The opera singer

One day, a train was approaching the small town of Cheekyville. On the train was a strange guy with a big suitcase. He was called William Warbler – the man, not the suitcase – and he looked very common indeed. What made him most unusual, though, was the fact that whenever he needed to communicate, he did it by singing opera.

It didn’t matter to William whether it was simply answering a brief greeting, like ‘good day’. He would clear his voice and respond, “Gooood dayyy to youuuuuuuu… tooOOOO!”

It wouldn’t be unfair to say that almost everyone considered William Warbler a massive pain in the neck. No one could get a normal, spoken word out of him. As no one knew how he made his living as he lived quite simply and was always wearing his same old second-hand suit – people often treated him with disdain.

William had been in Cheekyville for some years, and people were fond of calling him ‘Don No One’, ‘Poor-Rotti’, and ‘Lazy Miserables’ as mockery. But one day, a rumor spread round town like wildfire: William had secured a role in a very important opera in the nation’s capital, and there were posters everywhere advertising the event.

Everyone in the capital went to see the opera, and it was a great success. At the end of its run – to everyone in Cheekyville’s surprise – when William was being interviewed by reporters, he answered their questions by speaking rather than singing. And he did it with great courtesy, and with a clear and pleasant voice.

From that day on, William no longer sang all the time. Now he sang only during his stage appearances and world tours. Some people suspected why he had changed, but others still had no idea, and continued believing him to be somewhat mad. They wouldn’t have thought so if they had seen what William kept in his big suitcase. It was a large stone, with a hand-carved message on it.

The message said: “Practice, my boy. Practice every second, for you never know when your chance will come.”

Little did people realize that he only got the role in the opera because the director had heard William singing while out buying a newspaper. (freestoriesforkids.com)(FREEMAN)