Three Trout

Once upon a time there were three trout, all of them brothers. They
spent their days swimming in the swift currents of a small, clear
river, catching juicy bugs and playing among the green and gray
stones.

But one of the brothers was unhappy. "Why must we constantly swim
against the current yet never get anywhere?" he asked his brothers.
"I, for one, am no ordinary trout. I will go further than anyone else
ever has before." With a sudden burst of speed he shot up the river
and was soon out of sight.

He swam and swam, all day and all night. Soon the river began to
narrow. The water became shallower and colder and bounded down rocky
cataracts and over white, misty falls. The trout would not give up.
He leaped every obstacle and pressed on, high into the mountains. At
last the water turned to a mere icy trickle, and with one valiant
leap, the trout landed himself next to a melting snow bank where he
lay gasping and heaving in the summer sun until a passing bear spotted
him and ate him in a single gulp.

The second brother was unhappy too. "Why fight the current? It's
never-ending. What's the point?" And with that he stopped swimming
altogether. He let the river carry him down towards the sea. The
river widened and slowed and food was abundant. The second brother
finally found himself in the open sea. "How beautiful! And look at
all the food." At that very moment he was gobbled up by a salmon
heading back up the river to spawn and die.

The third brother was no different from the others. The current was
tiring and relentless but he was afraid of going upstream or down. He
searched along the river's edge for some solution and chanced upon a
small inlet that led him into a calm pond. Food was plentiful and
there was no current. After a few weeks living the good life he had
become fat and happy. "This is the life!" But soon he noticed that
the pond was getting smaller and the water was uncomfortably warm. He
tried to go back to the river, but the inlet had long since dried up.
In another week he found himself gasping for air in the muddy goo of
the fast evaporating pond, now a mere mud puddle. He too was eaten by
a passing bear.

In the river, the other trout would often wonder about what happened
to the three brothers. But in time, they forgot all about the
brothers as they swam in the swift current, catching bugs, and playing
among the stones.