"Why don't you help me set the table, and then go and play with your friends? You don't need a toy to be happy" She said.
“Oh, please mom, the whoooole house,” he begged.
She could not say no to her precious boy and he was soon at work cleaning the house. While his friends played outside he found himself sweeping and mopping, dusting and scrubbing and worst of all changing the cat's litter! All the while he cleaned he could only think about the brand new toy he would get, but first he had to come up with a plan to make enough money for even cleaning the house was not going to be near enough to afford the new toy.
He planned to buy an apple from the grocery store and plant the seeds in the into the garden of his backyard. When his apple tree was grown he would then sell the apples and make a very large profit, enough to buy many toys.
“Soon,” he exclaimed “I will have that toy.”
He was given his allowance, as promised by his mother, and ran as fast as possible to the grocery store. As he walked into the entrance he was stopped by a beautiful gum ball machine. With money in his hand he wasted no time and was soon happily chomping on a bubblegum flavored gum ball. Continuing on his journey to buy an apple his dream of owing this brand new toy was unknowingly cut short when the cashier said, “That will be thirty-eight cents please.” Panicked Timothy had just learnt of his mistake, he had spent all but a nickel of his allowance. With the purchase of the gum ball vanished his apple seed, tree and all hopes of every owning that new car toy.
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| A Boy with a Hoop (Public Domain Wiki) |
Authors Note: Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!
This story was about a milkmaid who planned to use her milk to make butter to sell to then buy eggs and hatch chickens and then sell to buy a dress and look good for potential suitors. Unfortunately for her, the milk spilled and he dreams and plans were washed away and she could no longer find a suitor.
Bibliography:
The Aesop for Children. Aesop. N.d. The Project Gutenberg. Rand McNally & Company, 2 Dec. 2002. Web. 13 Aug. 2014.
Oh, I remember this story from last year! And here's something fun: even though this story shows up in later Aesop's fables (like La Fontaine's milkmaid), it originates in... INDIA!!! Yes! Here's an Indian version:
ReplyDeleteThe Broken Pot
And it's a good idea to include the clickable link here in your story too so that people can just click and go to that Aesop for Children... although that milkmaid is famous — unlike some of the other fables, she might be someone recognizes already. Anyway, here's an actual link: Aesop for Children. Links are better than just citations: they magically transport you right INTO the book. Online bibliography is ALIVE. :-)
This is the first time I have ever heard of this story. I guess the moral of the story is to not get ahead of yourself when working towards something. I think this is a great message. To be honest, I have been guilty of "counting my chickens" on many occasions. This reminds of a quote I have on the wallpaper in the bathroom at my parents' house that reads "life is hard by the yard, but by the inch life's a cinch".
ReplyDeleteI really liked this rendition of the story. I like the two options for the child the gum, short-term reward, and the car, long-term reward. Sadly, the child did not have the perseverance nor the patience. I found it funny that the child was going to use an apple tree to make money. By the time the tree was producing apples, he would have long forgotten the toy that he had wanted all those years ago. Which I guess shows that he did not need the toy.
ReplyDeleteVery nice story! I have never read the original story before, so your story is very attractive for me. I read it from the very beginning to the end. The direct speech you used is very successful.
ReplyDeleteIn your story, I think the direct speech is organized very well. When I read the boy was asking for more allowance to clean the house, I could image the scene. The boy must be in hesitation and uncertainty, but he still asked for it because he really wanted the toy. The other direct speech I like is the casher’s talk. “That will be thirty-eight cents please.” is really at the right time. The boy would be in a shock because he just realized that a plan is just a plan. In the most time, a plan is revised after it is executed since reality is complicated and surprises can happen.
Keep using direct speech in your story. I am going to try using direct speech in my storytelling as well.