Abebe was in his first year of school. His father was a farmer. One year, Abebe's father planted teff in his field.

Every day after school, Abebe went to the field to help his father.

Next to the teff field was a football field. One afternoon while Abebe was chasing birds, four English boys came to play soccer.

The boys began to play. The ball bounced up and landed in the teff field.

The ball damaged some teff. One of the boys ran into the field to get the ball, and he damaged more teff!

They continued to play. The ball bounced and landed on the crop again and again.

The boys kept running into the field to fetch the ball. Each time they damaged some of the teff.

Abebe and his father became more and more angry about the destruction of their crop.

Neither Abebe nor his father could speak English. They didn't know how to say to the boys, "Don't come into this field. Stop damaging our crops!"

The English boys didn't know any other language except English.

Abebe's father said, "Son, use what you have learned in school. Tell them to stop kicking the ball into our field!"

At that time, Abebe had only learned the English letters A, B, C, D, E, F.

Abebe wanted to shout at the boys. But he did not know the words in English.

The ball came bouncing into the teff field again. One of the boys came running after the ball, into the field.

Abebe ran towards the boy, waving his arms. He started shouting. He shouted as loudly and clearly as he could, "A, B, C, D, E, F!"

He shouted three times, "A, B, C, D, E, F!"

The English boy stopped running through the teff. His friends in the soccer field also stood still and watched Abebe.

Then they spoke to each other in English and began to smile. They understood what Abebe was communicating.

The boy with the ball walked carefully through the teff.

Then the four English boys went to play away from the teff field.

Abebe's father was surprised. He believed that his son had spoken English.

He said, "Oh, my son, you're a brave and clever boy!" He was proud of his son.

Abebe was also surprised and pleased. He did not know what to say.

Abebe's father encouraged him to work hard at school, and after school.

Abebe studied three languages and knew them very well. He became a successful translator and writer.