Squirrel’s lesson.30 – 10

A little squirrels lives in a forest. He works much because he wants to have many nuts for the winter.

One day he meets the other squirrels who live in the same forest.

“Look at all the nuts I have,” he says. “They are all my nuts. When winter comes, I will have it all to myself.³¹”

“You are a bad squirrel,” say the squirrels. “But we have many nuts for the winter too.” And they go to their homes. Soon a cold winter comes. Every day the squirrel goes to the place where his nuts are and takes some nuts foe dinner. He likes nuts.

One morning when the squirrel is very hungry, he comes to his place to take the nuts, but there are no nuts there.

“Where are my nuts?” he cries. “What must I do now? I am so hungry and I have no nuts.”

The little squirrel goes to the other squirrels and asks them to give him some nuts. But the other squirrels say to him:

“You did not help³² us to collect nuts, so we don’t want to give you nuts now.”

“Please give me some nuts. I am so hungry,” the little squirrel says.

The squirrels think and then say:

“All right, take our nuts when you are hungry, but you must help us to collect them next year.”

“Oh, thank you,” says the little squirrel. “Thank you very much. I will always help you to collect nuts.”

Every year after³³ the little squirrel helps the other squirrels to collect nuts because he knows that sharing belongings is a very good thing to do.³⁴

The Golden Fish

Once upon a time, in a land far far away lived a very poor couple in a shack not far from the edge of the sea. Their only means of food was the fish that the old man caught in the sea. One morning, as was his usual routine, the fisherman took his fishing net down to the sea. But on this day something unusual happened, on this day the fisherman caught the Golden Fish. The Golden Fish begged for the fisherman to spare his life, and offered in return to grant the fisherman any wish he would like. But the kindhearted fisherman asked for nothing, and returned the Golden Fish to the sea. However, the fisherman's wife was not so kindhearted, she became irate when he related the story to her, and sent him back to the sea to catch the Golden Fish and to wish for a loaf of bread. The fisherman did as he was told, he caught the fish and wished for a loaf of bread. When he returned home he found a fresh baked loaf of bread on the table.

The fisherman's wife then decided that she wanted more than just a loaf of bread. The next morning she sent her husband to ask for a new. He returned home to find his wife with a new washtub, but she still wasn't satisfied.

The following day the husband was sent to the sea to find the magic fish and to wish for a new house. This wish was, like the ones before it, granted to the fisherman. But the fisherman was sent back again the next day to wish that his wife would become governor. This time he returned home to find his wife dressed in riches and ordering about servants. But the woman was still unhappy, and demanded to become Queen of all the land.

Eventually, even being Queen of all the land did not satisfy the wife, and so she sent her husband once last time to the sea to catch the Golden Fish and to wish that she would be ruler of the sea and of all creatures who live in it. The fisherman caught the fish, and made the wish. However, when he returned home his wife was dressed in her old rags, standing by her old broken washtub, inside the old shack, with not even a loaf of bread to eat.

THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE

After Oscar Wilde

“She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses,” cried the young Student, “but in all my garden there is no red rose.”

From her nest in the oak tree the Nightingale heard him, and she looked out through the leaves and wondered.

“No red rose in all my garden!” he cried, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears. “Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched.”

“Here at last is a true lover,” said the Nightingale. “Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not: night after night have I told his story to the stars and now I see him. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.”

“The Prince gives a ball tomorrow night,” murmured the young student, “and my love will be of the company. If I bring her a red rose she will dance with me till dawn. If I bring her a red rose, I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine. But there is no red rose in my garden, so I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by, and my heart will break.”

“Here, indeed, is the true lover,” said the Nightingale. “What I sing of, he suffers; what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the market-place. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”

“The musicians will sit in their gallery,” said the young Student, “and play upon their stringed instruments, and my love will dance to the sound of the harp and the violin. She will dance so lightly that her feet will not touch the floor, and the courtiers in their gay dresses will throng round her. But with me she will not dance, for I have no red rose to give her;” and he flung himself down on the grass, and buries his face in his hands, and wept.

“Why is he weeping?” asked a little Green Lizard, as he ran past him with his tail in the air.

“Why, indeed?” said a Butterfly, who was fluttering about after a sunbeam.

“Why, indeed?” whispered a Daisy to his neighbour in a soft, low voice.

“He is weeping for a red rose,” said the Nightingale.

“For a red rose?” they cried; “how very ridiculous!” and the little Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright.

But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love.

Suddenly she spread her brown wings for flight, and soared into the air. She passed through the grove like a shadow and like a shadow she sailed across the garden.