Finally, another farmer,
Mr. Tan, slapped his knees and said, “I know! We’ll draw a
picture of a cow with blue ink and the farmer who draws the cow
in the shortest time and without any mistakes wins!” All the
farmers agreed and they sent Mr. Pang, their chief, to fetch the
blue ink.
After a few minutes, Mr.
Pang came back with the ink, smiling. He banged the bottle of
ink onto their dining table.
“Here it is! A bottleful
of ink!” said Mr. Pang.
Well, perhaps he banged
the bottle too hard. As the bottle was made of glass, it cracked
and, without the farmers knowing it, the ink slowly dripped into
the little bottle of water and gradually turned it blue.
“Now we can have our
competition!” cheered all the farmers together.
It was at that time when
the farmers realised that they did not have any paper. Once
again, Mr. Pang went to fetch it.By the time he came back with
the paper, all the ink has dripped into the uncapped bottle of
well (now blue) water. The farmers were about to start the
competition when Mr. Toh, the remaining farmer, gave a shriek of
surprise.
“Where did the ink
go?!” he asked Mr. Pang.
“I don’t know!”
replied Mr. Pang.
“Stop quarrelling! Let’s
just drink the water! I am dehydrating already.” Mr. Tan said.
So the farmers took out
the bottle of ‘blue water’.
When the farmers saw the
‘blue water’, the not-so-clever Mr. Lim shouted, “Wow! Look, the
ink has heard our words, and look! There is more blue ink!”
The farmers,
surprisingly, believed him.
Mr. Pang suddenly
shouted, “Hey! We have never thought of that, but why don’t we
bring the ink and paper outside to observe the cows!”
All the farmers agreed.
Mr. Pang, Mr. Tan and Mr. Lim carried the heavy bottle of ‘blue
water’ while Mr. Toh carried the paper.
After a while, Mr. Lim
felt tired and let go, strolling leisurely. Mr. Tan thought that
it wasn’t fair that Mr. Lim was empty-handed, so he stopped
working, too. As for poor Mr. Pang, he felt that he’s hands were
about to break soon! By the time they reached the cow field
named ‘pilot field’, Mr. Pang dropped the bottle and ‘blue
water’ began to flow out!
The ink flowed all
around the farmers and began to flow to their surroundings, too.
It stained a few sticks, and Mr. Pang picked up the stained
sticks.
‘So much for the
competition…’ he thought.
Before he knew what he
was doing, he picked up a paper and drew a cow with the stick!
The farmers saw what he
was doing and told him, “Why don’t we give our invention a name
before we start this competition?”
“Hmm… How about ‘pilot
fountain pen?’ We invented it in pilot field, under a tree that
looks like a fountain…” began Mr. Pang
“… And it looks like a
pencil, so let’s take the first syllabus of it, pen…” said Mr.
Toh.
“…So it is ‘pilot
fountain pen!’” finished Mr. Tan.
Just then, a rich man
came forward and said, “Wow… a good invention! Will you sell it
to me for a good price, let’s say, US$150?”
Of course, the farmers
agreed, and with the money, they built a building and bought
water and food. They sold their farmyard and after a while of
producing more ‘pilot fountain pen (uncapped at that time)’,
more people joined their company, and this invention, of course,
is very useful to the world, even now. And of course Mr. Pang,
Mr. Tan, Mr. Lim and Mr. Toh were not poor farmers anymore!
