Beberapa Contoh Teks Narrative

The Nail

A merchant had done good business at the fair.  He had sold his

wares, and lined his money-bags with gold and silver.  Then he

wanted to travel homewards, and be in his own house before

nightfall.  So he packed his trunk with the money on his horse,

and rode away.

At noon he rested in a town, and when he wanted to go farther

the stable-boy brought out his horse and said, a nail is

wanting, sir, in the shoe of its near hind foot.  Let it be

wanting, answered the merchant.  The shoe will certainly stay on

for the six miles I have still to go.  I am in a hurry.

In the afternoon, when he once more alighted and had his horse

fed, the stable-boy went into the room to him and said, sir, a

shoe is missing from your horse's near hind foot.  Shall I take

him to the blacksmith.  Let it be wanting, answered the man.

The horse can very well hold out for the couple of miles which

remain.  I am in haste.

He rode forth, but before long the horse began to limp.  It had

not limped long before it began to stumble, and it had not

stumbled long before it fell down and broke its leg.  The

merchant was forced

to leave the horse where it was, and unbuckle the trunk, take it

on his back, and go home on foot.  And there he did not arrive

until quite late at night.  And that cursed nail, said he to

himself, has caused all this disaster.

The more haste the less speed.

The sole

The fishes had for a long time been discontented because no

order prevailed in their kingdom.  None of them turned

aside for the others, but all swam to the right or the left

as they fancied, or darted between those who wanted to

stay together, or got into their way.  And a strong one gave

a weak one a blow with its tail, which drove it away, or else

swallowed it up without more ado.  How delightful it would be,

said they, if we had a king who enforced law and justice among us,

and they met together to choose for their ruler the one who could

cleave through the water most quickly, and give help to the

weak ones.

They placed themselves in rank and file by the shore, and the

pike gave the signal with his tail, on which they all started.

Like an arrow, the pike darted away, and with him the herring,

the gudgeon, the perch, the carp, and all the rest of them.

Even the sole swam with them, and hoped to win the race.

All at once, the cry was heard, the herring is first, the

herring is first.  Who is first, screamed angrily the flat envious

sole, who had been left far behind,  who is first.  The herring,

the herring, was the answer.  The naked herring, cried the

jealous creature, the naked herring.  Since that time the sole

has been punished by having been given a mouth on one side.