Prose: A Lesson to save

LET US LEARN

A Lesson to save

On the way to the playground, in the fields, Amir saw dirt thrown out of a pit on the ground. He went near it and saw a small rat-like creature. He called out, “Hey! Who are you? What are you doing in there?”

The creature came out and took a glance at the boy and said “I am a mole. I am digging a burrow to catch the earthworms and save them for the winter.”

 “Interesting, how do you catch and save them?”

The mole replied, “I dig ‘worm traps’ along the tunnels, when the earthworms cross it they fall into it. I will bite and paralyze them and store in the tunnel to eat later.”

The boy asked, “How many earthworms will you store?”

The mole replied, “As many worms as I can get. I don‛t eat all of them. I save them for using later. Now, I don‛t have any time to waste. I must build a lot of worm traps. See you later.” The mole went inside the burrow.

Just then, near the mole's burrow, Amir saw a leaf moving. He went near it and saw a small ant. The ant was carrying a big leaf.

The ant yelled, “Get out of my way. It will take too long to go around your feet.”

He asked the ant “Hey! Why are you carrying this big leaf? Isn't it easy to eat it and then go home?”

The ant dropped the leaf and replied, “I am a ‘leafcutter ant‛. I am collecting leaves for my colony. I can carry leaves that weigh nearly twenty times my weight.” Amir was surprised. He asked, “Do you eat leaves?”

The ant replied, “No, we don‛t eat leaves! We drink the leaf sap. We also use the leaves to grow fungus. We need the fungus to feed our babies. We also store the leaves for the winter.”

The ant asked, “By the way, do you, the humans save the food that you need?” Amir replied, “Yes we also save food in granaries, but we need money to buy it, so we usually give importance to save money. What else do we have to save?” “Don‛t you have anything other than money to save?”, asked the ant. After taking some time to think. Amir answered, “My mom asks me to save water, food, electricity, forest and fuel. We have a lot of things to save, to make sure that future generations can use these.” This interaction with the mole and the ant changed the way Amir thought about the things around him. Earlier, he let the fan run as he left the room. He let the water drip as he never closed the tap tightly. Now, he always care and save the resources around him.

THINK : Which of these is the most important thing to save, food, water, electricity or money? Why? Discuss.

Glossary

digging: break up and move earth

traps: enclosure designed to catch and retain animals

Paralyze: incapable of movement

Sap: plant fluid