There was an old horse, Sadie, who was raised and kept by her master and
his family. She had lived with this family for eighteen years, providing
them comfort and protection. She had many jobs around the farm and was
happy and content with her life. One day she over heard her master
talking to this wife. “Honey, Sadie is getting old. I think it is
time we put her down. Her mane has turned gray, her gait has become
stiff, and her teeth have fallen out. She is useless now and we must get
rid of her.” The wife replied, “She is part of the family. She has
protected our family and she has done a lot of work around this place.
The kids love her and would be devastated if we let her go.” The debate went on
but Sadie was too sad to listen to their conversation anymore. She
galloped away to the pond to talk to her snake friend, Jake. Jake was full of
wisdom and always had a plan for everything.
He would know what to do! As she
approached the pond, Jake was stretched out across a fallen tree limb soaking
in the sun. “Jake! This is urgent. My master is planning to kill me
because I am of no use to this family anymore. What should I do?” Jake pondered for a few short moments until
he perked up atop the log he was laying on.
“I have a plan,” said Jake. “When the little children come to the
pond tomorrow, I will slither up the log and wrap around their ankles.
When the children scream for their father you will run to the pond and scare me
off, saving the children.” Sadie sighed with relief. She was so thankful for Jake and his
creativeness in all situations. With a
plan in place, Sadie was able to sleep well that night. Mid day came
around and the children headed out to the pond to cool off in the water as they
did every hot summer day. When they sat on the log to take a rest, the
snake slithered behind them and wrapped around their legs. The children
began to scream and cry out and their father looked up from working on the
tractor. He began to run towards the pond in fear. On cue, Sadie
galloped to the pond and rearing back on her hind legs, scared the snake off
from the children. Crying from fright, the children latched on to Sadie
thanking her for saving their lives. The father finally arrived at the
pond seeing what Sadie had done, and began to thank her and give her
hugs. That night Sadie was listening to the man talk to his wife.
He was telling her the story about Sadie saving the children from the
snake. “Honey, we have to keep Sadie around. She would do anything
for our family and she will never be too old to love us and that is what is really
important.”
Author's Note: In the original story, Old Sultan, the story was about a dog and his
owner saw no more use of him. He told
his wolf friend about his situation and the wolf created a plan to steal the
baby of the Sultan’s master. Sultan
would save the baby in order to change the master’s mind that he was useful to
his family. The plan worked and Sultan
was treated like royalty from that day on. I made a few small changes to
the story, but not very many. I changed
the characters to a horse and a snake but wanted to keep the meaning behind the
story the same. In both of the stories the animals are viewed as old and
useless. This devastates the animals and
they want to do anything they can to prove to their masters they are worth
keeping. In both stories, the masters
realized that the animals did not have to be useful in any other way as long as
they were faithful to their family. Also,
in the original story, the wolf got mad at the dog because the wolf expected a
favor in return. This favor was to give
the wolf one of the sheep from the dog’s master. The dog, remaining true to his master, would
not give the sheep to the wolf. They had
a small dispute but ended up remaining friends.
Bibliography:The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).
