Karl and the Talking Kiwi

Karl was a bad ant. He lived in a kiwi patch. The kiwi plants were big, and Karl was tiny. Karl made holes in the kiwis so he could play and take naps inside of them.

One night he saw a big, black cat walk by the kiwi patch. It was Oscar, the cat. Karl wanted to play a trick on Oscar. So Karl ran inside one of the big kiwis. It was dark. Karl yelled, “Hey, you ugly cat!”

Oscar stopped and looked around. “Who said that?”
“I did, you ugly cat.”
Oscar looked again. “Who are you and why are you calling me ugly?”
“I am down here. I am a talking kiwi, you ugly cat!”

Oscar found the talking kiwi and wanted to show it to the king.

Karl did not say a word. The king asked the kiwi to talk, but it said nothing. The king kept asking it questions. The kiwi did not make a noise.

Oscar told the king it could talk, and he had talked to it earlier in the day.

The king got mad and threw it at the wall. The kiwi broke into many pieces. Karl fell out. The king was very mad when he saw the trick Karl had played on the cat. Karl had to work for the king and promise that he would not do any more tricks again. “No more time for tricks! Only work and more work for you!” yelled the king.