"The Couple Who Understood Each Other"

There once was a middle-aged married couple who lived in the suburbs. He was an accountant by trade, but his spare was spent painting and drawing. She was a project manager, but preferred to be home, playing her harp in the garden.

One autumn evening, as the husband painted a canvas, a cricket got into the house and started chirping. "Honey, can you kill that noisy cricket?" he asked. "My hands are full of paint."

His wife listened to the cricket singing, and finally answered, "I'm sorry, dear, but I can't do that to a fellow musician." She picked up the cricket and placed it in a warm corner near the fireplace.

The next morning, as she tuned up her harp in the garden, the wife noticed a big, ugly spider resting in the middle of its web. "Sweetheart, there's a spider out here; can you come out and kill it for me? I'm afraid of spiders!"

The husband went out and saw the sunlight shining through the dew drops on the spider web. He sighed and said, "I'm sorry, love, but I can't do that to a fellow artist." He arranged some branches from a nearby bush to provide some shelter for the web.

That night, as they slept, a UFO hovered outside their bedroom window. Inside were two aliens that were giant intelligent butterflies. They sent a probe into the bedroom.

"Let's kill 'em and take them back home as specimens," said one.

"No way," said the other. "Those things are still in their cocoons. They're babies. I can't do that to a fellow butterfly."

So they flew on to the Planet of the Snails.

MORAL: Spare the rod and spoil the bug.

"The Little Girl Who Talked to Animals"

There once was a little eight-year-old girl named Molly. She had freckles and brown hair, which she always wore in braids.

"I can talk to animals," she told her friends. She leant over to an insect on the sidewalk and said, "Hey, bug, what time is it?" She squinted for a few second and cocked her ear toward the shiny beetle. Then, she stood up and said, "It's two thirty!"

"I can talk to animals," she told her parents. She sat on the floor, gathered the family dog into her arms and asked, "Puppy, who was the first president?" The puppy licked her ear while her face crinkled up, and then she said, "The first and only president was Jefferson Davis - of the Confederate States of America, during the Civil War."

"I can talk to animals," she told her Uncle Ned. She picked up a worm and asked, "What's going on down below?" She waited silently as it squirmed this way and that, dangling from between her thumb and forefinger. Then she told her uncle, "Slight earthquake tonight."

Uncle Ned patted her condescendingly on the head and walked away. He was a gambler and a ladies' man and had no time for such childish nonsense.

That night, as Uncle Ned lay sleeping, a lost eighteen-wheeler rumbled through his neighborhood, shaking China cups and waking him. His first thought was, "I must take my niece Molly to the racetrack!"

Next morning, he picked her up early, and they spent the morning touring the stables. At each stall, Molly would ask the horse, "You gonna win today?" She'd wait, and then say, "She's feeling lucky." Or, "No." Or, "I'm too tired." Or, "I'm full of energy."

Uncle Ned wrote it all down, and bet accordingly. He lost money on every race.

"I thought you can talk to animals!" he cried.

"I can. So can you. But, the animals won't answer back. So I make up my own answers."

MORAL: It's better to listen with one ear, than not pay attention with two.

"The Girl Who Frowned"

There was a little girl named Becky, who had the nerves in her face paralyzed in a car accident. She was otherwise healthy, except for the fact that her face wore an involuntary, continual frown. Because of this, people tended to avoid her. Her frown made strangers recoil. Most other children didn't understand her malady and teased her unrelentingly.

Despite this happenstance, she kept a positive outlook, and the attitude that life was still very much worth living. She took delight in nature and solace in the kindness of her mother and father. She was considerate to all animals, and they responded in kind. Becky continued to smile on the inside.

One early spring day, another little girl moved in next door. Her name was Rose. Becky happened to be feeding the chipmunks in her front yard that day, and Rose went over to introduce herself. She stuck out her hand for Becky to shake. Becky took it hesitantly. Rose smiled a troubled smile, and said, "I'm new here. I come from far away. This is a new country for me. I'm scared. I need a smile."

Becky stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans and considered Rose. Here was a kid who accepted her as she was, and asked no questions. Becky tried to move the muscles in her face, but it was no use.

"Come with me," she said to Rose. They went to the only tree in her front yard. Becky climbed to a lower branch and hung upside down by her knees. Her frown was now a smile. Rose and Becky became friends for life.

MORAL: The smile that you send out returns to you.

"The Young Man Who Walked Backwards"

Once upon a time, there was a young man who got bored with it all. Nothing could spark his interest. He pondered a long time for a solution to his ennui; how could he get out of his rut?

After many vain attempts at resuscitating his enthusiasm, he was about to give up when he heard a philosopher on the television say, "We can't know where we're going, until we know where we've been." And so, he decided to walk backwards everywhere he went.

At first, he bumped into trees and fire hydrants, tripped on rocks, and stepped in unspeakable things. While this was painful and embarrassing, it also made the world more interesting. He never felt so alive and aware of his environment before. Eventually, he developed a technique and found he could walk backwards quite well, and without causing too much calamity to himself or others.

One day, while walking backwards in the park, he bumped into someone. This hadn't happened in quite some time, so he turned around to see whom he had bumped into. It was a woman, hair tasseled and cheeks flush with youth.

"Why did you do that?" he asked. "Didn't you see me coming?"

"I'm afraid not," she said. "I was walking backwards."

"Really?" he asked, interested. And so, they walked - backwards, of course - and talked through that sunny afternoon, and found they had much in common. A courtship ensued, and finally they walked down the aisle - backwards - and were married.

On their fiftieth anniversary, they toasted each other, and he said, "That day in the park fifty years ago, if both of us had been walking forwards, we would have walked right past each other and never met." Then he kissed her.

MORAL: If you meet your soul mate walking the walk and talking the talk - don't balk.