The Little President that Cried WOLF!

Once upon a time, in a place not very far from here, there was a flock
of sheep tended by a little president. His father had tended the flock
some time before.

His father told him the flock, if properly herded,
would go exactly where it was instructed to go. The little president
was warned that sometimes, wolves would try to raid the flock. If
wolves came, the little president was to run and call for help. The
little president certainly did not want to lose his sheep and he never,
ever, forgot what he was supposed to do, if and or when, the wolves
came.

Day after day, the little president watched over the
flock. He felt alone. Many times he fell asleep and nothing happened.
Not feeling important enough, the little president wondered what he
could do to make others, and his father, think that he was
important, very important. He remembered the many stories about his
father fighting to defend his sheep from the wolf named Huusy. His
father was still heralded as a hero for driving the bad wolf Huusy away
from the village of a good friend. But, his father hadn't tracked the
bad wolf all the way to his lair and Huusy lived to attack again, anywhere, on another day. The little president never, ever forgot this particular lesson, either.


One day the little president decided that if he were to tell the others
that the bad wolf Huusy was seen on the hill above the flock, they
might call him a hero too. So he did. The others got very excited.
Some of them didn't care. Some of them wanted him not to do anything
until the bad wolf attacked the flock. Some of them wanted him to go
get the bad wolf, even if it meant tracking it all the way to it's
home. Everybody was happy the little president had reported the
impending danger of the bad wolf. This made the little president feel
very important.

Several days later, the little president,
while watching the flock, fell asleep. He had a bad dream about the bad
wolf. In his bad dream, the little president was single-handedly
fighting the wolf, until help came. But, in his dream, no help came at
all. In the dream, the little president cried out for help from the
others. He cried out so many times, and so loudly, that he woke himself
up from his sleep to find he was crying out audibly, too. The others
were beginning to run to the flock, because they heard the little
president crying out. The little president was too ashamed to
admit he was crying out in his sleep, so he yelled " Wolf, wolf!" and
pointed over there! The others rushed around but, couldn't find
anything, for the was no wolf, except in the little president's bad
dream. Unaware, the others made a big fuss over the little president,
and he felt very important. After a while, they all left, and once
again, the little president was alone with the flock.

Some time
passed, and no one was telling the little president that he was
important anymore, except his father. As the little president listened
to his father, he knew that his father wished the wolf had been tracked
down. The little president decided to get the others interested in,
once again, tracking the bad wolf. So, for several days in a row, he
cried wolf and everybody came to help. But, seeing no evidence, they
went home. Each time the little president cried wolf, others were
slower and slower to come help. Some of the others wondered if there had been a wolf at all.


And so it went on, day after day. When the little president wanted to
feel important, or when he wanted his father's attention, the little
president would cry, "WOLF!" Soon, nobody would come to the aid of the
flock, for they had learned that the little president could not be trusted.

The moral to the story of the little president is this: Never send a little boy to do a President's job!