a  3  ．The woman said, "You need to do two things． Tonight, take your best feather pillows （羽毛枕頭）and before the sun rises, you must put a single feather on the doorstep of each house in town． After you finish, come back to me and I’ll tell you the s  4   one．"

At night, the younger woman went from doorstep to doorstep and didn’t m  5   a single doorstep．After she finished, she went back and said, "I’ve put a feather on the doorstep of each home．"

Now the older woman said, "Go back and find the feathers and put them back into your pillows．Then everything will be as it was b  6  ．"

The younger woman cried, "You know that’s i  7   ! The wind blew away each feather as soon as I put them on the doorsteps! "

That’s true ," said the older woman． "Each of your words is like a feather in the wind．You can never return them to your mouth, so remember: c  8   your words well, and use warm words when you say something．"