Along the unending steppes of the Dubrovnik region of Caucuses not too far away there is a village clinging to its soil. It had a name some time ago and only the elders of the community could remember it. The houses of the town, if your rightly call them a homes were all similar being built of clay with thatched roofs; all divided into two rooms with a rickety attached barn to it. Yet here and there dispersed in the village was comfortable homes of once good, now with peeling paint. It spoke of the time when the community thrived but now broken, divided and poor because people did not work together only for themselves and their family. Now what caused a dissention between the people of the village? It was simply a red hat.

At one time all the men and women even the children were dressed alike more or less. Off course all the men, and women, and even the little children in this village wear hats to shade them from the sun in the summer months and to give warmth in the cold of winter months. The hats worn by the good folk were usually made of hide and fur, and so all the hats were brown with the worn shine of use. Or at least they used to be.

One day a few years ago, a man had traveled away from the village to visit a sick relative and give him comfort. When he entered the city he noticed that red dye was very popular and available everywhere. Outside of a cursory wish to the ailing kin he started to investigate this phenomenon of red dye, as he understood that all clothing, especially hats should be brown in color. But fate intervened as a shopkeeper there had offered to dye the man's hat bright red for a certain price. It sounded like a lot of money to the man, but the desire to have a bright red hat soon overtook him, and he could not refuse. He paid the price and in a few days he had his new red hat, which he wore like a dandy.

When he returned home, all the people were amazed and mostly delighted to see the red hat. Everyone complimented him on it as he paraded through the earthen paths of the town. People would stop him, or come over to his little house, and asked to touch and handle the hat, even to try it on. They all agreed that it was much softer and warmer now that it was red so they thought.

The village people were so busy talking about the red hat that the water seemed to boil faster, the bread seemed to rise faster, and even the work went quickly. Life suddenly seemed easier and better. Soon it was decided that the cows were giving

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