Phoenix

Many years ago a king wanted to find the wisest man in his kingdom. He wanted the man to be his prime minister.
"How can I find the wisest man?" he asked his wife and his friends.
"Ask everyone in the kingdom to make a wish." the queen said. "Choose the man who makes the wisest wish"
"Yes", the king agreed "that is a good idea".
The king wrote a letter to all the newspapers. He requested everyone in the kingdom to make one wish. "You must write your wish on a postcard and send it to the palace," the king wrote in his letter.
A few days later, the postcards arrived at the palace. There were many thousands of them. The king sat down and began to read them.

The wisest man

Of the six outer planets, Mars, commonly called the Red Planet is the closest to Earth. Mars, 4200 miles in diameter and 55% of the size of Earth is 334,600,000 miles from Earth and 141,000,000 miles from the Sun. It takes this planet along with its two moons, Phobos and Deimos 183 years to circle the Sun, compared to 365 days for the Earth.

The closest planet of Earth

Ever since humans have inhabited the earth they have made use of various forms of communication. Generally this expression of thoughts and feelings has been in the form of oral speech. When there is a language barrier, communication is accomplished through sign language in which motions stand for letter: words and ideas. Tourists, the deaf and the mute have had to resort to this form of expression. Many of these symbols of whole words are very picturesque and exact and can be used internationally; spelling, however, cannot.

Communication

A man had a parrot. It was a very beautiful bird and every day the man talked to it.
"Pretty Parrot," he said. "You are a pretty Polly".
"Pretty Parrot" the parrot said. "You are a pretty Polly".
Everyday the man spoke new words to the parrot. "Hallo" he said and "Good bye".
One day the parrot was not in its cage. It was flying about the room. The man came into the room and saw the parrot.
"What are you doing?" he said.
"What are you doing?" the parrot said.

An intelligent parrot

Many years ago there was a king who was very bad-tempered. Everyone was afraid of him. The king was bad-tempered because he was often ill. He was often ill because he ate and drank too much.
"I am always ill", the king told his doctor. "Why can't you cure me?"
The doctor didn't want to tell the king the reason. He knew this would make the king very angry. "I give you the best medicine, Your Majesty", he said, "I do my best."
"Your medicine makes me worse", the king said, "You must cure me before the end of the month or I shall put you in prison. You are trying to poison me".
"Perhaps your food is making you ill", the doctor said. This was a polite way of saying "you eat too much."
"Nonsense," the king shouted. "My cook is the best cook in the world. No I am ill because you are a fool. You do not know how to cure me. I pay you to make me well, but what happened? I have stomachache and a headache everyday. Now go and study your books. Find a cure for my disease or ..."
"Yes, yes, Your Majesty," the doctor said and went to his room. He made a lot of new medicine but it did not cure the king.
At last, a few days before the end of the month, the doctor went into the forest. He wanted to see a wise old monk and ask for his advice.

A bad-tempered king

A very beautiful girl lived in a small country town. She had red lips, golden hair and blue eyes, a slim figure and a soft gentle voice.

A young man lived in the same street. He loved her very much and he wanted to marry her. He went to the girl and asked her to be his wife.
"Pooh!" she said unkindly, "You are not good enough for me. I am too beautiful for a man like you. But I will marry you if you give me a diamond ring".
The young man went away and worked hard for many years. At last he saved enough money to buy the girl a diamond ring.
"Here is your ring," he said. "Now will you marry me?"

A stupid girl

One day a man called at the house of an old woman. Most people did not like the old woman because she was very unpleasant.
"I am very hungry," the man said. "Can you give me something to eat?"
"I have little food in the house," the old woman said "I can give you only a piece of bread".
"Bread is better than nothing," the man told her, and he went into the house.
The old woman cut a piece of bread and gave it to him.
"This bread is good," he said. "But it will taste better with some soup".
"I have no soup", the old woman said.
"Can you make stone soup?" the man said.
"Stone soup? What is that?"
"It is easy to make. Take a stone from the garden. Wash it and put it in a pan of water. Boil the stone in the water."
The old woman took a stone from the garden and washed it. Then she put it in a pan of water and boiled the water.
The man took a spoonful of the soup and tasted it. "Yes" he said, "this is a very good soup, but a few potatoes will make it taste better".

Stone soup

An old man worked as a night watchman outside a bank. He had to walk round the bank all night and shout for help if he saw a thief.
But the old man was very lazy. He did not like walking. He likes to lie on his bed and sleep. At the same time he wanted people to think that he was doing his work.
"I know what I can do" he said to himself. "Once a week I will get up in the middle of the night and shout "Stop, thief! Stop, thief!" The police will come. Everyone will think I am a good watchman."
And this is what he did. For six nights a week he slept all night. But on the seventh night he got up and shouted "Stop, thief! Stop, thief!" and blew his whistle.
The police soon came and said: "Where is the thief, old man?"
"I frightened him away," the old man said.
"You are a good watchman and you are brave" the police said and went away. The people at the bank were very pleased with him.
A week later he did the same thing again. The police came at once.
"Where is the thief?" they asked.
"I frightened him away. I think it was the same man as last time".
This happened every week for many weeks. Then the police said to one another. "This old man is deceiving us. He shouts once a week to make us think he is a good watchman. He will shout "Stop, thief" again but we shall not go to him".
The following week a thief tried to break into the bank.

