The Tortoise and the Hare

A very good morning to the honorable judges, teachers

and my fellow friends. Today I am going to tell you a story
entitled “The Tortoise and the Hare.

One day a hare was bragging about how fast he could run.
He bragged and bragged and even laughed at the
tortoise, who was so slow. The tortoise stretched out his long
neck and challenged the hare to a race, which, of course,
made the hare laugh.

"My, my, what a joke!" thought the hare. "A race, indeed, a
race. Oh! what fun! My, my! A race, of course, Mr. Tortoise,
we shall race!" said the hare.

The forest animals met and mapped out the course. The
race begun, and the hare, being such a swift runner, soon
left the tortoise far behind. About halfway through the
course, it occurred to the hare that he had plenty of time to
beat the slow trodden tortoise.

"Oh, my!" thought the hare, "I have plenty of time to play in
the field here." And so he did.

After the hare finished playing, he decided that he had

time to take a sleep "I have plenty of time to win," he
thought. And he cuddle up against a tree and dozed.

The tortoise, in the meantime, continued to plod on, albeit,

it ever so slowly. He never stopped, but took one good step
after another.
The hare finally woke from his nap. "Time to get going," he
thought. And off he went faster than he had ever run
before! He dashed as quickly as anyone ever could up to
the finish line, where he met the tortoise, who was patiently
awaiting his arrival. The moral of the story is slow and steady
wins the race.
 The Honest Woodcutter

A very good morning to the honorable judges, timekeeper, teachers

and my fellow friends. Today, I am going to tell you a story entitled
“The Honest Woodcutter”

Long ago, there lived a woodcutter in a small village. He was

sincere in his work and very honest. Every day, he set out into the
nearby forest to cut trees. He brought the woods back into the
village and sold them out to a merchant and earn his money. He
earned just about enough to make a living, but he was satisfied with
his simple living.

One day, while cutting a tree near a river, his axe slipped out of his
hand and fell into the river. The river was so deep, he could not
even think to retrieve it on his own. He only had one axe which was
gone into the river. He became a very worried thinking how he will
be able to earn his living now! He was very sad and prayed to the
God. He prayed sincerely so the God appeared in front of him and
asked, “What is the problem, my son?” The woodcutter explained
the problem and requested the God to get his axe back.

The God put his hand deep into the river and took out a silver axe
and asked, “Is this your axe?” The Woodcutter looked at the axe
and said “No”. So the God put his hand back deep into the water
again and showed a golden axe and asked, “Is this your axe?” The
woodcutter looked at the axe and said “No”. The God said, “Take a
look again Son, this is a very valuable golden axe, are you sure this is
not yours?” The woodcutter said, “No, It’s not mine. I can’t cut the
trees with a golden axe. It’s not useful for me”.

The God smiled and finally put his hand into the water again and
took out his iron axe and asked, “Is this your axe?” To this, the
woodcutter said, “Yes! This is mine! Thank you!” The Goddess was
very impressed with his honesty so she gave him his iron axe and also
other two axes as a reward for his honesty. The moral of the story is
we must always be honest because honesty is always rewarded.
 The lion and the mouse
A very good morning to the honorable judges, teachers
and my fellow friends. Today I am going to tell you a story
entitled “The Lion and the Mouse”.

A long, long time ago a little mouse was playing around. He

was making a lot of noise and all of a sudden he woke up
the lion, the king of the animals.
“How dare you wake me up?” the lion roared, "I'm going to
eat you all up!” And with that he placed his big paw upon
the mouse’s tiny body, so that the poor scared little mouse
couldn’t move. “Please, forgive me, oh, King of the animals!
I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just playing! If you let
me go now, maybe I can help you one day!” the mouse
squeaked.

This made the lion roar with laughter. “You? Help me? Ha ha
ha. You are so small, how could you help me?!" And with
that he changed his mind, "Alright, I will let you go, because
you would be such a tiny animal anyway!”

A few months later the lion was walking around the forest,
when he got caught in a trap.

He struggled to get free, but the more he tried to free

himself, the more he got tangled in the net

Luckily, the same little mouse was passing by and saw what
had happened. The king of the animals was in trouble!
Happy to finally be able to help the lion, the mouse rushed
to his aid and started gnawing through the ropes.

“I didn’t believe you would be able to help me, but I was

wrong," said the lion, when he was set free by the little
mouse. From that day on, the lion and the mouse became
good friends.

My dear friends we should never laugh at our little friends

because we will need their help later on. Thank you.