Sunshine peeked through the leaves, but a young boy named Li wasn't feeling sunny at all. His books felt like heavy bricks, and the words inside wiggled like slippery fish. "Learning is too hard!" he sighed, tossing his book aside. He decided school was NOT for him today. Or maybe ever!

Li wandered down a path near a sparkling stream. There, he saw an old woman with a kind, wrinkly smile. She was doing something very strange. She had a thick iron bar, as thick as Li’s arm, and she was rubbing it back and forth on a big, flat stone.
Scritch, scratch, scritch, scratch went the sound.

Li was curious. "Excuse me, Grandma," he asked, "what are you doing with that big iron bar?"

The old woman looked up and smiled. "Oh, hello there, young man! I'm making a needle."

Li’s eyes went wide like saucers. "A needle? From that giant iron stick? But a needle is so tiny and sharp! That will take forever!"

The old woman chuckled, a warm, gentle sound. "It might take a long time, yes," she said, still rubbing. "But if I keep working at it, little by little, every single day, this big iron bar will become a small, useful needle. As long as I don't give up, I'll get there."

Li watched her rub the iron bar. Scritch, scratch. He thought about her words. "Little by little... don't give up..."
Suddenly, it was like a little light bulb blinked on in Li’s head.
"If she can turn a huge, hard iron bar into a tiny needle just by trying and trying," he thought, "then maybe I can learn those tricky words in my book if I keep trying too!"

He smiled at the old woman. "Thank you, Grandma!" he said.
He turned around and ran back towards his home as fast as his legs could carry him. He picked up his book. The words still looked a bit wiggly, but now Li felt different. He remembered the old woman and her iron bar.

He started to study, and when it felt hard, he thought, "Scritch, scratch, just a little more." And slowly, day by day, the wiggly words started to make sense. Li learned that with patience and hard work, even the biggest challenges could be overcome, just like turning a big iron bar into a tiny needle.

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