A bedtime story for your children

This one concerned a rather snooty monkey called Michael. He was a rather clever chap who, though he liked swinging through the trees as much as any of his species, did not like mixing with his fellow monkeys; partly due to his superior intelligence. He liked to be alone to think out things for himself.

One day he decided to break out of the rain forest and ended on the coast where he encountered a lighthouse. Now being an intelligent monkey he knew what lighthouses were about, they were places where you could be all alone and no-one would bother you. So he went along and knocked on the door and asked the lighthouse keeper for a job. The keeper told him he could clean the lights mirrors and the outer windows but couldn't pay him much.

All I need is a regular supply of bananas said the monkey.

We don't get much call for bananas here said the lightthouse keeper.

So what do you eat, asked the monkey.

Mostly fish said the keeper. So Michael the monkey said he would have to think about that, but decided to go back to his rainforest.

Anyway he built a lighthouse in the middle of the rainforest, on a platform in the trees he erected a tower with spiralling steps and a candle and mirrors at the top. The other monkeys ignored him and went about his business, though the other animals were curious to observe.

The first night Michael lit his beacon and stood duty was the most terrifying he had ever experience because the light attracted the most vicious carnivorous beasts from miles around. The roars and wails and hoots had him quivering in a corner and it was only when the beacon went out and the morning sun came up that it ws safe for him to flee his construction.

Michael was now beginning to wish he had more support for his endeavours, friends even, but was at aloss at first to know how to break out of his isolation. So he went back to his lighthouse tower in the daytime, knowing what an act of folly it was to build it. Who wants a lighthouse in the middle of a rainforest. There are no dangerous seas and no ships to be wrecked on rocky shores.

While he was up there in his lonely tower he noticed a pillar of smoke rising up in the distance and being a bright monkey he knew what it was. So he rushed down and told the other members of the local monkey troop what he'd seen but they just laughed at him.

However the laughter didn't last long when news came of a raging fire in the rainforest and the wind was blowing it their way. They soon fled with the rest of the animals, and thereafter learned to respect Michael's opinion, and even offer their friendship when they realised his value as an individual in their community.