Teary Joe was a boy with a special ability: he could make himself cry in less than a second. If he disliked something, or things became difficult, or someone contradicted him, Teary Joe would not hesitate to put on a pitiful face and set great big tears running down his cheeks. In this way he managed to get practically everything he wanted, because no one could resist the pity inspired by his tearful little face.

But one day, Teary Joe met Pipo. Pipo was asking people in the street for some change, in return for him helping them in any way he could. Pipo was very poor; he had no home and no family, so he made a living however he could. Even so, Pipo always had the biggest of smiles on his face.

Joe took to Pipo, so he decided to help him out in making some money. He went over next to Pipo, took off his hat, put it face-up on the ground, and started crying with the most pitiful of expressions.

Instant success! In a few minutes, Joe’s hat was full of coins and sweets, but when Joe offered all this to Pipo, Pipo declined.

-“I prefer deserving what I receive,”

answered Pipo with his usual smile,

-“It’s much more fun making an effort to get things. You know what? Today I’ve washed a dog, I’ve collected hundreds of nails with a magnet, tidied a wardrobe full of paintings, accompanied a blind old lady to the park.. maybe I haven’t gotten everything I’ve wanted, but I’ve done a load of interesting things. And how about you? How have things been for you?”

Teary Joe didn’t answer; he just walked sadly away. Joe had gotten everything he wanted, but he’d done practically nothing of interest the whole day. He hadn’t even enjoyed himself, what with spending almost all his time crying.

That evening, having returned home, Joe requested a delicious cake for his supper. When his mother said no, Joe tried to cry but, remembering Pipo and how joyful he was, and seeing his own reflection in the mirror, Joe couldn’t do it. Instead, he asked himself how could use the situation to do something interesting.

So he tried to get the cake in some other way. To the joy and surprise of his parents, Joe spent the whole evening helping his mother to tidy and label the pantry, water the plants and organise the library books.

In the end there was no cake. But that wasn’t so bad, because Joe discovered it had been much more fun doing all those things that evening rather than just sitting crying to get a piece of cake that, in the end, wouldn’t have been worth it.

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11:43 PM

Happy Mothers on the Marsh

  

Lady Hippopotamus, Mrs. Crocodile and tiny Mother Mosquito were talking animatedly of how good their children were with all the inhabitants of the swamp. The spoke so well of them that several passers-by wanted to see their children's good deeds. So, the next day, Hippopotamini, Croco-Dale and Mosquite-Joe set about showing everyone how good they could be.

The little hippo decided to bring water to all the sick animals in the area who were injured or hadn't enough strength to go down to the lake to drink. To many his gesture was wonderful, because that year had been very dry, and they were so far from the lake that they thought they would not survive until the next rains. For its part, the little crocodile spent the whole day watching from the shore and acting as a lifeguard, preventing a whole bunch of lost animals from drowning, and they were sincerely grateful and surprised to have been saved by a crocodile. Everyone congratulated Hippopotamini and Croco-Dale, and wondered what the little mosquito could do that would be comparable with such wonderful deeds.

Mosquite-Joe thought he wouldn't be able to match his much bigger friends. But rather than give up, he spent the day talking to one and all, visiting friends here and there, and he turned up that night with an army of animals made up of monkeys, ants, lions, elephants, snakes, buffalo, scorpions, giraffes ... and their aim was to spend a whole day improving life around the lake. And so hard did they work, and in such a good spirit, that one day was enough to completely renew the place and solve most of the problems there. All the inhabitants of the marsh were really happy.

And no longer did anyone have their doubts about Mosquite-Joe. He had proved himself to be so good that he was able to make others even better than himself.

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9:44 PM

The Warrior's Arrows

  

Story Of all the warriors in the service of the evil Morlan, Jerry was the most fierce and the most cruel. His eyes would find the most cautious of enemies, and his bow and arrows would soon finish them off.

One day, while plundering a great palace, the warrior found some gleaming, fast-flying arrows that had belonged to the Princess there, and he didn't hesitate to take them and put them aside for some special occasion.

When those arrows joined the rest of Jerry's weapons and learnt of his terrible cruelty they bitterly protested and regretted their new situation.
Being accustomed to the Princess's games and tournaments, the arrows didn't want to kill anyone.

-"There's nothing you can do!"

said the other arrows,

-"You'll just have to murder some poor traveller, kill a horse or whatever else, …don't ever dream of returning to your old life…"

-"Well, we've had an idea,"

replied the new arrivals.

However, the archer was never far from his bow and arrows, and the new arrows got to see Jerry's terrifying life from close up. They travelled so far at his side that they got to see the sadness and disappointment in the warrior's eyes, and they came to understand that this savage fighter had never seen any other kind of life.

Time passed, and Jerry was given a mission to kill the King's daughter. Jerry thought this occasion merited using one of his new arrows. He prepared himself as always: hidden in the bushes, his eyes fixed on the victim, the bow flexed, the arrow ready, waiting for the right moment and…fire!

