On a summer day, a man sitting under a tree on the bank of a river, watched a group of ducks on the river.

Soon a branch with leaves came drifting among them, and they all flew away. After circling in the air for a little time, they landed again on their feeding ground.

Soon another branch came drifting down among them, and again they took flight from the river. But when they found the branch drifted by without any danger, they flew down to the water as before.

After four or five branches had drifted by in this way, the ducks gave little attention to them. At last, they hardly tried to fly out of their way, even when the branches nearly touched them.

The man who was watching all this, now wanted to know who drifted these branches. He looked up the river, and noticed a fox slyly watching the ducks. “What will he do next?” thought the man.

When the fox saw that the ducks were no longer afraid of the branches, he took a much larger branch, and hid himself behind it. Then he drifted himself with the larger branch. When he was right among the ducks, he caught two young ducks quickly and swam off with them. The rest of the ducks flew away in fright, and did not come back for a long time.

The fox must have enjoyed a fine dinner for what he had done.

I suddenly heard an elephant crying as though frightened. Looking down, I immediately recognized that something was wrong, and ran down to the edge of the near bank. There I saw Mashwe with her three-month-old calf struggling in the fast-rising water, and it was a life-and-death struggle. Her calf was floating and screaming with fear. Mashwe was as near to the far bank as she could get, holding her whole body against the rushing water, and keeping the calf pressed against her huge body. Every now and then the rushing water would sweep the calf away.

There was a sudden rise in the water and the calf was washed clean over the mother’s body and was gone. Mashwe turned quickly to reach it and pressed the calf with her head and trunk(象鼻) against the rocky bank. Then with a huge effort, she picked it up in her trunk and tried until she was able to place it on a narrow shelf of rock.

Just at this moment, she fell back into the river. If she were carried down, it would be certain death. I knew, as well as she did, that there was one spot(地点) where she could get up the bank, but it was on the other side from where she had put her calf.

While I was wondering what I could do next, I heard the sound of a mother’s love. Mashwe had crossed the river and got up the bank and was making her way back as fast as she could, roaring(吼叫) all the time, but to her calf it was music.

Once upon a time, there was a king who loved growing flowers. As the king became older, he wanted to find someone honest to rule the country. He thought up a good idea. He asked his servants to give every person in the country a flower seed (种子). He then said if someone grew him the most beautiful flower, he would be the new king.

Everyone in the country then got their own seed. One young man named David was especially excited, because he has ever grown many beautiful flowers by himself. David planted his seed and took good care of it every day. His flower would not grow, although he tried his best.

Finally, it was time for everyone to show their flowers to the king. David took his empty pot (花盆) to the king. “Your Majesty, I am sorry to say that I cannot grow a flower. But I hope you can see that I tried my best,” he said. The king was satisfied with David’s honesty.

Although he did not choose David as the new king, he gave David a job as a judge (法官). He believed that David’s honesty would make him the right person to make sure the fairness in the country.