THE VAIN POLAR BEAR

Maui was a baby polar bear and she lived with her father, mother and brother in the North Pole. Maui was extremely vain and loved to admire herself and think that she was really pretty and beautiful. Maui's mother tried to change this habit of Maui's but it was of no use. Every day, the other polar bear cubs would come and ask Maui to play with them, but alas Maui would refuse. She would dig up a little hole in the ice and then stare at her reflection in the water and think to herself, " My how beautiful I am." Seeing this, all the other polar bear cubs got disgusted and they never played with Maui any more. Maui kept to herself and the other polar bears also avoided her. One fine morning, as usual, Maui was searching for a hole in the ice. When she discovered a hole and bent down to look into it, she got the shock of her life. Instead of a beautiful white bear with a soft black nuzzle nose, a horrible ugly grey face was looking back it her. It had sleepy black eyes and a long grey snout and the ugliest face that Maui had seen. Seeing this Maui got scared and though that she no longer looked like a pretty polar bear. She quickly ran to her mother in a state of shock and narrated what had just happened. She then asked her mother, " Is this what I look like?" Maui's mother laughed and told her that what Maui had seen was not her reflection but a polar seal that had poked its head out of the hole. \Maui was immediately relived, but from that day onwards she stopped being vain. She would never stare at herself any longer. Infact she made an effort to play with the other polar bear cubs and make friends with them.