Once upon a time, there was a wolf called Howler who lived in a valley where lots of fruit trees grew. Howler would often try to climb up the trees to eat the fruit they produced. But the most appetising fruit was on the very tall trees that Howler couldn’t reach.
In the valley, an elderly man named Martin also had a few fruit trees that he looked after very carefully. But as he was getting older, he began to notice that he lacked the strength to pick the fruit, for it was very tiring work.
Martin had some of the biggest and most delicious fruit trees in the valley, which was why Howler had his eye on them. So one day he decided to try and reach their fruit and started jumping up and down the trunk.
Martin, who was looking out of the window, realised that the wolf was trying to steal fruit from his beautiful trees, but however much Howler jumped and howled, he couldn’t reach even the lowest branches of such a big tree.
Seeing this, Martin had a great idea: he offered Howler a ladder to climb up, but in return the wolf would have to give him half of whatever he picked. Only then would Martin continue lending him the ladder.
Howler accepted the deal and set to work collecting the fruit, and for one whole morning he went up and down the ladder filling his basket with the fruit they would then share between them. Continue reading…
