The rag-woman, a woman with a short, thin frame, purchases three ripe pumpkin seeds and a month-old goat youngling from neighboring stalls in the village. She carries the goat along the village path at duskfall, and the goat sniffs the eatable and emerges with a lolling tongue. The woman questions the goat’s feelings and wonders if she is nothing but a fool goat.
The goat grows out of the pumpkin seeds, producing fruit that would be similar to her own throb of fulfillment. The woman asks the goat about its knowledge of the fruit, which the goat responds with a pitying murmur. The goat then tries to hold her temper against the young devils who will come and pester her.
As the goat continues to grow, she encounters a puppy from another tree-trunk, and the youngster yells at her for not eating her eyeballs. The goat tries to defend herself by throwing brickbats at the boys, but they laugh and melt away in the orchard. The woman continues to hurt the boys, and the goat listens to her pleas for forgiveness.
The goat listens to her pleas, feeling soothed and able to fill an emptiness within her. This is how the rag-woman starts her new kinship with the goat youngling. The goat listens and answers in pity, showing that no one cared to listen to her talk due to her temper and tongue.
The rag-woman collects black pellets from her goat’s dung to nourish the growing vines. She hopes that the vines will imbibe some essentials of her being and respond with the wag of a tendril or leaf swing. The woman is close to the life of the vines, as they have a being. However, one day, the vines begin to bloom, and the woman becomes aghast at the barrenness of the two pumpkins.
The woman’s dream of being a barren one is shattered when she encounters the goat, which becomes reckless and lopping up the vine leaves. The woman’s anger leads to a fire-burst, and the goat dies. The woman’s neighbors try to revive the goat and offer to buy her a new pet, but the woman continues to cry.
A young girl arrives to help the woman, and she tells her not to point at the younglings of pumpkin, as they will shrivel and fall. The girl nods and closes her fingers tight, preventing them from pointing. The goat has cleared up thick patches of leaves, and another pumpkin hangs on a stripped tendril.
Despite the goat’s death, the pumpkin vines have spring to fruitful life, and the faltering pendulum has regained its swing. The story highlights the importance of understanding and respecting the natural world and the importance of balancing one’s relationship with others.
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