Grandfather’s Coins

Every month, Julia and her cousins would go for the big family meal at their grandparents' house. They would always wait excitedly for the moment their grandfather would give them a few coins, "so you can buy yourself something." Then all the children would run off to buy chewing gum, lollies, or wine gums. The grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents commented that, behaving like this, the children would never learn to manage their money. So they proposed a special test, in which the children would have to show, over the course of a year, just what they could manage to get with those few coins.

Some of the children thought that they would save their money, but Ruben and Nico, the two smallest kids, paid no attention, and they continued spending it all on sweets. Every time, they would show off their sweets in front of the other children, laughing and making fun of their cousins. They made Clara and Joe so angry that these two could no longer stand to keep saving their money. They joined Ruben and Nico in spending whatever they had, as soon as possible, on sweets.

Monty was a clever boy, and he decided to start managing his money by exchanging it: buying and selling things, or betting it with other children, in card games. Soon he had surprised the whole family. He had accumulated a lot of money for little effort. The way he was going, he would end up almost a rich man. However, Monty was not being very careful, and he got involved in more and more risky deals. A few months later he hadn't a single penny left, after placing a losing bet on a horse race.

Alex, on the other hand, had a will of iron. He saved and saved all the money he was given, wanting to win the competition, and at the end of the year he had collected more money than anyone. Even better, with so much money, he managed to buy sweets at a reduced price, so that on the day of the competition he was presented with enough sweets for much more than a year. And even then, he still had enough left over for a toy. He was the clear winner, and the rest of his cousins learnt from him the advantages of knowing how to save and how to wait.

There was also Julia. Poor Julia didn't enjoy the day of the competition, because even though she had had a wonderful secret plan, she had spent her money without giving her plan enough time to work. However, she was so sure that her plan was a good one, that she decided to carry on with it, and maybe change the expressions on her relatives' faces, who had seemed to be saying "What a disaster that girl is. She couldn't manage to save anything."

When she was about to complete the second year of her plan, Julia surprised everyone by turning up at the grandparents' house with a violin and a lot of money. What was even more impressive was hearing her play. She did it really well.

Everyone knew that Julia adored the violin, even though the family couldn't afford to pay for her to have lessons. So Julia had got to know a poor violinist who played in the park, and she offered him all the coins her grandfather had given her, if he would teach her how to play. Although it wasn't much money, on seeing Julia's excitement, the violinist agreed, and he taught her happily for months. Julia showed so much desire and interest that a little after a year the violinist loaned her a violin so they could play together in the park, as a duo. They were so successful that gradually she managed to buy her own violin, with quite a bit of money to spare.

From then on, the whole family helped her, and she became a very famous violinist.
And she would always tell people how it was possible, with just a few coins well spent, to make your wildest dreams a reality.

A little money well spent can achieve a lot more than we had imagined, especially if it helps us to learn and develop ourselves.

The Opera Singer

One day, a train was approaching the small town of Cheekyville. On the train was a strange guy with a big suitcase. He was called William Warbler - the man, not the suitcase - and he looked very common indeed. What made him most unusual, though, was the fact that whenever he needed to communicate he did it by singing opera. It didn't matter to William whether it was simply a matter of answering a brief greeting, like 'good day'. He would clear his voice and respond,

"Gooood dayyy to youuuuuuuu..... tooOOOO!"

It wouldn't be unfair to say that almost everyone considered William Warbler a massive pain in the neck. No one could get a normal, spoken, word out of him. And, as no one knew how he made his living - and he lived quite simply, always wearing his same old second-hand suit - they often treated him with disdain.

They made fun of his singing, calling him 'Don No One', 'Poor-Rotti', and 'Lazy Miserables'. William had been in Cheekyville for some years, when, one day, a rumour spread round town like wildfire: William had secured a role in a very important opera in the nation's capital, and there were posters everywhere advertising the event. Everyone in the capital went to see it, and it was a great success. At the end of its run - to everyone in Cheekyville's surprise - when William was being interviewed by reporters, he answered their questions by speaking rather than singing. And he did it with great courtesy, and with a clears and pleasant voice.

From that day, William gave up singing at all hours. Now he did it only during his stage appearances and world tours. Some people suspected why he had changed, but others still had no idea, and continued believing him to be somewhat mad. They wouldn't have thought so if they had seen what William kept in his big suitcase. It was a large stone, with a hand-carved message on it.

The message said: "Practice, my boy. Practice every second, for you never know when your chance will come."

Little did people realise that he only got the role in the opera because the director had heard William singing while out buying a newspaper.

Moral :- Success comes as a result of hard work and constant effort.

The Fairy and the Shadow

A long, long time ago, before people and their cities filled the Earth, even before many things even had a name, there was a mysterious place that was guarded by the Fairy of the Lake. Fair and generous, each of her followers were ever willing to serve her. There was a time in which some evil beings threatened the lake and its surrounding forests, and the fairy’s followers joined her on a dangerous journey across rivers, swamps and deserts in search of the Crystal Stone, their only hope of being saved.

