Stories of Philippine Fuel

Title

Year

1937

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

26 THE YOUNG CITIZEN Febr1•a1y, J9J7 STORIES OF PHILIPPINE FUEL I. TATAL What kind of firewood does your mother use?" "Bakawan" or "tatal"? Which is the better of the two? Why? Ask your mother for some information about each. The small pieces of wood which form a small one-centavo bundlr of "tatal" used to be part of a big tree that once held its head proudly in a forest. This is the story of a bundle of "tatal": "A month ago I was one of hundreds of big trees in a forest in Zambales. I was proud of my strength. My branches struggled with vialent storms during the typhoon ~eason. My 11.'aves gaw shelter to singing birds and humming insects. My trunk gave prop and food to various climbing planes whose stems hung like pendants from my boughs. How happy I was then'. "One day the morning dawned beautifully. The east was streaked with hues of the color of fire. I was gazing at the first rays of the rising sun when I heard loud voices below. Looking down, I saw men with axes and saws. Those with the saws lost no time in cutting me. When I fell. the other men chopped off my branches until I lay down stripped of all my beauty. I was nothing but an ugly log. I was sad, but not discouraged. for I believed I would be useful somewhere. "I. with many others. was hauled by carabaos to the river. In rafts, we went down to the i.e" where we were towed by cascos. After three days I found myself in a place which people call '"Bitas" in Tondo. "'The next morning I awoke in a small lumber yard. I was sawed into short pieces about J foot in Ieng.th. Another man chopped me into thin pieces. My pieces were left in a hear in HOMES IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM I. THE BURROW OF THE EARTHWORM In your geography class you have studied about the horn.es of children of different parts of the world. You must have s~en pictures of the igloo or ice house of the eskimo, ·of the sheepskin tent of the desert people, the grasshouse of the dark children, and the stone and concrete buildings in America, Europe, and in our own country. Do you know that animals, like men, build homes to suit their needs~ There are many animals that live in little caves. Some cave dwellers live in damp dens, some in dry ones, some in the shade, and some in sunny places. The earthworm makes its home in moist ground. It builds its burrow in a very inter~st ing manner. It has no paw~ with which to dig. It has no snout with which to rriake a bole in the hard ground. But it burrows by eating its way into the rock. It swallows the dirt and incidentally takes in some food from the dirt. The soil passes through its body and pushed out on top of the ground. You arc perhaps familiar with the tiny pellets of earth hraped up on the moist ground. These pellets called castings arc put in place by the tail end of the body which serves as a trowel. The earthworm comes out of its burrow at the sun to dry. Afterwards a woman held two of my pieces together in her hand, placed a few chips over the big pieces, and laid another big piece over the chips. She then bound the pieces tightly together with banana stalk. The small bundles were placed together to· form a large bundle. The storekeepers paid eighty centavos for one hundred bundles but sold us 'at a centavo a bundle.''

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