[stylist] I am amazed!

[Jackie Williams]

Michael,
Wow, a story of a word origin, and a moral. Terrific. Your goal of so many
books is daunting. Good luck.

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 


-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michael via
stylist
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 7:35 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] I am amazed!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015
I am amazed!
 I was not expecting the feed back I did get. Thanks and I would like to
begin contributing a few things to this effort for struggling authors.
 
I will post this one story that is now up for sale on Smashwords; read it
free and enjoy. I will also post my web site where our readers can go and
download a number of free stories that I have written over the years. I
have hundreds of stories and have just begun to publish a few of them in
book form. I will post herein one short story, recently published on
Smashwords.
 
Fountains From Ice!
 
Also: Anyone can go to my site and read or download a free Travel Humor
Booklet of 75 pages. All you have to do is click the link at the top in
the bookshelf or the posted link, and it opens in a PDF file. It is
available for any device and is a free gift to anyone visiting my site.
There are also a number of free stories along with a number of my books
on Amazon, Create Space and Smashwords. If anyone be interested in a
serious read, I'll send a free copy of any of my books as an attached
file. 
 
Please enjoy and somehow I hope to begin my self promoting as a blind
author. I hope to not only publish but encourage others to take that step
into the unknown and succeed.
 
I have been waiting until I had at least 20 novels posted but I now
realize that is going to be some time until I reach that goal. I have a
series of 5 novels ready to go but cannot publish them as of yet, they
must be posted in an order. Look for the Luke Mitchner series, soon to
arrive.
 
Thank you and hope everyone will find a good enjoyable read in my
stories.
Michael M. Tickenoff
Www.storynetadventures.com 
tickpub at juno.com 


story!
Fountains From Ice!
The King And The Shephard Boy
 
By
Michael M. Tickenoff


Fountains From Ice!
C 2014 by Michael M. Tickenoff 
 
All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means - electronic,
mechanical, photographic (photocopying), recording, or otherwise -
without prior permission in writing from the author. 
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN -  
Learn more information at: www.storynetadventures.com 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter One-The Problem And The Idea
 


 
In past times and in far away places there was a young shepherd boy named
Ideo. Now Ideo was a little different, of course he was a shepherd boy,
and how many shepherds do you know that aren't different? While wandering
the high hills with his herds of sheep, his mind would so often wonder
and his thoughts were always filled with strange ponderings! At the end
of the day of shepherding, Ideo would bring his flock into the valley
near to home. There he would gather with family and fellow villagers and
excitedly share his latest and greatest thoughts. 
 
As stories go, because Ideo was only a poor shepherd boy, everyone
thought him to be a lazy dreamer and did nothing but laugh at his
imagination. Often he was told to stop wasting his time thinking and
forever making up new things.
"Just watch over your sheep and keep your mind inside your head," was the
common expression told him by his fellow villagers and his elders.
 
Mind you, there might have been some honest value in those warnings to
the shepherd boy, because some of his ideas were often beyond simple
peasant thinking and so his thoughts were made into the village joke. 
 
Once he told the goat herders to feed their goats with sugarcane to make
the milk sweeter. The goat herders asked him, "What was sugarcane?" And
Ideo had to admit that he really didn't exactly know. Then how about the
time he told the seller of meats to first feed the sheep onions and
garlic before butchering so that the lamb would already be marinated for
his customers! Or the time he showed the net fisherman near the river how
to catch the big fish with a special bent iron hook and a shiny piece of
tin! They thought him to be an ill favored magician and so it went. 
 
Oh well, Ideo thought, maybe it is just better for me to be a plain
shepherd boy and stop trying to change the world with big ideas. 
 
Then one day word, came to the village that their King was searching for
someone to beautify the palace gardens by making his many palace pools to
spout streams of water. The Kings palace was a most beautiful building
surrounded with pleasant gardens and was famous for its beauty, but the
King was disappointed that his gardens were without working fountains.
Everyone knew that the King was no man to keep displeased, and he became
very upset that there was no one in his Kingdom that knew of such things
and all the people grew fearful that the Kings wrath might be roused
against their thoughtless stupidity!
 
Now the Kings request of a "Fountain Fixer" went unfulfilled. 
 
The kings irritation grew and his anger was kindles at the thought of
having to send to another land for someone who might be able to make his
pools spout water. But one day, the Kings request finally reached Ideo's
ears. What a challenge he thought! He became more than excited about
having to think about how to make water spout from a fountain; no less
the king's fountains!!
 
After a long dry week in the mountain pastures and a successful time in
protecting the flock Ideo returned to his village. Soon he was exclaiming
to his village friends that he came to realize, and now knew how to make
the King happy, and fix all his palace fountains to spout water. 
 
Of course Ideo's claim was laughed to scorn and one narrow minded
villager suggested that it might be the perfect opportunity to rid their
village of this thinking nuisance once and for all. Many villagers began
to call him Ideo the idiot! However, as the king's anger increased and
they came to feel his heat, everyone began to consider this crazy
shepherd kids ponderings. Even though they were not fully revealed they
soon concluded, "Hey, what harm could it be; he just might think of
something that works and hold back the kings wrath," and so they sent
Ideo to the palace to proclaim that he could fulfill the Kings request. 
 
