Monkeys’ Attempt to Catch the Moon
Once upon a time, there were a group of monkeys living happily in the forest. They chased each other for fun everyday, ate the sweet wild berries and bananas and drank the fresh water from the fountain.
One day when they played on the hill, the leader of the group saw the bright full moon in the sky. “Isn’t it perfectly beautiful?” he exclaimed, with a fine gush of enthusiasm. With the thought of picking it up and owned it, he called his fellows:”Hey, hey, hey, look at that beautiful thing, let’s get it down. My fellows, come on”. Then he ran up towards the top of the hill.
Hearing this order, all the monkeys followed him to the hilltop. They stacked themselves up swiftly, and soon there was a ladder made out of monkeys leading to the sky. The youngest one climbed up to get the moon. Slowly he climbed as on thin ice, the “monkey ladder”swayed slightly to every step of his. Finally, they were disintegrated as all of them lost their balance and fell off from the hilltop. Some rolled to the meadow, some got caught by the branches of the tree, while some rolled to the fountain.
Everyone was disappointed at the failure of getting the moon down. Suddenly, two baby monkeys cried out excitedly.
“MOON, MOON! There is another one in the water!”
Everyone was cheered up again at this news. They all gathered around to see the moon--the shadow of it on the surface of the fountain.
“Let’s get it for our respectful leader!” Someone cried.
“WOO...WOO...” Others agreed.
But there was a difficulty in front of them. The surface of the fountain was impossible to reach as there was a high cliff.
Finally they came up with a good idea. They held the other’s tail one after another to make themselves a rope, then down to the fountain. That youngest monkey got the mission to be the one to get the moon with a water ladle.
The youngest monkey started to climb down to the fountain. At this time, everyone held their breath for fear that they should scared the youngest monkey. The youngest monkey moved slowly and cautiously to reach the surface.
Several minutes later, he finally got to the tip of the “rope”. Raised the water ladle, he began to take the moon out.
Everyone gazed at him nervously. As he dipped the ladle into the water, strange thing happened. The moon was broken. Then it came into the ladle. Everyone gave a sigh of relief.
Then they got to the cliff. The youngest monkey held the ladle when everyone wanted to have a full look at it. They struggled to pushing each other to get to the front. As a result of this, the water in the ladle spilled out, and the moon naturally has gone.
Everyone looked at each other angrily, and then at last they found the moon in the sky still, shining and bright.。