The Boy Who Understood Animals

Alois Goes to College

In Switzerland, a long time ago, there lived a boy named Alois, who was the son of a farmer. One day, when Alois came home from school he found out that his father had decided to send him to a college in far-off Basle, one of the towns of Switzerland. His father told him that the village school could no longer teach him anything new, he must go to college. Alois agreed to go and his father sold his prize cow to help pay for the lessons.

For the next year, Alois studied at the college in Basle and when the school term ended in the Summer, he returned to his parents to help them on the farm. His mother noted how much he had grown though she pointed out that he looked pale. She assured him working on the farm would bring back his color.

The Boy Who Learnt Animal Languages

When asked by his father about what he had learnt at the new college, Alois replied interestingly that he now understood what the frogs said. His father was less than pleased. Thinking that this was all his son had learnt at the expensive college, he felt Alois might just have been better off staying at home and working on the farm.

In the subsequent years, Alois would return from college claiming he understood the languages of dogs and then fishes, further infuriating his father who thought Alois was wasting his time at the college. However, his mother managed to persuade his father each time to let Alois continue his studies at the college.

The Boy Becomes a President

One day, while working at the farm, Alois was approached by two strangers who succeeded in persuading him and his father to join them in journeying to the town of Sion for a presidential election. This journey led Alois to unexpected adventures where he successfully used his understanding of animal languages to save a life, thwart robbers, and predict one of them would emerge as a president.

As they travelled and their deeds were made public, Alois gained growing reputation and was eventually elected as the new president of the country. His two friends were surprised at the turn of events, realising that the fish in the stream had told the truth in predicting their presidential election win, except it was Alois who emerged president.

The story ends with the newly-elected president sharing his surprise about how helpful understanding the language of frogs, dogs and fishes has been and how surprised his father would be upon learning of his son’s new status.