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The narrator interjects that though this morning is like any other, it is perfect in its way. When a thin timid dog approaches Kino offers it a kind word and the dog rests contentedly near him. The dawn comes suddenly while Kino watches "with the detachment of God" a group of ants in the sand. Kino now hears the song of the family coming from the stone where Juana is grinding the corn for the morning meal.
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A goat approaches him and a moth flies into the light of the fire. Kino, meanwhile, puts on his sandals and steps outside the hut to watch the dawn. Juana rises and, after checking to see that Coyotito is well, fans an ember from the firepit into the morning cooking fire. Kino, however, has his personal song that is "clear and soft" that, if he chose to give it a name, would be called "The Song of the Family." We learn that in the past everything Kino's people did or saw became a song but that time has long since passed and no new songs have been created. Kino hears the music of the waves upon the shore. Most of her head is covered in a blue shawl that she uses to ward off the chill of night. Her eyes, as they always are when Kino awakes, are already open. Next he looks at his wife Juana beside him on the mat. The first thing Kino sees upon opening his eyes is the light outlining the door to his hut and then he sees the hanging box where his infant son, Coyotito, sleeps. The roosters, pigs and wild birds are already awake in the yard outside Kino's thatch hut. Kino awakens just as the morning light is coming into the sky. The novel opens just before dawn in the coastal village of La Paz on the Gulf of Mexico. The narrator speculates that if the story is a parable then perhaps the reader will find some lesson for his or her own life.
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As such, things in the story will be black and white, more purely evil and good than as in life. In it the narrator states that the story of the pearl has been worn to its essence by many retellings in the town from which it originated.