Note: This reading is one of Aesop’s fables (Aesop was an African slave). He went to Greece around the year 600 B.C. (before Christ) and wrote 350 stories for adults that teach a lesson about life.
A certain man had several sons who were always quarreling with each other. However hard he tried, he could not get them to live together in peace. So he determined to convince them of their stupidity in the following way. He told them to fetch a bundle of sticks and asked each son in turn to break it across this knee. All tried and failed. Then he undid the bundle, and gave them the sticks one by one. They had no difficulty breaking them.
“There, my boys,” he said. “United you will have power. But if you quarrel and separate, you will be weak.”