A Little White Elephant (NEW Edition)

Publish house: FAE
President: Brain Observer: Alina
CEO: Catherine Secretary: Jenny
A Little White Elephant
Once upon a time, there was a little white elephant named Bill who was born in a glorious elephant family. His family enjoyed an excellent reputation for having made numerous contributions to the forest generation by generation. An ever-lasting peace and harmonious atmosphere were built in the forest because of their selfless help. Seeing that, Bill was proud and always swaggered through the forest telling his family stories to everyone he met. He enjoyed getting admirable and respectful looks from others by telling all those stories. While, as he inherited all the reputation from his family, he forgot to take responsibilities as well.
It was a rainy summer, the river on the east of the forest reached a highest level. Small paths in the forest became muddy and sticky. The day after several rainy days, the sun finally rose up from the east crack of the sky. Birds in the forest had to seize the time to locate their homes in a drier place. Grass raised their heads and smiled at the sun with dewdrops sparkling in the sunlight. Bill, as usual, came out of his home and can scarcely wait to take a stroll in the forest. He was brimming with joy when he saw birds flying here and there and the grass flourish enough to prevent him from the muddy earth.
Some weary birds saw him and asked eagerly, “Bill, can you do us a favor to move some branches for us?” But he shook his head and blurted out, “No. No, it will hurt my back.”
G rass shivered as he showed up, not a single spade of grass didn’t injured severely when he was walking on them. They asked him, “Bill, will you please stop walking on us? We are too tender to carry your weight.” He refused again without a second thought and replied with a similar answer, “No, No, the earth will make my feet dirty.”
After seeing that, animals in the forest were unwilling to talk to him. But he didn’t feel ashamed of himself. On the contrary, he thought they were just jealous of him for he had a glorious family but they didn’t.
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Bill kept strolling by himself. All of a sudden, he saw two hunters, one with a gun in his hands and the other with a delicate statue of Buddha in his grasping fist. Bill immediately hid himself behind a huge pine tree with thick brush covered before it. Then he heard one hunter yell at another, “Why did you take this useless Buddha statue here? It’s just a white elephant!” Bill froze, deeply hurt by the words. A bunch of doubts and questions popped into his head. Why did people dislike white elephants
like that? As a member of white elephants, he began his self-questioning. But after recalling what he had said and done before, he could hardly give a response. He never felt so ashamed and regretful in his whole life
After the two hunters were gone, Bill returned to his family and asked his mom, “Why do people say elephants are useless? Is that true?” His mother swung her trunk and smil ed, “Well my boy, it is true that there is a saying among people, which calls useless but expensive and hard-to-keep things as “white elephants”. But it doesn’t mean that we are useless. We play an important role in keeping the environment balanced. Besides, whether you are useful or not is totally dependent on yourself, not on others’ words.”
From then on, Bill totally changed his attitude. He offered help to others on his own, even without being asked. Instead of saying, “No, No, it will……” He bega n to say, “Yes, Yes, it is my pleasure!”
“Bill, you are so kind!” Birds sang for him (as a) in chorus.
“Bill, no one can be more considerate than you!” The grass began twisting their bodies and dancing for him.
Although Bill was busier than ever before and sometimes got dirty from the muddy earth, still, being helpful to so many friends gave him a tremendous sense of fulfillment.
Bill proved himself and all the other elephants with his behavior. He also learned two important lessons - “actions speak louder than words” and “happiness lies in helping others”. Later, he passed on the two principles to the next generation. The white elephant family became even more glorious than ever before. Warm-hearted, helpful and reliable have now become well-known quality of them in the forest.。