The story is about a man who had a beautiful wife that he loved with all his heart, he had to leave his lover for a very important business trip for several days. Before he went to the business trip, he went to a place where all kinds of birds were sold. He bought a parrot that not only can speak fluently, but also has the talent to talk about things that had happened before. He bought it in a cage and asked his wife to put it in her room. Then he departed. After he returned home from the trip, he asked the parrot about what had happened in his house while he was away, but the answer that the parrot gave was not pleasing at all. It made the man disappointed. He scolded his wife and they quarreled.
The man's wife thought that one of their slaves had revealed her secret to her husband, but all of them told her it was the parrot's job. She became very mad and planned to revenge on the bird and gained her husband's trust back. The day when her husband were gone for a day, she commanded a slave to turn a hand-mill under the bird's cage, another slave to sprinkled water down to the cage to mimic the rain, and the third slave to hold a mirror and move it left and right against a candle. They did it great that night.
When the man arrived home, he asked the parrot how was his wife last night, the parrot answered that it was raining horribly that night that the parrot could not see anything. The husband knew that there was neither rain nor thunder that night. He became furious because he thought that the parrot was lying to him and grab the bird out from its cage and violently threw it to the floor. The parrot died. Yet afterwards, he knew that the parrot was telling the truth all the times because the neighbors had told him what his wife had been doing when he was away. He felt very regret for his action before.
This is a short fantasy story by the Irish author, Oscar Wilde. The story is about a giant who hates people that are playing in his garden. Usually, every noon after-school, the children will come to his beautiful garden that is full of singing birds, luscious crops and beautiful flowers to play. But one day, after seven years the giant disappeared, he came back to his house and saw some kids were playing in his garden happily. He then became furious and scolded those children for trespassing his garden. Then he shooed those kids out of his garden and started to build a wall around it. He put a warning sign in front of his wall.
Now the kids had no place to play. They had tried so many places to play but it was not as fun as playing in the giant's garden. When the Spring came, the country was blooming with flowers, but not in the giant's garden. Because of the wall that he had built, the Spring could not enter his garden. Neither fall nor Summer. Just cold and snowy Winter still covering his garden. He thought that Spring had forgotten his garden, because the season had never changed in his garden.
One morning, the giant was awakened by the wonderful sound of children playing. He woke up from his bed and believed that the Spring had come to his garden. He lurked into his window and he saw children were playing in his garden through the little hole in the wall that they made. Those kids were climbing a tree but only one boy could not climb the tree because he was too small to climb was left behind. The boy was shivering and the incident made the giant realized that he had been so selfish to those child. He came to those kids but they were frightened and ran away accept the little boy. He was to scared to run. The giant took him gently and put him on the tree. The boy realized that the giant was not wicked anymore and he gave him a hug. The other children who saw that ran back into the garden and brought the Spring with them. The giant was very happy and decided to change his attitude to not becoming selfish again. He gave the garden to the children to play and knocked down the wall that he had built before. The people of the country who saw the giant playing with the children was happy because things was getting better than before.
The story begins with a Native American sibling, Morning Glory and her little brother, Eagle Feather were in the wigwam decorated with bear skins for enough warmth in the winter, Morning Glory and Eagle Feather sat patiently with their grandfather to listen for a story. Out of sudden, a white-footed mouse leave its nest and stand on its hind legs. At that moment, Eagle Feather wanted to attack the mouse but has been blocked in the arm by his sister. " There is enough game in the forest to kill without
harming this little animal. Do not use your strength on this weak little
mouse. " said Morning Glory. Eagle Feather realized that his sister's words are true and agreed with her. Out of the blue, their grandfather interrupted them and said that once there was a time when a thousand boys would have been no match for the mouse he used to be. Morning Glory and Eagle Feather were very curious about what has the old man said.
Their grandfather told them a story about a great dormouse, the largest animal on earth. There was a time that the number of animals were larger than humans. The humans have not discovered yet about fire and they did not eat animals flesh. Berries and other edible plants are their only food source. Unfortunately the humans were famished because of lack of food source due to the large number of animals that also feed on berries and other edible plant. The earth was ruled by the animals and the biggest animal among all is the mastodon. Confused by his grandfather's words about which was the biggest animal is, Eagle Feather decided to ask about it but get ignored by the old man. He continues the story and said that there were only two humans left on the earth. A girl like Morning Glory and a boy like Eagle Feather. Winter was coming, the girl has to teach the boy how keep warm using coat of grasses and entertain himself using the bow and arrow if she has to travel for a long trip. While the boy was working on his coat, he saw a flock of geese flying above his head and thought that he could use the arrow to get the feather of the geese and patch it on his coat to get extra warmth for the winter. However, the boy has not know how to use the bow and arrow. Thus, he trained himself to use the bow and arrow until he has the skill to shoot the arrow. Finally, he managed to shoot down a several number of goose. Proudly he brought it to his sister to ask her to make him a coat made of the geese skin and feather.
When the coat was ready, he quickly wear it and go to the hill for hunting. After a while, he felt tired and decided to take a nap under a large tree. When he was sleeping, the heat from the sun made his geese-skin coat shrink and the coat became tight. The boy was so angry because his new coat has damaged and swear that he will avenge to the sun. He decided to catch the sun with a noose. Quickly he ran home and asked her sister to make him a rope that is strong enough to pull down the sun. His sister made a rope from her braided hair and gave it to her brother. The boy kissed the rope and it turned into something that is as strong as metal. After that, he waited for the sun to rise and when it happened, he captured the sun with his snare. The world became dark and cold; because of that and the animals became distress. All the animal gather and brainstorming on the solution to cut the snare that has made the sun cannot rise again every morning. The eagle offer to fly near the sun to cut the snare but unlikely, he failed and fall onto the ground. He realized that his fall does not wake the sleeping dormouse. The wolf said that there is only one way to wake the dormouse up by the sound of the thunder. The sound of the growling thunder woke the dormouse up and he stand very tall and big. So the animals decided that the dormouse is the animal that will cut of the snare on the sun. He agreed because that he wanted to help other animals, so he went to the sun and chew off the noose. But the sun has made his back became hot and has turned it into ashes and the dormouse became smaller and smaller until he finished cut off the snare. And that is how the dormouse get its size now.
-DEFINITIONS
Wigwam : a
dome-shaped hut or tent made by fastening mats, skins, or bark over a
framework of poles, used by some North American Indian peoples.
Dormouse: an agile mouselike rodent with a hairy or bushy tail, found in
Africa and Eurasia. Some kinds are noted for spending long periods in
hibernation.
Mastodon: a large, extinct, elephantlike mammal of the Miocene to Pleistocene
epochs, having teeth of a relatively primitive form and number.
Noose: a loop with a running knot, tightening as the rope or wire is pulled and typically used to hang people or trap animals.
Snare: a trap for catching birds or animals, typically one having a noose of wire or cord.
