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Simple english short stories pdf free download
One day Mai-Qwai (Little Rose) ran home angry to her mother saying, “Mü-Tsing, I do not want my name to be Rose any longer. I was in Dun-Qure’s garden just now, and she asked me, ‘Which flower do you like best of all in our garden?’ and I said I liked my name-flower best.
“Then they all laughed and said, ‘We do not. Do you not see the thorns on the roses? When we pass near we tear our dresses. When we touch them the blood flows from our hands. No, we do not like the roses. The baby cow does not like them either. They stick her nose when she tries to eat, and even mother can not pick them without scissors. Once when she had a large bunch of roses, little sister tried to get one and it stuck her hands and face so that she cried many hours.
Other flowers do not make trouble like that, and we do not see why any one likes the rose best. We think it very foolish to like a trouble flower and be named for it.’
“I do not like my name-flower any more, Mü-Tsing, and I do not want to bear its name.”
“Do not cry, dear child,” said her mother, “and I will tell you some things about the rose. Do you like rose sugar?”
“Yes, very much,” Rose answered, her face growing bright.
“And rose oil?”
“Oh, yes, Mü-Tsing.”
“I thought you did not like the rose. So you ought not to like the good things it makes.”
“But, Mü-Tsing, tell me why did the rose god make the rose grow with so many thorns? Other flowers are not like that.”
“Listen, dear child. If the rose tree were like other trees and still had its beautiful flowers, I think we should never have any for ourselves. They would be too easily gathered. The rose god was very wise and put thorns all around his beautiful flower. When he made it, he gave it an odor so sweet that all the gods stopped working on the day it was finished. The thorns mean, Honor the rose which grows forever. The cows can not touch it, and the pigs never go near it, and careless children or wasteful people can not destroy it. Do you see, dear, why the rose must have thorns?”
The next morning Rose found in her room a beautiful new rose pillow made of the sweet-smelling petals. When she laid her head on this fragrant pillow she said, “Mü-Tsing, I do not wish to change my name.“
Next Story: The Turtle and the Monkey
Simple english short stories
THE WIND
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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.
Simple english short stories pdf free download
The Villager
There was a villager. He was illiterate and 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.