How Animals Learned Tо Do Something

Many years ago, in the early days of man's history, when people and animals were great friends, a man called all the animals together. He got on a large stone for all the animals to see him and began to speak:

"Are all present?" he asked.

"Yes, everybody is present," answered the horse.

"My dear friends! Listen to me!" The man went on to say. "I am angry with you. You are very lazy, you do not do anything. You have learned nothing. You cannot go on like this, it's time for you to learn to do something. In a month's time, I want you to come here and show me what you have learned. I am sure you can learn a lot of things if you want to."

With these words, the man got off the stone and said good-bye to the animals. The animals said good-bye to the man and to each other and left.

The animals thought and thought, they thought from early morning till late at night. In the end, they thought of something and each animal began to learn to do something. The horse began to learn to run quickly. It was going to carry the man because at that time there were neither trams nor trolley-buses with conductors asking you to pay your fare.

The dog learned to bark. It wanted to help the man watch his animals. The cow began to give milk, and some of the animals grew long, warm wool.

The cock learned to sing early in the morning to tell everybody of the coming day. And it was very nice of him because at that time there were no alarm clocks to wake the man up. The cock's wife, the hen, began to lay eggs. The bee learned to make honey.

The monkey learned to jump from tree to tree and get fruit from high trees. And what is more, the monkey learned to make faces — he wanted the man to laugh looking at him, because there were neither cinemas nor theaters at that time.

Many birds learned to sing beautiful songs. They had their singing lessons every day, and some birds learned to carry letters because there were no post-offices at that time.

So everybody worked from morning till night, and there was even no time to play games or to run about.

A month passed, and the man again called all the animals together. "Well," he said, "I think you have learned to do something. It's time for you to show me what you have learned."

The lion came to the front, opened his mouth and said something. But how loudly! The man quickly closed his ears with his hands and cried out: "That'll do!

Oh, stop it! Please, stop it!" And the lion shut his mouth.

"You have learned to speak wonderfully. For that you must be the king of all animals. Now, the others, show me what you can do."

The bee began to make honey, the hen laid eggs, the cow gave milk, the horse ran quickly, the birds began to sing wonderful songs.

The man was very pleased with them all to have milk, eggs, and honey every day. It was wonderful!

"And what about you?" the man said to the fish. The fish stood behind the other animals and didn't do anything.

"What's the matter with you? Haven't you learned anything?"

The fish only opened and shut its mouth — it did not know what to say.

"So you haven't learned to do anything and you cannot say a word," said the man angrily. "Very well, then you must always be like that and I don't want to see you again."

And from that day on, the fish did not say a word and lived in the water where nobody could see it.