eggplant farmer
The Eggplant Farmer
Vocabulary
| thus | eggplant | it is time |
| crop | decide | abundant |
| pick | load | field (2) |
| cart | gather | meanwhile |
| plow | far away | by himself |
| seed | plant (3) | walk down |
| tool | anyway | bring/brought |
| shed | suitcase | following |
| till | spade | all the way |
| sure | panic | turn around |
| ship | treasure | forget/forgot |
| try | fool (2) | bury/buried |
| sight | except | out of sight |
| grab | ground | find/found |
| dig | frantic | adjacent |
| hole | spot (2) | motivation |
| gusto | race (3) | enthusiasm |
| dirt | entire | as soon as |
| worm | trick | in the first place |
| sow | shout | somewhere |
| plump | effort | might as well |
| shiny | province | not in vain |
| juicy | harvest |
The Eggplant Farmer
There once lived a farmer, Joshua. He had three sons.
He raised a variety of fruits and vegetable on his farm, but his main crop was eggplants.
One summer morning, Joshua decided it was time to harvest them.
“Alright everyone. Get up! Let’s have breakfast and harvest the eggplants,” he said to his sons.
None of the sons moved.
“Come on, Wake up! Get up! Let’s go!”
One of them turn his body, but they all continued sleeping.
The Harvest
Thus Joshua went to the fields and began picking his eggplants and loading then onto the horse cart — by himself.
Meanwhile, after his sons got up at 10, they played, sang, danced, ate and drank.
By autumn, Joshua had gathered all the eggplants.
But now his arms, legs, back and shoulders hurt.
Planting Time
When spring came Joshua told his sons that they needed to work the soil so they could plant eggplant seeds.
The next day, he brought out four spades from the tool shed.
“Okay boys. Let’s go! . . . Boys? Boys?!? Boys!”
He then asked a neighbor if she had seen any of his sons.
“Why yes,” she replied. “I saw one going to town; the other at the lake; and the third at Susan’s house.”
The Trip
Early the following morning, the sons awoke due to some noises — then they saw their father leaving the house with a suitcase.
“Dad! Dad! Where are you going?” asked the first son.
“I’m visiting my brother,” answered Joshua.
“Huh?!? You have a sister — Aunt Margo . . . but . . . you never told us you had a brother,” said the second son.
“Well. I do. Actually he’s my best friend from childhood, but — we are…like brothers. Anyway I must see him; he needs my help.”
By Ship
The farmer began walking down the road.
“You’re walking all the way?” asked the third son.
“No — I’m traveling by ship,” said the father.
“BY SHIP?!? To WHERE? Where are you going?
“Far away.”
“When are you coming back?”
“I’m not sure.”
“But…but…but what are we going to do?”
“There’s enough food till summer,” said the farmer then continued to walk down the road.
Buried
Suddenly, Joshua turned around. “Oh, I almost forgot to mention,” he said. “My father — your grandfather — once told me that there’s a treasure buried somewhere in field . . . ”
“A BURIED TREASURE?!? WHERE? WHERE? WHERE?”
“He didn’t know exactly where. I tried to find it, but . . . I had been too busy farming. Bye now.”
Dig
As soon as the farmer was out of sight, the three sons ran into the tool shed. Each grabbed a spade and raced to the fields.
There they each began to frantically dig the ground. Finding nothing in their first holes, they dug up adjacent spots.
They dug with great motivation, energy, gusto, and enthusiasm.
The Discovery
After about a month, they had dug up the entire field — but found no treasure.
“There’s NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING in this field — except dirt and earthworms,” said the second son.
“There NEVER was any treasure here in the first place! Father tricked us. He fooled us!” shouted the third son.
A Few Days Later
A few days later, the sons decided that they might as well sow the fields so that all their efforts would not have been in vain.
A few months later they began harvesting the biggest, plumpest, shiniest, juiciest, most abundant, deep purple eggplants in the province.
Questions
1. The farmer raised only eggplants. True or false?
2. In the beginning, all four harvested the eggplant crop. Is this correct or wrong? What did the farmer’s sons do?
3. In early spring, did the sons want to plow the fields or work the soil?
4. Everything was normal the next morning. Is this right or wrong? What happened the next morning? The next morning,
5. What did the farmer tell his sons before leaving? Before leaving, he told them…..
6. Did the sons go back to singing, dancing, playing and eating?
7. What happened in the end? In the end,
8. The father was lying when he said, “there is treasure buried in the fields.” Do you agree?
9. What is the moral or lessons of the story? The moral of the story is….
10. Do you think this was Joshua’s idea?
A. Can you think of examples of this in real life?
B. What have your parents and teachers and others told you?
C. Hard work always brings success. If you work hard, you will succeed. Do you agree?
D. Who is the hardest working person you know?
E. Do you know any lazy individuals?
