The Bundle of Sticks
A musical retelling of Aesop's fable about three quarreling sons, a single stick, and a bundle they couldn't break
A father had three quarreling sons who bickered and fought beneath the sun. "Enough!" he said. "Come gather round. I have a lesson to be found."
He handed each a single stick. "Now break it--go ahead, be quick!" They snapped their sticks without a care. SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!--broken through the air.
He gathered sticks--ten, twenty, more-- and bound them tight with a length of cord. He held the bundle out and wide: "Now break this." And each one tried.
They pulled with all their might, They twisted left and right. Red in the face and out of breath-- not a crack! Not a bend! Not a break!
Father said, "Now do you see? Alone, a stick snaps easily. But sticks together, bound up tight, cannot be broken by any might.
When you quarrel, when you fight, you are sticks alone at night. But stand together, side by side, and nothing breaks you--nothing tried."
One stick snapped -- one, two, three. The bundle held -- they all could see. The father set the bundle down. The brothers stood there, looking 'round.