There once lived a woman called Maluka who had two girls living with her. One of the girls called Ama, and the other was called Efua. Efua was Maluka’s own daughter while Ama was the daughter of Maluka’s sister. Efua and Ama were in this case, cousins.
Maluka liked her daughter very much, but did not like the daughter of her own sister. Maluka like Efua very much but did not like Ama at all. She would let Ama do all the hard housework while Efua slept all the time.
Ama would wash things, sweep the whole house, scrub the floor and cook the food. Efua only slept and played, and ate whatever Ama had cooked. Ama did not understand why her Aunt treated her so harshly, but because she was a good girl, she did not complain.
Because Efua did nothing at all, she became very lazy and did not know how to do almost everything. Both of the girls attended the local primary school, but while Ama would do a lot of work before going to school, Efua would do nothing. Because of this, Ama was sometimes late to school.
The teachers knew how Maluka treated her nice, so even Ama was late to school, she was not punished.
The strange thing was that, even though Efua had all the time to do her school work, she was never clever at school. Ama, who had very little time to study, was surprisingly very clever. Not doing much all the time had made Efua very lazy.
In due course, both girls passed their exams to go to secondary school. Maluka paid the fees of Efua, but because she did not pay Ama’s fees, the poor girl was dismissed from school and she had to come home.
Ama cried so much when it became clear to her that she could no longer continue her education while Efua continued. Since she could not do anything about it however, she continue to serve both Efua and her mother.
Efua being such a naughty and selfish girl was so happy that her mother was treating her cousin that way. She also made life difficult for Ama. When the two girls grew up, and it was time for them to marry, their mother invited the son of the richest man in the town into their house. Maluka was very sure that Desmond, who was the son of the richest man, would like Efua.
This was because Efua was beautifully dressed on that day, and did nothing at all to make herself dirty. Ama on the other hand, was not given a new dress to wear to impress the visitor. She was kept busy all the time doing work in the house.
When Desmond came to the house, he was surprised to see how hard Ama was working while Efua did nothing at all. He asked Maluka who Ama was, and Maluka told him that Ama was her maidservant. She wanted Desmond to think very bad of Ama.
But Desmond was impressed by how the beautiful young lady, Ama worked so hard and was so polite to everybody.
When he went back home, he told his father that there was a girl called Ama in Maluka’s house whom he would like to marry. All the people in the town were very surprised at his choice of a person to marry. When Desmond’s father asked him why he wanted to marry that poor looking overworked girl, Desmond told his father that Ama looked poor because her aunt had made her poor.
Besides, Ama knew how to do things in the house and did not complain. Ama, he said, was also polite not like the very lazy Efua who only knew how to wear nice clothes and do nothing at all.
Desmond’s father agreed that Ama would make a better wife than Efua. So Desmond married Ama and they lived happily. Ama got all the good things money could not buy in life.
Efua and her mother were very angry that Desmond had chosen to marry Ama instead of Efua, but they did not know that the laziness of Efua was the cause.
QUESTIONS:
Why was Ama treated so badly?
Why did Desmond marry Ama?
Was Desmond wise in not marrying Efua?
Find another word for Laziness
What do you learn from the story?
Interesting story, I'm sure it will entertain the kids in class and keep them interested until the end! Thanks for sharing!