The Grey Fountain. Short audio story narrated in American English.

Once upon a time, a boy was walking through a wood and he thought he could hear a sad cry, as though someone was crying while singing. Following the sound he came to a big, round, mysterious, grey fountain. The sad sobbing seemed to be coming from the fountain pool. The boy swept aside the pool's dirty surface water and saw a group of grey fish swimming in a slow circle through the pond. With each lap they made, their little voices opened and out came the sobbing sound.

Amused by this, the boy tried to catch one of these incredible talking fish. But when he stuck his arm into the water it turned grey right up to the elbow. As this happened, a huge sadness entered into him, and he suddenly understood how sorrowful the fish was feeling. He felt just like the earth on his arm; dirty and contaminated.

He quickly pulled his arm out of the water, and ran from that place. But the arm stayed grey, and the boy continued feeling sad. He tried so many times to cheer himself up, but nothing worked. That was, until he realised that if he were to make the Earth happy then that happiness would be, in turn, transmitted back to him, through the earth on his arm.

From then on he set about looking after the countryside. He cared for the plants, he did what he could to keep the water from being polluted, and he encouraged others to do the same. He was so successful that his hand started to recover its normal colour. When the grey had disappeared completely, he started feeling happy again, and he decided to go and visit the fountain. When he was still some way from the fountain he could hear the fish singing happy hymns, and he heard them joyfully splashing in the crystal clear waters of that magic fountain.

It was plain to see that the Earth had returned to its original happiness; and the boy felt even happier at the sight.