1.
There was a little bird on the fence. It was sitting and singing its beautiful morning songs. The sun was already up, but it was still very early and it was a little cold.
There were ten people on the dusty road. They were coming out of the forest. They were carrying a lot of wood, which they stole in the forest. They went to the forest very early, before the sun went up. Now they were returning home.
They all lived in a very small village. There were only 35 houses in their village. They were walking slowly. Some of them were carrying some wood on their backs. Others had a trunk of a tree on their shoulders.
2.
When they got close to the village, a stranger came to them and said: ‘Good morning gentlemen. I can see that you are working very hard. I hope that you had strong breakfast, before you went to work.’
They did not know this man and they did not like him. But one of the men, the eldest one, replied: ‘We did not have our breakfast. We did not have any wood to make fire; and we need fire to cook our breakfast. We can cook it now.’
‘I see,’ said the stranger. ‘Now, you have wood. Now you have enough wood to cook hundreds of breakfasts,’ he said and pointed with his finger at the wood, which they were holding on their shoulders. Then he continued: ‘But I would like to know whether you paid for this wood or not’
The men with the wood on their shoulders looked at each other. They did not like this stranger’s questions. Again, the oldest of the men looked at the stranger and asked him, ‘Why do you want to know whether or not we paid for the wood?’
‘Well, I am just a little bit curious. There are many policemen around. They are visiting all the villages these days. They’re going from one village to another one and they are going through the forest, too. They are trying to catch some thieves who steal wood from the forest,’ said the stranger and he smiled at the men. ‘So, I am just a little bit curious. How did you get the wood which you are carrying on your shoulders?’
3.
‘How did we get the wood?’ the oldest of the men asked and smiled back at the stranger. ‘As usual!’ he said and all his men laughed. ‘We found it on the ground. And because it was on the ground, we don’t have to pay for it.’ All the men were smiling at the curious stranger.
‘I see, I see,’ said the stranger. ‘But the wood, which you are carrying on your shoulders, it is a trunk of a tree, isn’t it?’ said the stranger and pointed with his finger at the wood on their shoulders. ‘I think that you cut down this tree, didn’t you?’
‘No, no, we didn’t!’ said the oldest man and all his friends started to shake their heads. ‘We didn’t cut down this tree. We found it. It was on the ground.’
‘On the ground?’ repeated the stranger. He did not trust this man.
‘Yes, yes. We found it on the ground,’ said the man. ‘Look at us. We are not strong enough to cut down a tree like this one. This tree is too thick for us to cut down,’ said the man and smiled.
‘In my opinion, you are strong enough to cut a tree like this one,’ replied the stranger.
‘No, no, we aren’t. We are weak. We are very weak men,’ said the man and all his friends laughed again.
‘So, why are you carrying those axes?’ asked the curious stranger and smiled. ‘People use axes to cut down trees, don’t they?’
‘Yes, some people use axes to cut down trees, that’s true,’ answered the man. ‘But we don’t. We take only the wood, which is on the ground. We don’t need axes to cut down any trees.’
‘So, why did you take your axes with you this morning?’ asked the stranger curiously. ‘You went to the forest early in the morning and you took your axes with you, although you didn’t want to use them to cut down the trees?! And you found a tree. Someone cut it down before you came there? And they left it on the ground. And now, you are coming back with a piece of a trunk, which you found on the ground, and with the axes, which you did not use. Correct?’
‘Exactly!’ said the oldest of the men. He was smiling, when he continued:
4.
‘We always take our axes because there are dangerous animals in this forest – bears and wolves..’
‘And foxes!’ said one of his men quickly. Everybody laughed. Then the oldest of the men started to explain:
‘We got up this morning and we were hungry. We wanted to have breakfast, but we couldn’t make fire because we didn’t have wood.’
‘Yes, yes, yes…’ all his men were saying. They all agreed with their leader.
‘And so, we took our axes and went to the forest to find some wood. While we were walking in the middle of the forest, where many big bears and hungry wolves live,..’
‘And big hungry foxes!’ the other man interrupted again.
‘And big hungry foxes,’ repeated the leader and continued. ‘Suddenly, we found a tree.’
‘Yes, yes, we found a tree,’ everybody agreed.
‘Someone cut it down, but we found it on the ground. We found a lot of footprints on the ground and I think I know what happened.’
‘Do you?’ smiled the stranger. ‘Could you, please, tell me what happened? I am very curious and I would like to know.’
‘Yes, tell us! Tell us what happened! Please!’ all the men were saying, too.
5.
‘Well, I am sure that it happened like this: Early in the morning, when we all were still sleeping, some thieves took their axes and went to the forest to steal some wood. They took their axes to cut down a tree, I am sure,’ said the leader of the men.
‘Please, go on!’ said the stranger.
‘It was still dark in the forest, but they chose one tree and started to cut it down,’ he said. ‘The policemen, who were looking for the thieves that morning, heard that someone was cutting down a tree with an axe. They came quietly, very quietly, near the thieves.’
All the men were sitting on the trunk of the tree now and they were listening to their leader with their mouths open. Nobody was speaking.
‘The policemen were waiting for the thieves to finish their job. The tree fell down. Suddenly, the policemen jumped up and they tried to catch the thieves. But the thieves did not wait for the policemen to catch them. They took their axes and they quickly started to run away. The policemen started to chase them. The thieves were running away and the policemen were running after them.’
‘I see.’ said the stranger. He was listening to the man’s story with a smile on his lips. Then he asked, ‘Did the policemen shoot at the thieves? Did you hear anything?’
‘No. We didn’t hear anything. I don’t think that the policemen shot at the thieves. I don’t think that they took their guns with them to the forest,’ said the man.
‘Really? And why do you think that the policemen didn’t take their guns?’ asked the curious stranger.
6.
‘You see, when you are in the forest, you mustn’t disturb animals. It is against the law and the policemen know it. I think that they also took only axes to the forest. That’s the reason why they didn’t shoot at the thieves, when they caught them,’ said the leader of the men and and they all were quiet for a few moments.
‘When we found the tree, there were no thieves. There were no policemen, either. I went around the tree and looked at it carefully. I couldn’t see any name on it. The tree was on the ground and there was no name on it. So we took it. We don’t have to pay for it,’ said the man and then he hit his thigh with his hand, ‘I think it’s time to go. I am hungry, boys!’
The men laughed. They got up from the trunk and they slowly picked it up and put it up on their shoulders again.
Then the stranger asked, ‘Did the policemen catch the thieves?’
‘Who knows,’ said the men’s leader wisely. ‘Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t.’
And then they started walking home with the wood on their backs and shoulders to make their late breakfast.
The stranger looked at them and smiled one last time. Then he turned around and started walking, too.
English Reading, Level 2 / © Sparrow’s English Reader
Sparrow's English Reader 