Outstanding Story (Sub-junior) - The Clever Girl

“The Clever Girl” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2019 written by Harsh Dnyaneshwar Ukirde, New Horizon Public School, Airoli, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

The Clever Girl

Once upon a time, there was a girl. Her name was Shreya. She lived in a small village which was surrounded by a dense forest & near the hill. There were no basic amenities in that village. The village was not connected with nearby villages by road as there was dense forest & it was a hilly area. There was another village across the hill where basic amenities were available. So, all the residents of the village used to go to that nearby village to fulfil their basic needs. Fortunately, a river was flowing through these two villages. All the villagers & school children would use a small boat for transport. Shreya also used to go to school by the boat.

One day she was going to her school with her friends & other people of the village. One of the farmers was loading his goods on the same boat. But the boat was already overloaded. Therefore, Shreya asked the farmer, “Uncle, don’t load more goods. It would sink our boat.” All other co-passengers & her friends laughed at Shreya & allowed that farmer to load more goods. The farmer did not listen to Shreya & loaded more goods. As the boat left the bank of river & reached the middle of the river & started to sink. All the passengers in the boat got frightened & started screaming “Help, help!” But Shreya was not frightened & asked her co-passengers, “Throw down the bags of goods from the boat so that the boat would not sink.” This way, she saved the lives of all passengers. The farmer, who had loaded more goods on the boat realised his mistake & apologised. All the passengers appreciated Shreya for her cleverness.