THE
DITCH
The monkey hurriedly swung away from
one tree branch to the other to get to his clients. Then suddenly, he noticed
that he had accidentally held onto a strange tree branch - it was unusually
soft! He quickly realized that he had not grabbed a tree stem at all, but
rather he had held on to the tail of a snake.
He was so scared that he loosened his grip on the animal’s tail before he could use the other hand to launch for another stem. Then he fell! He found himself knocked so hard on the floor that he bruised himself. He wondered how tall the tree was for him to have fallen that hard. Undermining his bruises the thought of probably offending the Snake came to his mind and he wanted to run far away from the spot he had fallen as fast as possible. Then he realized that he had not fallen directly on the ground, but rather he had fallen into a ditch. He looked around and discovered that he was in a hole down in the ground. There were neither trees nor branches in the narrow hole. There was nothing he could grab in order to climb out. He too was trapped, he realized finally! Perhaps the angry snake would crawl down and get him in there, he thought. Or maybe if he had been a little bit patient and rescued the poor Grass cutter, he wouldn’t have found himself in his present situation too. But now it’s too late. He concluded sadly, he would just wait and die in the hole either out of starvation or from the rain’s erosion, whichever comes first. But it all depends on if the snake does not get at him first.
“His Venom, his venom!” he found himself saying aloud as he bent to seat
on the bare floor. He was deep in thought. Maybe a little patience would have
saved him.
THE
PLUME
Meanwhile,
the ant continued to struggle in the erosion. He swung both hands in all
directions hoping to grab something to keep him afloat. Then suddenly a plume dropped
from the sky right in front of the ant and he was immediately brought to a halt
by it. The plume had proved too heavy for the water to wash away and Mr. Ant
was glad. He looked up and saw the Eagle flying away with such rapidity and
rage. The mother eagle hadn’t even waited for him to express his gratitude to
her.
Slowly,
the ant climbed the plume and used it to cross the body of water to get to the
dry land. He would have frozen but thanks to the shining sun. However, he still
sneezes from time to time. He wondered what had happened to the rests of the
Ant’s colony. Every thing happened so fast and unexpectedly. They were having so
much fun when the farmer suddenly came and washed the whole colony away with a
big can. Some Ants say that the farmer was trying to exterminate them while
some say he meant no harm but was only putting water on his crops. But that was
too much water for the tiny creatures, wondered the Ant. That notwithstanding,
he knew he had to look for any other surviving ant. And slowly he began to walk
back in the direction of the Ant’s colony.
THE
GUILT
It
came as a surprise to the ant when he saw the fly stuck in a cobweb.
“Oh
I’m so glad to see you again Mr. Ant,” began the fly “Now I can die
without
feeling guilty anymore now that I know that you are still alive!”
“Die?” asked the ant, “why would you
want to die?’
“Honestly
I don’t really want to die Mr Ant,” confessed the fly, “but the bigger Pigeon that
I called for help refused to come to my rescue when I asked him. And I’m too shy
to ask for your help too because I already know what you would say. Our fly ancestors
have this proverb that If a child sells sand to his friends as food, then such
child too would be given stones in return as an exchange for money. Really, I
know that I don’t deserve any help from you and I won’t be surprised if you too
would wish me ill right now!”
“But
that is not true Mr. Fly. The queen ant taught us long ago not to return evil for
evil to anyone. So I forgive you!”
“Just
wait a little while, I will search around and see if I can see and convince a
bigger insect or animal to come to your rescue so that you too can go home.”
He walked away and soon came across the bird
in a wooden cage.
The
ant crawled in and said, “Please Mr. Pigeon, I beg of you to come out
Of your
cage and rescue my little friend, the Fly. He needs a little assistance and I
would have gladly given it to him if I was stronger or bigger enough to have
torn down the spider's web so that he can be free and so that he can go home.”
And
the bird replied, “I feel so ashamed of myself, Mr. Ant, I would have done that
earlier when I had the chance, but now I’m stuck in this cage too!”
“A
cage?” asked the ant as he carefully looked around. “It is true. You
are
in a cage, this is not your real home, You have always lived in a
nest
– built on top of trees!”
“Yes, that is true,” continued the
bird. “And when I saw the grass cutter passing by and begged him for help he too
refused. I don’t blame him though. It was what I deserved.”
“The Grass cutter?” asked the ant and the
bird nodded yes. “In which direction had he passed?” The bird pointed towards a
direction in the jungle and the Ant said, “Okay, let me see if I can still
catch up with him. I would try to convince him to come and free you, so that
you can free the ant and we can all go home.’’
Then he began moving towards the
direction the bird gave.
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