Cast, Plot
Invitation
original soundtrack and narration by Carl Gibbons and Jana Tillotson
The Acorn and the Melon in British Czech and Slovak Review

THE ACORN AND THE MELON
Jean de La Fontaine

Behind the cottage of one villager was a little garden with a compost heap near the fence. To make best use of the fertile soil before scattering it over the vegetable beds in spring, the frugal villager planted on it a little seedling which produced a huge melon. He had never seen such a large fruit: it was nearly as big as a cartwheel and as heavy as half a sack of potatoes.

“This world is strangely ordered,” pondered the villager. “Such a feeble stalk, thinner than my little finger, sprouting barely a few leaves, can produce such a massive melon. Yet right over there, that splendid oak – taller than my cottage and so wide that even three stout men cannot embrace it – grows only tiny acorns. Each one would easily fit into a thimble. Surely it would make perfect sense for large fruits to grow on such big trees. And as for the small ones, well, Those may as well grow on these meagre stalks here on the compost heap.” 

On the following Sunday, when even the busy farmers enjoy a moment of respite, our villager was resting after a good day’s work in the shadow of the leafy oak. Suddenly the wind blew through the branches and something tapped his forehead. An acorn! And then, our little philosopher suddenly realised: “By Jove! The world is not so badly ordered after all. If acorns were as large as melons I would now be as dead as a doornail. Thank God things are as they are!”