Story Telling Week One

Lucius Kwok Online image from the Fantastic Mr. Fox

Mr. Fox and the Boat

      Jonathan Fox was a silly man. He was always spending his days sleeping in, doing nothing that resembled work. To his neighbors this would have been fine should Mr. Fox not have spent his waking moments walking through their yards, playing practical jokes on each of them. Miss Pearl, that lived next door to him had grown tired of his daily attempts to sell her land that belonged to Mr. Peters, and Mr. Peters was not fond of this attempt either, since Mr. Peters lived with Miss Pearl, and did not think it prudent to by his own land from himself. Ms. Thompson the town mayor that lived across the street from Mr. Fox also did not enjoy the constant pranks she suffered at the hands of Mr. Fox. The list of people in the town of Barrymore that did like the pranks that Mr. Fox played on them grew in numbers by the day.

     Now as it has already been established Mr. Fox was a trickster type of person, but more so he was a lazy soul. Healthy and well fed the only allergy the man had was calluses on his hands. One day Mr. Fox thought it would be nice to have a boat so that he could take a nap on the lake. The only issue for Mr. Fox was that he was lazy if you remember and did not wish to build this boat himself, and this concerned Mr. Fox. So Mr. Fox thought on it and thought on it all day, for about ten minutes and he came up with a plan.

     Mr. Fox grabbed his bible and told the people the story of Noah. He told them of the flood, and how God had told Noah to build the Ark. He then told the people that God had come to him in a dream and that another flood was coming, but unlike the selfish Noah, Mr. Fox would let anyone who worked on the boat find safety when the time came. The town debated and although they did not trust Mr. Fox, they decided better safe than sorry.
 
     Work on the boat began, and Mr. Fox was deleighted because soon he would have his boat and his new place to sleep. Everyone helped, Mr. Peters cut the wood, Miss Pearl hammered nails, and Ms. Thompson painted the boat. They all worked hard, all with the exception of Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox just slept in and then danced around all day, playing pranks like hiding the saw from Mr. Peters, stealing nails from Miss Pearl, and taking the paint from Ms. Thompson. It was not long before the boat was finished, and on that day there was a ceremony to name the boat.
 
     At the ceremony the town realized that a prank may have been pulled on them by Mr. Fox. They realized this of course because Mr.Fox showed up with pillow and a blanket to take a nap in the boat. They were not upset because they felt it was better to have a boat and not need it rather than need a boat and not have it. After taking this better safe than sorry approach they decided to name the boat the S.S. Just in Case. As soon as they named the boat it began to rain.

     It rained for three days and three nights. Now the town of Barrymore was down river from the largest lake in the world, Lake Gonnagetcha. On that lake was a dam that kept the lake from flooding the town. For three days and nights the lake waters rose. The waters thrashed against the wall of the dam and on the fourth day the water began to crack the dam. In the town of Berrymore the alarms were sounded for everyone to board the boat S.S. Just in Case, for safety. Everyone showed up, Mr. Peters was there along with Miss Pearl and Miss Thompson, the entire town was on the boat except Mr. Fox because he was sleeping and showed up late. He begged the town to let him on the boat, after all it was his idea to build it. Still there was not enough room on the boat for Mr. Fox because the townspeople only built it to seat the people that worked on the boat, and Mr. Fox afterall did not help build the boat. He was too busy sleeping in, hiding saws, stealing nails, and taking paint to help. As the dam broke and the waters flooded the town Mr. Fox realized that he should have bought an alarm clock and been more prudent.

Authour's Notes
I took this from the story  The Wild Boar and the Fox. It is a story about a Fox that plays tricks on everyone and then comes across a boar sharpening his tusks. The fox sees no danger and thinks it is silly but the boar beleives it is best to be prepared. I kept that best to be prepared theme to my story but changed up the events a little, though I beleive that the reader will be able to get the same message from my story as the other stories.

Bibliography
The Aesop for Children by Aesop. 2006. web source The Project Gutenberg Ebooks