Mercury and the Axe - Part II - If you're greedy, you will lose everything!
Dear Kids,
Whenever you get sweets from your mom, you must share it with your brothers, sisters and friends. Otherwise, you will become greedy, and end up suffering. Just see what happened to the greedy man in the following story:
The woodcutter in the old story about Mercury and the axe was happy to get back his axe. He patiently finished chopping all the wood that he needed for the day.
After he had finished chopping his wood for the day he went back to his friends who were working in another part of the wood, and told them of his good luck. As they listened, one of the men thought that he too would like to get an axe from Mercury.
So the following day he went down to the river's edge, and threw his axe into the fast flowing waters. When it had disappeared he sat down on the bank and, began to cry as loudly as he could. In a little while Mercury appeared again, and asked the man why he was so sad.
'I've lost my axe,' said the man. 'It just slipped out of my hand as I was cutting wood. It's fallen in the water and I can't find it.'
Mercury felt sorry for the man and once more dived into the cold waters of the river. He soon appeared and shouted to the man, 'I can see something down there. Is your axe a golden one?'
The eyes of the man lit up. 'Oh yes,' he said, 'it is made of real gold.'
The god was angry now, for he knew the man was lying. 'What a shame,' said Mercury, 'the axe that I have found is just an ordinary one. I cannot find your golden axe anywhere in the river. As this is not your axe I'm afraid I cannot help you. I must go and find out who this axe belongs to.' With that Mercury and the axe disappeared.
Left on the bank, without any axe, was a sadder but wiser man.
Happy reading!
Uncle N
ps: Dear Kids, I'll be out of town (and offline) for the next 10 days, and will not be posting any new stories for you. Hence, during this period, be nice to your friends, parents, teachers and everybody around you. Hope to share more stories with you soon!
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