"Stop, thief! Stop, thief!" the watchman shouted and blew his whistle. But the police did not come, and the thief hit the watchman over the head.

A lazy man

A merchant and a farmer were walking along the road together. The merchant thought the farmer was a fool. He planned to play a trick on him.
"Let's play a game", he said. "I will tell you a story. If you do not believe my story, you must give me ten pieces of silver. Then you tell me a story. If I do not believe it, I will give you ten pieces of silver".
"Very well", the farmer said. "But it is rather a silly game."
"Do you remember that cow you sold me?" the merchant began.
"Yes", said the farmer. "A very fine animal".
"It died before I got home", the merchant said.
"But ... but that's n ...".
"Do you believe me?" the merchant asked.
The farmer remembered the ten pieces of silver. "Oh, yes" he said, "I believe you".
"Good. When I bought the cow you said: "If the cow dies, I will give you ten pieces of silver." I remember it clearly."
"What!" cried the farmer.
"Don't you believe me?" the merchant asked.
"Yes, yes, I believe you", the farmer said sadly.
"Good. You owe me ten pieces of silver".
"Very clever", the farmer said. "You have tricked me". He took the ten pieces of silver out of his pocket and gave them to the merchant. "And now," he said, "You must listen to my story". He thought carefully for a few minutes and then began.

Who is cleverer?

A rich man had one daughter. All the young men the city wanted to marry her. The rich man did not want his daughter to marry anyone. He was frightened. "When I die", he thought, "my daughter will have all my money. Her husband may kill me to get my money."
Some young men came to his house. The rich man said:
"You can not marry my daughter. She is too young, she is not twenty - one"
On her twenty first birthday, the daughter said: "Father, I want to be married. I am going to find a husband".
"No, you are not!" her father said. He took her hand and pulled her to the top of the house. He pushed her into a room and locked the door. "You will stay there", he said, "until all the young men in the town are married".
The next day he asked all the young men to come to his house. "My daughter is lost," he said, "The man who finds her may marry her."
For several weeks all the young men looked for the girls but they did not find her. "Perhaps she is dead," they said, and they stopped looking. Several years passed. The young men married other girls. Only one of them did not find a wife.
The rich man saw him and said: "Not married yet? Find yourself a wife, my friend. Be happy!"
Then he said, "My friend, I want you to be happy. Here is some money. Now you can get a wife. On your wedding day I will give you more money. I will give you a house. Your marriage will be a happy one".
The young man went home and thought about this for a long time. A few weeks later he sent a message to the rich man. "I am getting married tomorrow. Please come to my wedding".
The rich man laughed happily and ran up to his daughter's room. "You can come out now", he said, "I am safe. They are all married".
The next day he went to the wedding. He took his daughter with him. All the people were surprised. They thought she was dead.
The rich man walked up to the young man. "Where is your bride?" he asked.
The young man smiled. "There" he said and took the daughter's hand. "You have found her for me".

A provident father

The Wind and the Sun are having an argument. The Wind says that it is stronger but the Sun doesn't agree.
"I can blow down trees and tear off the roofs of houses," the Wind says proudly.
"Ah, but I give warmth to people and make plants grow", the Sun says.
"I still think I am stronger", says the Wind.

The Wind and the Sun

Mrs. Brown's grandfather lived with her and her husband. Every morning he went for a walk in the park and came home at half past twelve for his lunch.

But one morning a police car stopped outside Mrs. Brown's house at twelve o'clock, two policemen helped Mr. Brown to get out. One of them said to Mrs. Brown: "The poor old gentleman lost his way in the park and telephoned to us for help, so we sent a car to bring his home". Mrs. Brown was very surprised, but she thanked the policemen and they left.
"But Grandfather", she then said, "you have been to that park nearly everyday for twenty years. How did you lose your way there?"
The old man smiled, closed one eye and said: "I didn't quite lose my way. I just got tired and I didn't want to walk home!"

A clever old man

An artist went to a beautiful part of the country for a holiday, and stayed with a farmer. Everyday he went out with his paints and his brushes and painted from morning to evening, and then when it got dark, he went back to the farm and had a good dinner before going to bed.

At the end of his holiday, he wanted to pay the farmer, but the farmer said: "No, I don't want money, but give me one of your pictures. What is money? In a week it will all be finished, but your painting will still be here".
The artist was very pleased and thanked the farmer for saying such kind things about the paintings. The farmer smiled and answered: "It is not that. I have a son in London. He wants to become an artist. When he comes here next month I will show him your picture, and then he will not want to be an artist any more, I think"

An artist and a farmer

John chocolates very much, but his mother never gave him any, because they were bad for his teeth, she thought. But John had a very nice grandfather. The old man loved his grandson very much, and sometimes he brought John chocolates when he came to visit him. Then his mother let him eat them, because she wanted to make the old man happy.

One evening, a few days before John's seventh birthday, he was saying his prayers in his bedroom before he went to bed. "Please, God", he shouted, "make them give me a big box of chocolates for my birthday on Saturday".

His mother was in the kitchen and she heard the small boy shouting and went into his bedroom quickly.

"Why are you shouting, John?" she asked her son, "God can hear you when you talk quietly".

"I know", answered the clever boy with a smile, "but Grandfather's in the next room, and he can't".