英语故事50字：The Dog King Silver[1]

　　Once upon time， the King of Benares went to his pleasure garden in his fancy decorated chariot. He loved this chariot， mostly because of the rich hand-worked leather belts and straps.

　　On this occasion， he stayed in his pleasure garden all day long and into the evening. It was late when he finally got back to the palace. So the chariot was left outside in the compound all night， instead of being locked up properly.

　　During the night it rained heavily， and the leather got wet， swelled up， became soft， and gave off an odor. The pampered palace dogs smelled the delicious leather scent and came down into the compound. They chewed off and devoured the soft wet chariot straps. Before daybreak， they returned unseen to their places in the palace.

　　When the king woke up and came down， he saw that the leather had been chewed off and eaten by dogs. He called the servants and demanded to know how this happened.

　　Since they were supposed to watch the palace dogs， the servants were afraid to blame them. Instead， they made up a story that stray dogs， the mutts and mongrels of the city， had come into the grounds through sewers and storm drains. They were the ones who had eaten the fancy leather.

　　The king flew into a terrible rage. He was so overcome by anger that he decided to take vengeance against all dogs. So he decreed that whenever anyone in the city saw a dog， he was to kill him or her at once!

　　The people began killing dogs. The dogs could not understand why suddenly they were being killed. Later that day， they learned of the king's decree. They became very frightened and retreated to the cemetery just outside the city. This was where their leader lived， the Dog King Silver.

　　Silver was king not because he was the biggest or strongest or toughest. He was average in size， with sleek silver fur， sparkling black eyes and alert pointed ears. He walked with great dignity， that brought admiration and respect from少儿英语