Write a story to illustrate the saying: A stitch in time saves nine.

Answer Details

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

My father was a careful man who never allowed a small problem to grow into a large one. "A stitch in time saves nine," he would often say, and the story I am about to tell shows how truly he lived by those words.

It happened during the rainy season of my second year in secondary school. One evening, my father noticed a tiny crack in the wall of our old family house, near the foundation. To me it seemed nothing, no wider than a strand of hair. But my father knelt down, examined it closely and frowned. "This must be repaired at once," he said. My mother laughed and told him he was worrying over a scratch, but he would not rest. The very next morning, before going to work, he called a mason, bought cement and had the crack sealed and the drainage around the house cleared. It cost him only a little money and half a morning's trouble.

Our neighbour, Mr. Danladi, had a crack of exactly the same kind in his own wall. When my father advised him to repair it, he waved the advice aside. "It is only a small crack," he said. "I have more important things to spend my money on." And so he left it, week after week, as the rains grew heavier.

Then came the great storm. For three days and nights the rain fell without ceasing, and water gathered around the houses. Our home stood firm, for the crack had been sealed and the water drained away. But in Mr. Danladi's house, the small crack, left unattended, had widened. On the third night, with a terrible groan, a whole section of his wall gave way and collapsed. His family barely escaped, and he lost his furniture and much of his property. In the end, he had to rebuild almost the entire wall at ten times the cost he would have paid to seal one small crack.

As I watched my neighbour count his heavy losses, I understood at last what my father meant. A small fault, if attended to promptly, can be put right with little effort; but if it is ignored, it grows into a disaster that costs far more to repair. Truly, a stitch in time saves nine.