But the arrow didn't pierce the beautiful young girl's heart. Instead, it took a strange, slow and majestic flightpath, and it ended up in the ground, next to some iris flowers of incredible beauty. Jerry, surprised, came over and collected the stupid arrow. But doing so he couldn't help but see the delicate but resplendent flowers, and he felt that he had never seen anything so beautiful…

A few minutes later Jerry looked again at his intended victim, to load another of his new arrows into his bow. But again the shot missed, and after another strange flightpath the gleaming arrow ended up in a tree from where Jerry could hear the most joyful singing of a flock of birds…

And so it continued, one after another, the gleaming arrows missed their target, flying elsewhere to show the warrior the small details that fill the World with beauty. Arrow by arrow, his hunter's eyes and mind was changing, until the final arrow landed only a few yards from the young Princess, from where Jerry could see her beauty from close up - the same beauty that he had been about to destroy.

And then it was that the warrior woke from his nightmare of death and destruction, wanting to exchange it for a life of beauty and harmony. And after renouncing Morlan's wicked deeds, Jerry forever abandoned his life as a killer, dedicating all his efforts to protecting life and anything else that was deserving.

All he kept was the bow and his gleaming arrows, the ones that always knew best where to direct his gaze.

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9:32 PM

Music for the Clouds

 

There was once a tiny country that was suffering from a long drought. It had gone so long without rain that the people there were starting to go hungry because of the bad harvests.

It just so happened that a group of musicians were travelling the country, trying to make a living from their concerts. But with so many problems in the land, no one felt like listening to music.

-"But music can help overcome any problems,"

objected the musicians, without anyone paying them the slightest attention.

So the musicians tried to find out the reason it wouldn't rain. It was very strange, because the sky was overcast, but no one could provide an answer.

-"It's been cloudy like this for many months, but not a single drop of rain has fallen,"

people would tell them.

-"Don't worry, we'll bring rain to the country,"

the musicians responded, and they began rehearsing for a concert at the summit of the highest mountain.

Everyone who heard the music was seized by curiosity and went up the mountain. And the conductor of this strange orchestra gave the order, and the musicians began to play.

From their instruments came small, playful musical notes, that rose and rose into the clouds. The music was so joyous, happy and fun, and the notes started playing with with the clouds' soft, fluffy bellies, running here and three, up and down, and the whole sky turned into one big game of tickle torture. Before long, the giant clouds were thundering with laughter.

The musicians continued playing joyfully and a few minutes later the clouds, crying with laughter, soaked the little country below with their precious tears, bringing happiness to all.

And in memory of that musical rain, everyone in the land learned how to play an instrument and, taking turns, would go up the mountain every day to bring joy to the clouds with their beautiful songs.
 

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9:29 PM

Whenever there was a storm, the animals of the Enchanted Forest ran, frightened, to hide, fearful of the bolts of lightning and the terrifying thunder. However, one day the storm came on so quickly that almost no one had the time to reach their hideout and, just when they were most frightened, some of the animals saw a tiny little light appear from out of the trees, coming from a spot where a bolt of lightning had just hit.

The little light was jumping and joyfully and excitedly crying out. All the animals watching ran over to see who this mad being could be, a being would could be happy in the middle of a storm.

And so it was that they met the very first of the Spark Wizards, which were tiny little beings that shone intensely all over, as if they had somehow managed to swallow a star. Flint, as this Spark Wizard was known, turned out to be very nice and very charming, and when they asked him how he could be so joyful in the middle of such a ferocious storm, he replied with surprise:

-“But why wouldn’t I be happy when I’ve just escaped after two thousand years?”

He went on to explain how, thousands of years ago, the Dark Wizard had captured all the Spark Wizards and imprisoned them inside some big black clouds where he forced them to work as his slaves. It was almost impossible to escape that prison, but now and again, some of those clouds would collide, and with that impact little tufts of cloud would break off, allowing a Spark Wizard to escape. Each time one escaped it would leap out with such eagerness that its trail of light would illuminate the whole sky, and produce what we know as a lightning bolt. Not long after such an escape, the Dark Wizard would realise what had happened and would grumble furiously about it and beat the clouds in frustration. His cries were filled with anger, and this is why rolls of thunder boom so strongly around the skies.

Excited at Flint’s story, those animals were never again frightened at the storms and the thunder. Instead, when the sky began to cover with black clouds, all the animals would gather at the big rock, where they could get the best view of the storm. There they would applaud and cheer each time a little Spark Wizard managed to escape the clutches of the Dark Wizard. Even better, each time the Dark Wizard came out with one of his angry grumbles of protest, the animals would answer him with a chorus of boos and jeers.

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10:57 PM

Once upon a time a boy was walking through the countryside when he saw, between some clouds, an angel singing a beautiful song. The angel soon disappeared.

The boy thought that it must be the doorway to heaven, and that it would be fun to see what was up there. So he started building a great big tower of wood, reaching up to the clouds. However, when the tower was very tall, it collapsed. He tried building it with adobe, with bricks, and then with steel, but his tower always collapsed.

Just when he was about to give up, the angel returned, this time surrounded by other angels. The angel sang again, and the boy listened closely. The message of the song was that one could only reach that heavenly place if you really wanted to, with all your heart.

No longer was the boy just curious, now he desired with all his might to go up and visit heaven with the angels. But he just couldn't manage it, and overcome by his sense of powerlessness and sorrow, he sat down and began to cry. He cried and cried and cried, so much so, that when the sun appeared from behind the clouds it created a magnificent rainbow. The rainbow led directly up to the doors of heaven.

The boy traveled up the rainbow, filled with joy, and knowing that only with sincere, heartfelt desire could one ever open the doors to heaven.

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10:55 PM