Ideo the young shepherd soon appeared before the king and proclaimed with
much enthusiasm that he knew how to make all the fountains work and that
he needed at least one year to complete the task; after all, this was no
easy task! The King and his council inquired of Ideo's thoughts on how to
accomplish this but Ideo would not say. The King grew suspicious of this
request but since there was no one else who had actually said they knew
how to make the fountains work, the king agreed to the time limit. But at
the same time, he told the sheep keeper that if his idea did not work,
the king would have his head for mocking him and wasting his time!
 
Within a few days, the young lad along with a host of palace workers
began laying a smooth round channel of stone from the Kings gardens up to
the surrounding mountains, and directly up to Mount Hydro. The channel
water tubes were designed at each dry fountain and they grew larger and
wider as it drew close to the mountains. After all measurements and
calculations with the underground cistern were completed, Ideo waited
until winter to complete his plan. Once the mountain lakes froze solid he
had the Kings workers cut large blocks of ice and stored them in a great
high mountain cave far above the King's palace. Once the cave was packed
with tons of ice, Ideo connected the long underground cistern into the
caves depths and then sealed the cave and waited for the seasons change. 
 
 
Chapter two-The Seasons Wait 
 
The season slowly changed, with spring finally coming. The gardens slowly
began to bloom and everyone waited with great anticipation. Every morning
the King walked his gardens and looked out his palace windows watching
for the fountains which stood ready but were still without spouting
waters. At last the final season arrived, and as the full year drew near,
the King was growing impatient. Near to the last day of the long awaited
season, he had ordered Ideo to be brought to his palace to be sentenced
to death. "Enough is enough, you have made a fool of me," the King
declared! 
 
Day after day, the fountains remained silent and Ideos time for execution
drew nigh. Ideo could not imagine what may have gone wrong; everything
had been done properly, and everything was ready. He knew that the
fountains should have already worked, so why wouldn't the fountains begin
their spouting?
 
The day finally arrived for Ideo's head to be removed. The winds had
cleared the sky and it was a fine day for an execution. The sun rose hot
and high and everyone was gathered to see the foolish thinkers head roll.
Soon Ideo was bound and chained and brought to the palace gardens where
the King would give the order for his execution from his favorite garden
window. It was arranged so that his execution was to take place on the
king's main central fountain still without any spouting. All the
surrounding villagers had come to see the execution. Everyone thought,
that at least now, there would be some spouting, but this time it would
be Ideo's own blood, once his head was taken. And maybe, just maybe the
king would be satisfied with this instead of being angry at the entire
village for being such dull thinkers. 
 
The day was clear, the sun glared down and warmed the earth and just as
the executioner lifted his great sword, the crowds began to shout out in
surprise, "Water, look, water, the fountains are working!!!"
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter Three-The Fix And The Fame
 
>From everywhere, out of each lovely pool spouts of water suddenly began
to bubble and soon fanning streams shot out of the centerpieces and
splashed in great dazzling sprays and in all wonderful patterns. The King
was taken back with the sudden appearance of such dazzling and refreshing
pleasure, and barely thought to stop the great sword from coming down but
the executioners hand was stayed when misty sprays blew into his eyes and
Ideo's head was spared!
 
Ideo finally determined that it was the late winter clouds still
overhanging the mountain that had prevented the ice from melting within
the cave and filling the cistern and flowing down the tapered tube to
each dry fountain. 
 
But when the clouds had been blown away, the ice began to thaw out, the
water slowly filled the cistern and flowed down the hill from above. Then
by the natural pressure of the water being forced through the gradually
narrowing openings the fountains all began spraying out the most
wonderful spouts of water. And certainly, just in time for the Kings
fountains to begin their famous splashing and for Ideo's life to barely
be spared!! 
 
With a few adjustments here and there, the mountain shepherd boy soon had
each fountain spraying forth wonderful patterns of refreshing and
splashing waters. In further amazement Ideo built small walking bridges
over the flowing waters and set up burning torches at nighttime
throughout the gardens, which amplified the sparkling waters of the
pools. The king was more than delighted, for his gardens and fountains
now became famous throughout the entire lland. No doubt, the king was so
pleased with the shepherd boy's success and extraordinary ability that he
gave one of his favorite daughters in marriage to him and appointed him
as the palace Garden and Fountain Keeper. 
 
>From that day forward, no one, especially those from Ideo's village, ever
laughed at his ideas again or called him Ideo the idiot! Hence, the name
of Ideo was made famous and changed. and we now have the word "IDEA".
This word with a story is used to describe Thoughts, Concepts or
Objectives!
 
******* 
 
Never let yourself be intimidated from exploring good ideas and be
deprived of satisfying success. Give your mind to works that might
benefit others and be not turned away from blessings by voices and
opinions of those who think good ideas and success only belongs to those
with fortune and fame to their credit!
 
"Go For It!"
By Michael M. Tickenoff C 
 
Additional Books By This Author
Go To:
www.storynetadventures.com