Honest Piece of Silver
Once upon a time, there lived in a small hamlet a poor woman and her son. So poor were they that often there was not even a morsel of food in their tumbledown hut. It was a cold winter day and they had nothing at all to light a fire and warm themselves by. "Son, will you go to the woods and fetch some dry twigs for fuel? Otherwise, we will freeze to death," said the mother, covering her little boy with an old patched up coat. Fred hopped and skipped, skipped and hopped all the winding path to the forest. He was happy in spite of the chill grey weather and continued to jump and run in order to keep himself warm. Soon he came to the woods and gathered as much fuel as his little arms could carry and started back home. Suddenly he stumbled against a big round stone, all white with frost and snow. "How pale and white you look! You'll be soon frozen to death!" he said, and taking off his coat, laid it on the stone. When he got home with the bundle of twigs under his arm and his mother asked him what he did with his coat, he proudly told her what he had done with it. "What! You wrapped it round a lifeless stone to keep it warm? What a fool you're! Don't you know that whether it's hot or cold, a stone remains a stone, always dumb and still. Now, go and fetch your coat at once," said his mother angrily.