Tradition and story time — not medical advice
The Travelers Who Didn't Give Up
Retold for young children from Jataka Tales (retold by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1912), public domain.
A caravan of merchants once set out to cross a wide, sandy desert, traveling by night when it was cool and resting in the shade of their carts by day. Their guide steered them by watching the stars, and all was going well.
But one night, worn out, the guide fell fast asleep without meaning to — and the oxen, left to themselves, quietly turned the carts around and walked all night back toward where they'd started. When morning came and everyone realized what had happened, they had used up nearly all their water, with the desert still ahead of them.
Some of the travelers wanted to give up entirely. But the head merchant would not hear of it. "Dig," he told them. "There is water somewhere beneath this sand — I feel it." One by one, the diggers grew tired and stopped, until only a serving boy remained, still swinging his hammer at the rocky ground below.
"Don't give up now — we're so close!" the merchant called to him. The boy raised the hammer once more with all his strength, and this time the rock broke through — and cool water came rushing up to fill the well. Everyone drank, and watered the oxen, and rested, and that evening they set off again, reaching the city safely at last.
Talk about it (ours, not from the source): it was the very last try that broke through. Can you remember a time you almost gave up, but kept going just a little longer?
Source: Jataka Tales, retold by Ellen C. Babbitt (1912, The Century Co.) — "The Sandy Road". Public domain. Read the original.
Why public domain: US: first published 1912, more than 95 years ago, so public domain in the US regardless of the author's death date (Project Gutenberg eBook #62514).