Short Stories for Children for Spoken English Program Spoken English: Short Stories Short Stories for Children LEVEL 1: STORIES FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN .............................................................................. 5 THE WIND AND THE SUN .................................................................................................................... 5 THE VILLAGER AND THE SPECTACLES ................................................................................................. 5 AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP ..................................................................................................... 6 THE FARMER AND HIS SONS ............................................................................................................... 6 BIRBAL THE WISE ................................................................................................................................ 7 THE WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING ....................................................................................................... 7 HARE AND THE TORTOISE ................................................................................................................... 7 NOBODY BELIEVES A LIAR ................................................................................................................... 8 WORK IS WORSHIP .............................................................................................................................. 9 NEVER BE UNGRATEFUL ...................................................................................................................... 9 KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN...................................................................................................................... 10 LIVE AND LET LIVE ............................................................................................................................. 10 TIME IS VALUABLE ............................................................................................................................. 11 HAVE FAITH IN GOD .......................................................................................................................... 11 BLIND IMITATION IS BAD .................................................................................................................. 11 A FOX AND A CRANE ......................................................................................................................... 12 LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE .................................................................................................... 13 THE STORY OF LORD GANESHA ......................................................................................................... 13 EAGLES IN A STORM .......................................................................................................................... 14 2 Spoken English: Short Stories THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER .................................................................................................... 14 MOTHER’S DAY ................................................................................................................................. 15 MOUNTAIN ....................................................................................................................................... 15 THE MISER ......................................................................................................................................... 16 TWO FROGS ...................................................................................................................................... 16 SAND AND STONE ............................................................................................................................. 17 LEVEL 2: STORIES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN ....................................................................... 18 A BOX FULL OF KISSES ....................................................................................................................... 18 THE PRAYING HANDS ........................................................................................................................ 18 THE FOUR WIVES .............................................................................................................................. 20 WAIT FOR THE BRICK ........................................................................................................................ 21 PUPPIES FOR SALE ............................................................................................................................. 22 THE MAN, THE BOY AND THE DONKEY ............................................................................................. 23 THE WOODEN BOWL ........................................................................................................................ 24 TREES THAT WOOD ........................................................................................................................... 25 PENCIL ............................................................................................................................................... 27 DAD’S BLESSINGS .............................................................................................................................. 28 THE GREEDY CLOUD .......................................................................................................................... 29 A MAD MAN IN THE CITY .................................................................................................................. 29 NEVER MAKE FUN OF A RHINO ......................................................................................................... 31 THE MATH DUNCE ............................................................................................................................ 32 THE WHITE ROSE ............................................................................................................................... 33 THE RUBY THIEF ................................................................................................................................ 34 3 Spoken English: Short Stories THE DRAWING THAT TALKED ............................................................................................................ 