Once upon a time there was a family of squirrels that lived in a large oak tree. Everyday the father squirrel would go to the nut factory a couple of trees down. The nut factory employed all the squirrels that lived on the east side of the forest. The squirrels would work during the summer and fall months to collect as many nuts as possible. At the end of the day the squirrels would load up there nuts into the nut factory. Then when winter came the nut factory would distribute the nuts to all of the squirrel families. This way of working as a community ensured that no squirrel would starve during the time of no nuts.
The father squirrel had a son, who had the most beautiful fur coat that camouflaged him perfectly.
The father squirrel said to himself, “ I will take my son to work with me so that he can learn how to collect nuts in a safe and efficient manner, for I’m no longer young and strong.”
The son joined his father at work and watched and learned. However, the son had a special talent. Because of his beautiful fur coat he was able to collect nuts that would normally be too dangerous to recover because his coat camouflaged him. With this special skill the son excelled at the nut factory.
The father squirrel would say to his son, “When you work hard you will get rewarded.”
The son squirrel replied, “What will be my reward?”
The father smiled and said, “you will understand the value of working hard, as well as all the nuts you could ever eat.”
After a couple of weeks the son became very good at his job, and he soon took over his father’s position at the nut factory. The son squirrel happily did his job season to season. And as time went on he finally realized the value of working hard, and he realized he wasn’t working hard for just himself
but he was working hard for his family and to better the squirrel community.
Authors Note:
I kept the same theme as the original story. I also stayed close to the story line of the original story with just some minor changes. Instead of having human and animal characters in my story I only had animal characters. Further, instead of having elephants as my characters I used squirrels. Also in the original story the elephant and his son helped the humans collect lumber and in exchange they would feed the elephants. However in my story I had my characters work at a squirrel factor were they collected nuts instead of lumber and the nuts where there food.
Bibliography: The Kings White Elephant from: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Link to Reading.
I enjoyed your entirely animal rendition of this story. You made it very easy to follow along. Also, you painted a nice picture of all these squirrels working in a factory in the tree to store and sort their acorns. I really liked your description of everything.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't trust a squirrel at a nut factory! Haha! I foudn this story very humorous and awesome!! Great work. Also, I loved the addition of the picture of the squirrel with a nut stuffed in his mouth. All the more evidence that a man (or rodent) cannot be trusted when given an unlimited supply of his favorite food. Ask Squidward from Spongebob...
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your rendition of this story. I thought picturing squirrels in a nut factory was very funny because I cannot picture them getting any work done. It's one reason why I could never be a waiter at Buffalo Wild Wings, I'd be too tempted to eat the food in the kitchen. I really liked the lesson that the squirrel learned at the end. Loved your story.
ReplyDeleteHi Sydney! I loved this interpretation of "The Kings White Elephant." Having the son squirrel have a fur coat that made him especially camouflaged was a very smart way to include the detail of the elephant having a unique color in the original story. You were also able to maintain the integrity of the moral of the story and even make it a little clearer, so good job!
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