GOOD MORNING P.O.U.! We hope you’re enjoying the holiday weekend!
We continue our series on Anansi The Spider Tales…
One day, Anansi the spider picked some yams from his garden. They were extra beautiful delicious yams, so he baked them carefully in the fire. Then he sat down to eat them up.
Just as Anansi was about to put the first bite in his mouth, he heard a knock on his door. “Oh, no!” thought Anansi. “Who can that be?” But he opened the door. There was Turtle, who looked very tired. Turtle said, “Anansi, please let me in. I’ve walked so far today, and I’m so tired and hungry.” So what could Anansi do but let him in?
But Anansi was too selfish to share his beautiful delicious yams with anybody else, even a guest. So he came up with a nasty plan. Just as Turtle sat down at the table and began to reach for some yams, Anansi yelled at him, “Turtle, your hands are all dirty! You can’t eat with your hands all dirty! Go wash them.” Turtle’s hands really were dirty, from walking on them all day. So Turtle slowly crawled to the river and washed his hands, and then slowly crawled back to the table.
But meanwhile Anansi started gobbling up the yams. By the time Turtle got back, the yams were half gone. And just as Turtle sat down and reached for the yams again, Anansi started yelling again, “Turtle, your hands are still dirty! Go wash them again!” And they were dirty, because Turtle used them to crawl back from the river. Sadly, Turtle got up and went to wash his hands again.
By the time Turtle had crawled all the way back, he saw that greedy Anansi had eaten up the other half of the yams, and the yams were all gone. Turtle looked at Anansi and said, “Thank you for inviting me to dinner. If you’re ever near my house, please come by and let me return the favor.” And Turtle began crawling slowly away to his house.
Well, as time went by, Anansi the spider began to think more and more about how Turtle had promised to feed him a free dinner. Anansi was still feeling greedy, and he wanted to get his free dinner. So one day he walked over to Turtle’s house.
Anansi got to Turtle’s house just about dinnertime, as the sun was going down over the river. Turtle was lying on a rock in the sun, warming himself up, as turtles do. When Turtle saw Anansi, he said, “Hello there, Anansi! Have you come to have dinner with me?” And Anansi said, “Yes, that would be very nice, thank you.” He was getting hungrier and hungrier.
So Turtle dove down to the bottom of the river to set the table for dinner and get everything ready. Anansi waited on the rocks by the shore. Pretty soon Turtle swam back up and said, “Oh Anansi! It is all ready now. Please join me for dinner.” And Turtle dove down again and began to eat the green leaves he had for dinner. Anansi tried to dive down to the bottom of the river, but he was a spider, not a turtle, and he couldn’t dive that deep. He kept floating back up to the surface again. He tried jumping in, he tried diving in, but nothing helped. He just couldn’t get down to that dinner.
Finally Anansi had an idea. He put lots of stones in the pockets of his coat, and finally he was heavy enough to sink down to the bottom of the river. How clever he was! Now he saw Turtle’s table, full of juicy green leaves and lots of other delicious food. Anansi’s mouth was watering.
But just as Anansi was reaching for some of that delicious food, Turtle stopped him. Turtle said, “Anansi, surely you’re not going to eat dinner with your coat on? That’s not how we do things at my house.” Anansi, without thinking, said, “Oh, of course you’re right, Turtle! What was I thinking?” and he took his coat off. But without the rocks in his pockets to hold him down, Anansi floated right back to the surface of the river again, and popped right out of the water. Anansi sadly put his head down into the water and watched Turtle eat up all of the delicious food.
(SOURCE: Anansi Stories For Kids)