35 THE SINGING HIPPO .......................................................................................................................... 37 THE INCREDIBLE BLACK RAIN ............................................................................................................ 38 MY LITTLE WORLD HAS BROKEN ....................................................................................................... 39 THE UNFRIENDLY RIVER .................................................................................................................... 40 THE TICKLING SCALES ........................................................................................................................ 41 A DAY WITH PIGS .............................................................................................................................. 41 THE WARM WHALE ........................................................................................................................... 42 THE MAGIC WINDOW ....................................................................................................................... 43 4 Spoken English: Short Stories LEVEL 1: STORIES FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN THE WIND AND THE SUN Once the Wind and the Sun had an argument. “I am stronger than you,” said the Wind. “No, you are not,” said the Sun. Just at that moment they saw a traveler walking across the road. He was wrapped in a shawl. The Sun and the Wind agreed that whoever could separate the traveller from his shawl was stronger. The Wind took the first turn. He blew with all his might to tear the traveller’s shawl from his shoulders. But the harder he blew, the tighter the traveller gripped the shawl to his body. The struggle went on till the Wind’s turn was over. Now it was the Sun’s turn. The Sun smiled warmly. The traveller felt the warmth of the smiling Sun. Soon he let the shawl fall open. The Sun’s smile grew warmer and warmer... hotter and hotter. Now the traveller no longer needed his shawl. He took it off and dropped it on the ground. The Sun was declared stronger than the Wind. Moral: Brute force can’t achieve what a gentle smile can. THE VILLAGER AND THE SPECTACLES There was a villager. He was illiterate. He did not know how to read and write. He often saw people wearing spectacles for reading books or papers. He thought, “If I have spectacles, I can also read like these people. I must go to town and buy a pair of spectacles for myself.” So one day he went to a town. He entered a spectacles shop He asked the shopkeeper for a pair of spectacles for reading. The shopkeeper gave him various pairs of spectacles and a book. The villager tried all the spectacles one by one. But he could not read anything. He told the shopkeeper that all those spectacles were useless for him. The shopkeeper gave him a doubtful look. Then he looked at the book. It was upside down! The shopkeeper said, “Perhaps you don’t know how to read.” The villager said, “No, I don’t. I want to buy spectacles so that I can read like others. But I can’t read with any of these spectacles.” The shopkeeper controlled his laughter with great difficulty when he learnt the real problem of his illiterate customer. He explained to the villager, “My dear friend, you are very ignorant. Spectacles don’t help to read or write. They only help you to see better. First of all you must learn to read and write.” Moral: Ignorance is blindness. 5 Spoken English: Short Stories AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP One night, three thieves stole a lot of money from a rich man’s house. They put the money in a bag and went to the forest. They felt very hungry. So, one of them went to a nearby village to buy food. The other two remained in the forest to take care of the bag of money. The thief that went for food had an evil idea. He ate his food at a hotel. Then he bought food for his two mates in the forest. He mixed a strong poison with the food. He thought, “Those two will eat this poisoned food and die. Then I will get all the money for myself.” Meanwhile, the two wicked men in the forest decided to kill their mate on return. They thought that they would divide the money between the two of them. All the three wicked men carried out their cruel plans. The thief who wanted all the money for himself came to the forest with the poisoned food. The two men in the forest hit him and killed him. Then they ate the poisoned food and died. Thus, these evil people met with an evil end. Moral: Evil begets evil THE FARMER AND HIS SONS A farmer had five sons. They were strong and hardworking. But they always quarrelled with one another. Sometimes, they even fought. The farmer wanted his sons to stop quarrelling and fighting. He wanted them to live in peace. Plain words of advice or scolding did not have much effect on these young people. The farmer always thought what to do to keep his sons united. One day he found an answer to the problem. So he called all his sons together. He showed them a bundle of sticks and said, “I want any of you to break these sticks without separating them from the bundle.” Each of the five sons tried one by one. They used their full strength and skill. But none of them could break the sticks. Then the old man separated the sticks and gave each of them just a single stick to break. They broke the sticks easily. The farmer said, “A single stick by itself is weak. It is strong as long as it is tied up in a bundle. Likewise, you will be strong if you are united. You will be weak if you are divided.” Moral: United we stand, Divided we fall. 6 Spoken English: Short Stories BIRBAL THE WISE One day, a rich merchant came to Birbal. He said to Birbal, “I have seven servants in my house. One of them has stolen my bag of precious pearls. Please find out the thief.” So Birbal went to the rich man’s house. He called all the seven servants in a room. He gave a stick to each one of them. Then he said, “These are magic sticks. Just now all these sticks are equal in length. Keep them with you and return tomorrow. If there is a thief in the house, his stick will grow an inch longer by tomorrow.” The servant who had stolen the bag of pearls was scared. He thought, “If I cut a piece of one inch from my stick, I won’t be caught.” So he cut the stick and made it shorter by one inch. The next day Birbal collected the sticks from the servants. He found that one servant’s stick was short by an inch. Birbal pointed his finger at him and