Welcome to Stories Come to Life. I am your host, Kathryn Lopez Luker. Kindness and beauty are both wonderful qualities to be blessed with. But where beauty is often out of our control, kindness is something people can develop and add to their characters, no matter what their outward appearance may be like. Today’s stories are two traditional African folktales, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, retold by John Steptoe, and Chinye, retold by Obi Onyefulu. In these tales, kindness is discovered to be of far greater worth than just outward beauty. And sometimes, unkindness carries terrible penalties.  These two stories seem to me to represent the principles of Collective Work and Responsibility and Faith. There may be other principles they represent as well. What can you find in these tales?  Now sit back, relax, and listen to this story come to life.