Hermit

Many years ego, there lived a hermit in a forest in Sumatra. He did not grow food but depended on the jungle fruit to survive. Soon, there was a drought, and all the plants and fruit trees in the jungle died.

The old man had nothing to eat now, so he turned to begging. He went to a nearby village trying to get some food. At first, the villagers were happy to help him. However, when he came continually, they refused to give him any more food. They told him to grow his own food.

One day, while the hermit was sitting in his hut, sad and hungry, he began to think about growing his own food. Just then, a boatman stopped by, and taking pity on the hermit, gave him some padi seeds.

Before the boatman went away, he said,” These seeds will grow and give you everlasting harvests if you work vary hard. If you are tired of the work, the padi plants will turn into weeds.

The old hermit worked hard to clear the land and sowed the seeds before the rains come. Strangely, after a short period of time, the padi was ready for harvesting. The old man got a lot of rice from the harvest. After each harvest, the plants grew back again right away.

When the villagers heard about the hermit and his wonderful padi, they flocked to his padi-field and took home as much padi as they could.

One day, the hermit become so tired of harvesting the padi that he shouted,” Oh, stop growing, you wretched thing!” As soon as he had said this, the padi plants turned into weeds.

Whales

            Whales are the largest animal on earth. Bigger than elephants, they may grow 95 feet long, and weight 150 tons. A baby blue whale, just born, can be 23 feet long and weigh 3 tons.

           Although whales live in the oceans and can swim like fish, they are not fish. They are mammals, like cows and elephant. Unlike fish, they bear young alive not as eggs. Their babies live on their mother’s milk. They breathe through their lungs and hold their breath when they go under water. If they cannot come to the surface to breathe fresh air, they will be drowned. They are warm blooded. Fish, however, lay eggs, breathe oxygen in the water and are cold blooded.

            Whales live in all the oceans. In the winter some of them go to warm waters to breed and in the summer most of them go to cold waters to feed. There are two kinds of whales, whales with teeth (toothed whales) and whale without teeth (baleen whales). The toothed whales eat fish and squid, which they can catch with their teeth, although they swallow their food without chewing it. The Baleen whales eat plankton (small sea animals and plants). When they find plankton, they open their mouth and swim into the plankton. When they close their mouth, they squeeze out the water and swallow the plankton.

            Whales have few enemies. Only human beings and the whale killers attack whales. And whales do not seem to fight among themselves. They usually live from 20 to 30 years.