The Young Chronicle: For 2nd Graders November 14th, 2014 | Page 3

YOUNG CHRONICLE

November 14th, 2014

STORY: The Monkey’s Kind Heart
In a forest glade, by the side of a river, way up on the mountains, there lived thousands
of monkeys, with their giant monkey king. By the side of the clear, gushing water stood a
tall tree that bore big beautiful juicy golden fruits that we all know as Mangoes.
All the monkeys just loved these Mangoes and ate them off almost as soon as they had
ripened. Now this was a very good thing as their wise giant king had warned them not to
let a single juicy fruit fall into the river. Because, if the current carried even one of
these fruits down the river to the land where the men lived, they would surely come in
search of this delicious fruit and destroy the peace in the land of the monkeys.
It so happened once, that a branch of this tree hung low over the river and a mango that
was hidden behind an ant's nest ripened and fell off without anyone's knowledge. It was
taken down south by the rapid flow of the river and reached the city.
One fine morning when King Brahmadutta was bathing in the river between two nets, a couple of fishermen found a bright golden fruit
caught in the mesh of the net. Very excited they took it to show the King. The King examined the fruit carefully and asked where it
had come from and what it was called. The fishermen did not know much about it but guessed that it must have flowed down the
river from the valleys of the far-flung mountains.
He then asked them to cut the mango and tasted a slice. It was simply delicious. He shared the rest of it with his ministers and Queen
who loved its divine flavour.
A few days passed, but the King could not get this exotic fruit out of his mind. He could not work; rest or sleep for want of some
more. When he could bear it no longer, he set sail in search of it. He organised a fleet of rafts and sailed up the river accompanied by
his men and a few fishermen.
Many days and many nights went by and they passed many valleys until they finally came to the one where the mango tree stood. The
King was delighted and began enjoying the mangoes to his heart's content. Finally, that night, the King lay down to sleep under the
mango tree while his faithful soldiers stood guard. Fires were lit on either side for protection against wild animals.
In the middle of the night when the guards had dozed off to sleep, the monkeys came and finished off all the mangoes that were left
on the tree. The King awoke with all the noise and ordered his guards to shoot at the monkeys so that they could feast on monkey
flesh along with the mangoes.
On overhearing this, the monkeys trembled with fear and escaped to inform the Monkey King. They told him what had happened and
he promised to save them. But for that he had to come up with a plan.
So he climbed up the tree and swung across the river with the help of a branch. He found a bamboo shoot, which he measured and cut
carefully, and then, tied one end of it around his waist. The other end he tied around a tree trunk. He had decided to leap back to the
mango tree and help the rest of the monkeys across over the bridge that he had made with the h