There was a time where Jose Rizal was a young child, no more than nine years of age.
Tales of him being a well behave child have already become a favored idea but as of any child, he too was naughty as his mother would have describe him. In this particular night, Doña Teodora(Jose's mother) was teaching him how to read in Spanish, though smart as he is, Jose or Pepe did poorly reading out loud with the book his mother gave him. Frustrated with his poor reading in the language Spanish, Doña Teodora would take the book and read it to him with the demand that he must pay attention, as one might expect Pepe did not pay attention to his mother but was interested to the flame as it dances on the candle. After receiving a scolding for drawing pictures on the pages, Pepe described that his mother reads well, she would recite well, and she understood in verse- making too, although this was not enough to capture his interest as he found the moths flying need the candle to be more entertaining. Time has passed and he would have left out a yawn, his mother noticing his lack of interest, would stop reading and instead decided to read him a very pretty story so he must pay attention. On the word "story" Pepe would give her all of his attention as this time Doña Teodora would read out loud a story translated into Tagalog. This story was entitled "The Young Moth".
"Once there was moth who was fond of the light. It would
always go to bright places that attracted him.
One night, it was with its mom. They came across a candle light.
The moth, attracted to the flame of the candle approached it.
Amazed, he circled the light round and round.
Its mother upon seeing him circling the candle light warned
him. "Don't go playing near the candle light. You might
get burned with its flame."
But the moth did not listen. It was happy seeing the bright of
the flame. It wanted to touch the flame so it kept going
nearer and nearer to it.
Then the moth got burned. It was suddenly hit by the flame.
It vanished and has perished."
Having as the tale has ended, Doña Teodora put Pepe to his bed and said, "See that you do not behave like the young moth. Don't be disobedient, or you may get burnt as it did." That was the lesson Pepe learned that evening, he describe it to be a something that revealed a lot of things for him. Nevertheless, that night , Doña Teodora had taught him how it it important to listen, obey, and follow what is being told by his elders. But as life is not a fairytale he too, would go near the flame and eventually vanish.
