The little Boy, and the Fishing Competition

Once upon a time, there was a boy. He loved school and riding horses. His schoolhouse was a tiny place because his village was small, too. It was just a small wooden building with desks, chairs, and a chalkboard. But it was his sanctuary. At home, he was poor; but here, rich or poor, everyone was in the same place. They were all getting the same education even if they had more money than someone else. He especially loved his teacher. Her name was Mrs. White. She lived a simple life and loved her students. Due to her and his family's influence, he lived an honest life and never lied.

One day after school, he jumped on a horse and went down to a lake to go fishing. On a tree nearby there was a flyer stapled to it reading “Fishing Competition, Cash Prize: $500 for Biggest Fish”. The boy thought about his family at home. It was him, his mother Betsy, his father John, his big sister Caroline, and his new baby sister Charlotte. They lived in a small house on the edge of town and were barely able to get by on the money his mother and father made. But five hundred dollars would be a lot of money and would really help out his family. So he fished, and fished, and fished all day. But all the fish that he caught were barely bigger than his hand. As he walked back home he thought about how poor his family was and how much that money could really help them. He tossed and turned all night. 

The next morning he woke up determined to catch the biggest fish in the whole town. He had to bring the fish to the market by noon which gave him only 2 more hours to fish. But the fish just weren’t biting. At 11:00 am he gave up and began walking home, tired, disappointed, and sad that he couldn’t help his family. But as he walked home he saw the big skins of fish hanging behind the fish shop in the market. Just then one of his friends appeared right beside him. "Whatcha' doin'?" asked James, the little boy's friend. The little boy jumped at the sound of James's voice. "I scared ya' didn't I?" He asked. "Yeah." The little boy replied. "So..." James prodded. "What are you doing?" the little boy let out a sigh. Thinking that maybe this was the universe's way of telling him not to do what he had been just about to do. "I was just heading home actually." He said. "Okay, well do you want to catch some frogs first?" James asked. And just when the little boy was about to reply, "James!" He heard. "Sorry, man I gotta go. That was my Ma'" He said. And ran off in the other direction as fast as he could come. After he was sure James was out of sight, and nobody was watching he quickly ran over, snatched one of the fish skins, and ran back into the forest. 

In the forest, he found a bunch of plants and herbs and stuffed the fish with them. Then he took a hook and some wire from his pocket and sewed up the fish. He also made sure to put some rocks inside of the fish to make it heavier. Then he made his way back to the market. One by one the fishermen brought their fish up to the front and weighed them on the scale. When it was his turn, he timidly walked up to the front and placed his fish down on the scale, carefully so that no one could see the wire. The scale read 32 lbs - the biggest fish by 1-½ pounds.

The judge picked the fish up and said “We have a winner!”. Everyone surrounding the little contest cheered and clapped, and the other fishermen grunted and clapped begrudgingly. Just then, though, the wire snapped and the fish split open, and rocks, herbs, and plants all tumbled out at once making it clear for everyone to see that the boy had cheated in the contest. Everyone stared at him, and the little boy’s cheeks burned with shame. And just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse the fisherman from the shop pointed at the stolen fish skin and shouted “Hey! That’s my fish skin!”. He grabbed it from the judge. The little boy looked around at everyone who was staring at him. And then he saw his teacher standing there in the middle of the crowd, with a sad, and disappointed look on her face. It made the little boy's heart sink. Just then the bewildered judge whirled around and held up the next heaviest fish. “And we have a winner!” he shouted, not missing a beat. 

The little boy ran home, his cheeks still burning with shame and knowing what he had done had been wrong. The next day his family received a letter in the mail. Not knowing what had happened, they were all shocked to hear what he had done. The letter demanded that the family pay $20 to the fishermen, and $5 to the contest for the ruckus he had caused. The boy was even more ashamed and sorry for what he had done. His main goal had been to help his family and, instead, he had made everything even harder for them. When they had opened the letter and his mother had read it to the family out loud, the disappointment on their faces was worse than anything he had ever seen before. And he felt worse than he ever had before. The family had to work even harder to make ends meet and the little boy worked really hard to pay back the money to his family, even though his family didn't require him to. But he felt as though it was a step on the long road ahead of him to make things right. After that, the little boy never lied again and worked hard for the rest of his life.