Patty the milkmaid had just finished milking her cow and had two full pails of fresh creamy milk. She put both pails on a stick and set off to the market to sell her pails of milk. Along the way she started to think of all the milk in her pails and all the money she would get for them.

‘Once I get the money, I’ll buy a chicken’, she thought. ‘The chicken will lay eggs and I will get more chickens. They’ll all lay eggs and I can sell them for more money. Then I’ll buy the house on the hill and be the envy of everyone in the village. They’ll ask me to sell the chicken farm, but I’ll toss my head like this and refuse’. So saying, Patty, the milkmaid tossed her head and dropped her pails. The milk spilled onto the ground while Patty cried.

There was once a boy whose father one day told him that he is old enough to look after the sheep. Every day he had to take the sheep over the grass fields and watch them as they grazed to become strong sheep with thick wool. The boy was unhappy though. He wanted to run and play, not watch the boring sheep. So, he decided to have some fun instead. He cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ until the entire village came running with stones to chase away the wolf before it could eat any of the sheep. Once they saw that there was no wolf, they left muttering under their breath about how the boy was wasting their time and giving them a good fright while at it. The next day, the boy again cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ and the villagers again rushed to chase the wolf away.

As the boy laughed at the fright he had caused, the villagers left, some angrier than the others. The third day, as the boy went up a small hill, he suddenly saw a wolf attacking his sheep. He cried as hard as he could, ‘Wolf! Wolf! WOLF!’, but the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again and did not come to rescue the sheep. The little boy lost three sheep that day, all because he cried wolf too many times.

As Hari walked home after school one day, he suddenly felt faint with hunger and knew his mother would not have any food ready for him at home. He grew desperate and went from house to house asking for food. Finally, a girl gave him a tall glass of milk. When he tried to pay her she refused and sent him on his way. Years later, the girl, now a grown woman, fell very sick and could not find anyone who could cure her. Finally, she went to a large hospital with the city’s greatest doctor. The doctor spent months treating the woman until she was finally cured. The woman was happy but was also afraid she could not pay the bill. When the hospital handed the bill to her, she opened it to read, ‘Paid in full, with a glass of milk’.

Three neighbors were having trouble with their crops. All three fields had crops that were wilting and infested with pests. Each day they would try different ideas to help their crops. The first one tried using a scarecrow, the second used pesticides, and the third built a fence on his field, all to no avail. One day, the village head came by and called all three farmers. He gave them each a stick and asked them to break the sticks. The farmers could break them easily. He then gave them a bundle of three sticks and asked them to break it. This time, the farmers struggled to break the sticks. The village head said, ‘Together you are stronger than when you work alone’. The farmers pooled their resources and got rid of the pests in their fields

Reading effectively

reading as a trip !