The fairy warned them of the dangers and difficulties that lay ahead, of how hard it would be to endure the whole journey, but none of her followers were afraid. They all promised to accompany her to wherever it was needed, and that same day the fairy and her fifty most loyal followers set out on their journey.

As it turned out, the voyage was even harder and more terrible than the fairy had imagined and warned them about. They were met by terrifying beasts. They had to march day and night, lost in deserts, hungry and thirsty. Faced by such adversity, many followers lost heart and abandoned the quest. Finally, only one remained, and his name was Shadow.

Shadow was by no means the bravest, he was not the best fighter, nor was he the most quick-witted or the most fun. However, what he did do was stay loyal to the fairy, right to the very end. Whenever the fairy asked Shadow why he had not done as the others and simply abandoned her, Shadow would always say, ‘I told you I would follow you in spite of all difficulties, and that is what I am doing. I am not going to turn my back on you just because the journey has been hard.’

Thanks to her loyal Shadow, the fairy finally managed to find the Crystal Stone. Unfortunately, there was a monster guarding the stone, and this monster was not about to give up the stone easily. At this, Shadow, in a final act of loyalty, offered himself in exchange for the stone. The monster accepted, and so Shadow spent the rest of his days in the monster’s service.

The powerful magic of the Crystal Stone meant that the fairy could return to the lake and make the evil beings disappear. But every night she would cry at the absence of her loyal Shadow, because from Shadow’s act of self-sacrifice had arisen a love stronger than any other.

And in memory of Shadow, and to show everyone the value of loyalty and commitment, the fairy presented every being on Earth with its own shadow during the day; but when nighttime comes all these shadows travel to the lake, to spend time with the sad fairy, and to try to console her for her loss.

Moral :- The fundamental basis of friendship and love is to remain loyal and committed during times of adversity.

The Singing Hippo

Once upon a time, a hippopotamus lived in a river next to a big and solitary tree.

One day, a bird came and nested in the tree. The songs and the flight of the bird caused such envy in the hippo that he couldn't think of anything else. Every day he would lament the fact that he had been born a hippo. This, despite the many times the bird told the hippo he was so lucky to be so big and such a good swimmer.

Finally, the hippo made his mind up that he would come out of the river, climb the tree, go out to perch on a branch, and start singing. However, when he tried to climb the tree it was all too clear that the hippo didn't have wings, nor claws to climb with, and neither could he hop.

Realising that he would never manage it, he angrily rammed his whole weight against the tree until it came crashing to the ground. Then, triumphantly, he stepped onto the leaves of the fallen tree, and began singing.

Unfortunately, hippos can't sing either. All that came from his mouth were horrible noises, and when the other animals heard this they all gathered round to make fun of the hippo standing on the branch of a fallen tree, trying to sing like a bird.

He was so embarrassed by this that he decided to never again regret being a hippo. He also felt bad about having knocked the tree over. He used all his strength to raise the tree back up again, replant it, and look after it until it had completely recovered.

Envying what is natural in others but not in yourself, can drive you to unwise forms of behavior.

Fashion Forest

Once upon a time, there was a forest where all the animals lived happily together. One day a family went to spend the day in the countryside, and one little boy left his socks there. Soon after the family left, a racoon came by, found the socks, and decided to try them on. They fit so well, and he liked them so much, that he wouldn't take them off. He spent his days walking through the forest in his new socks.

All the animals talked about the racoon's new look, and some of them were a bit envious that he was getting so much attention. Before long, in that forest, there began appearing squirrels in shirts, rabbits in boots, moles with hats on, and even a bird wearing underpants!

Doctor Bear, the forest physician, would shake his head, telling people:

-"This can't be good. Animals don't wear clothes; we don't need them."

But no one listened to him, they said he was just old-fashioned, and ignorant of the latest trends.

However, it wasn't long before the first consequences of fashion-fever began to take effect. Several times the squirrel snagged his shirt on tree bark, stopping him in mid-leap, and sending him plummeting to the ground from a great height. The mole tried to fit into his hole without first taking his hat off. He was stuck in that hole all day. One of the birds got in a tangle with the clothes it was wearing, and had to make a crash-landing on some thistles, getting stuck full of thorns. Even the racoon, thanks to his brightly coloured socks, slipped from one of the river rocks and almost drowned.

When the casualties came to see Doctor Bear, he gave them all the same prescription:

-"Off with you, and get rid of those clothes, because one day they’re going to kill you."

Those who listened to the Doctor's advice stopped having accidents. And the animals realised that they didn't need clothes at all. Starting to wear them had been very silly, and they had only done it to make others envious of them, and to get attention.

We often end up doing stupid things just to imitate others or to make others envious