Cry "Wolf!"

James M Sandbrook

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The Shepherd Boy who cried “Wolf!”

There was a village on the outskirts of a forest.

A young shepherd boy would take his herd of sheep across the fields to the long lush grass near the forest.

Every day he sat under a large tree, while his flock of sheep grazed on the grass of the meadow.
He found his work very boring and it felt like time slowly passed, leaving him bored all day.

The shepherd-boy felt bored most of the time and wanted some fun and excitement in his life.

So, to get some fun, one day he gave a loud shout in the direction of the working villagers! “ Wolf, wolf. The wolf is taking my sheep”.

The worried villagers working in the nearby fields heard the boy’s cry and came running to help the boy and the sheep.

When they got there they asked, “Where is the wolf?”, the farmers were ready to charge at the mighty beast with their farming tools.

The villagers saw a large flock of sheep were grazing quietly but there was no sign of a wolf., they grew suspicious and all looked at the boy.

The shepherd-boy began to laugh in amusement and told the villagers that it was a big joke.

The villagers were angry at the boy for taking them from their work and for causing them to panic and run to his aid when he didn’t need help at all.

They scolded the boy for raising the false alarm and causing so much fuss. The shepherd-boy was warned not to repeat this mistake.

The boy laughed and replied “ It was so funny to see you all running to help.”

But, the naughty boy did not take the villager’s warning seriously and soon enough as the days went by he became bored again.

The boy played the same trick several times for the next few weeks.

Each time the farmers came rushing to help the boy again, but they were all fooled by the boy again and again.

This left them all very sad and disappointed in the boy and finally not wishing to help him anymore because they could not tell if he was telling the truth or lying, so now he couldn’t be trusted.

After a few days after his last false alarm, the boy was sitting up in a tree and looking over the sheep in his care that he was supposed to keep safe from harm and well fed.

Suddenly the boy saw a real wolf approaching one of his lambs not far from the boy who was sitting on a branch in a tree, the wolf was stalking the lamb carefully ready for the kill.

The boy panicked and cried loudly “Wolf, Wolf, The wolf is carrying a lamb away.”

But this time none of the farmers came to help him, they had had enough of the boys silly game and wanted no part of his false alarms.

The boy shouted more loudly “Help! Wolf!”. Still no one came to help him chase the wolf away. The villagers thought that the boy was up to his old tricks

With no help for the boy from the villagers, the wolf killed the lamb and carried it away.

The boy was really sad to lose his lamb, and also realized that if he had not been in the tree the wolf could have hurt him and no one from the village would have saved the boy.

Finally the boy had learned his lesson.

James M Sandbrook

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