Week 12 Story: The Goodest Boy!

 There once was a dog who had an owner that loved him very much. The owner saved the dog when he was only a stray pup shivering on the streets alone. However, this wasn't any old man. He could turn anything he wanted into gold. But he never used his power, because he believed it was unfair. The old man took care of the dog until the day he died, and his favorite thing to do was play fetch with the dog.

They played fetch every day, until the last day the old man lived. The man knew he was about to die, so he got a giant bucket of tennis balls. He turned these tennis balls into gold for the dog, which seemed unnecessary but he knew they would help the dog one day.

After that the dog would try to play fetch with other people with his golden tennis balls, however every time he gave a ball to someone. They would get very excited and walk away. So the dog never brought his gold out to play with anyone. 

One day the dog was walking around, and saw a young man taking care of a little boy. They were dirty and all their clothes were ripped. The dog could see the sadness in their faces. He thought he could cheer them up and bring them a gold tennis ball. So he did, and they were so very happy.

Now the young man and little boy were brothers who had lost their parents when they were very young. So the older brother provided for his younger brother. When he got the gold tennis ball he was so happy, but still wanted more so he could make sure him and his little brother would be safe forever.

The older brother followed the dog back to wherever he came from, and saw the bucket of golden tennis balls. Just before the brother took them all, he saw that there was no one living with the dog. He got an overwhelming feeling of guilt and decided to bring the dog home with him to take care of. He used a few golden tennis balls so that they could live comfortably, but did not use them all as he planned because he saw how happy they made the dog.

The brothers took care of the dog and loved him for the rest of his happy life. The brothers were no longer struggling, and the dog found people who loved him. A happy ending!

Tennis ball

Author's note: I wrote this story based on the Golden Goose by Ellen C. Babbitt. The dog represents the goose while the brothers represent the mother and her children. I used the tennis balls as the gold object instead of the goose feathers. In the original story the goose would give a gold feather to the mother every visit, in order to help her care for her children. However, the mother felt like the goose would not return one day, and decided to steal all of the goose's feathers to make sure her children would be safe. The goose never grew gold feathers back, because it was not its decision to give them to the mother.

I wanted to have a different ending to this story because it made me sad reading about how the mother felt like she needed to steal all the goose's feathers. So, instead of the brother stealing all of the gold tennis balls, he takes the dog in as his own instead. The brother is also able to use some of the tennis balls to take care of him and his younger brother, so it was a happy ending all around!