said, “Here is the thief.” The servant confessed to his crime. He returned the bag of pearls. He was sent to jail. THE WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING One day a wolf found a sheepskin. He covered himself with the sheepskin and got into a flock of sheep grazing in a field. He thought, “The shepherd will shut the sheep in the pen after sunset. At night I will run away with a fat sheep and eat it. All went well till the shepherd shut the sheep in the pen and left. The wolf waited patiently for the night to advance and grow darker. But then an unexpected thing happened. One of the servants of the shepherd entered the pen. His master had sent him to bring a fat sheep for supper. As luck would have it, the servant picked up the wolf dressed in the sheepskin. That night the shepherd and his guests had the wolf for supper. Moral: An evil design has an evil end. HARE AND THE TORTOISE Once a hare was roaming near a lake in a forest. Suddenly he saw a tortoise and mocked at him saying - "Hurry up, you slow coach! Don't you find life very dull taking so long to cover a few yards? I could have run to the other side of the lake by now." The tortoise felt teased and dared the hare to a race. The race was to be through the wood to a fixed goal. The hare agreed laughingly. In a few minutes he was away and out of sight. "What a funny race it is!" he said to himself , "I am already half -way through. But it is too- too cold; why not have a nap in the warm sunshine?" The tortoise walked steadily on and on. In a short time, he passed by the sleeping hare. 7 Spoken English: Short Stories The hare slept far longer then he had intended.When he woke up at last, he looked around in surprise and said to himself," Not even a sigh of the poor tortoise anywhere so far; I had better trot along and finish the race." The hare ran to the goal. He was amazed to see all the animals cheering the tortoise who had arrived just a minute earlier. how ashamed he felt indeed! Moral: Slow and steady wins the race NOBODY BELIEVES A LIAR Once a mischievous boy lived in a village that stood in the feet of a hill. One day he thought of having fun at the cost of his fellow-villagers. Standing on a high rock, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Lion! Lion! Come, save me." The villagers heard the shout and ran to help him. But when they reached there, they could see no lion and the boy was perfectly all right. The boy laughed at the villagers saying, "No Lion ; I did it only for fun." The villagers got highly annoyed and came back with an air of anger. Few days later the boy repeated the whole act. Again the villagers went to his rescue but were duped again. Now they decided not to be fooled by him anymore. Unfortunately, one day, the lion really came there. Now the boy shouted, "Lion! Lion! as loud as he could". But nobody came to help him out. The lion attacked the boy. The boy struggled hard to save himself but within few minutes, the beast killed him. So, once a liar, always a liar. 8 Spoken English: Short Stories WORK IS WORSHIP One fine sunny day in winter, a grasshopper was basking in the warm sun. But he was very hungry, as he had not eaten anything since last night. So, he looked about to find something to soothe his hunger. Suddenly, he saw few ants carrying grains into their hole. He went up to the ants and asked humbly, "Can you, please, spare few grains for me. I haven't eaten anything since yesterday. So, I am almost starving to death." One of the ants asked the grasshopper, "What were you doing the whole summer? Why didn't you store up the food for the winter season?" The grasshopper replied, "Truly speaking, I spent all the summer singing songs and that's why I couldn't store anything." The ant chucked out a smile and remarked, "Then dance the winter away." The grasshopper pulled a long face and walked away. So we say "Work is real worship". NEVER BE UNGRATEFUL It was high summer. The sun was extremely hot. Two travelers were going along a dusty road that had no trees along its sides. Looking for some shelter from the hot sun, they saw a tree with big leaves and branches spread like an umbrella. They placed their belongings on the ground and sat in the cool thick shade of the tree. After taking some rest, one traveler said to the other, "What a useless tree it is! It bears no fruits at all." Hearing this, the tree felt pinched and burst out, "You ungrateful soul! On one hand, you are taking shelter in my cool shade from the burning heat of the sun and on the other hand, you are calling me useless. Get up and leave the place immediately to be scorched again." 9 Spoken English: Short Stories KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN Once upon a time there was a lion that grew so old that he was unable to kill any prey for his food. So, he said to himself, "I must do something to stay my stomach else I will die of starvation." He kept thinking and thinking and at last an idea clicked him. He decided to lie down in the cave pretending to be ill and then who-so-ever will come to enquire about his health, will become his prey. The old lion put his wicked plan into practice and it started working. Many of his well-wishers got killed. But evil is short lived. One day, a fox came to visit the ailing lion. As foxes are clever by nature, the fox stood at the mouth of the cave and looked about. His sixth sense worked and he came to know the reality. So, he called out to the lion from outside and said, "How are you, sir?" The lion replied, "I am not feeling well at all. But why don't you come inside?" Then the fox replied, "I would love to come in, sir! But on seeing, all foot prints going to your cave and none coming out, I would be foolish enough to come in." Saying so, the fox went to alert the other animals. LIVE AND LET LIVE Once there was a big pool near a village. The villagers used the water of the pool for drinking and for other purposes also. The pool was abounded with fish. Once a fisherman went fishing to the pool. He cast his net into the pool and sat down. But he was very impatient. So, he tied a long string to a small stone. Then putting it into the pool, he began to stir the water to drive more fish into his net. A villager saw him do so and asked him not to make the water muddy. But the fisherman didn't listen to him and went on beating the water and making it dirty. So, the villagers brought some companions armed with weapons. Seeing them, the fisherman got scared. He drew out his stone and apologized." 10