tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76133135735478897342024-03-04T21:27:38.059-08:00Story Place : The Children's Digital LibraryNajwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-75307633693118051832011-07-28T23:22:00.000-07:002011-07-28T23:24:25.511-07:00English Talking Book - The Frog Prince<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/S2n0wKKrrZM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-91022140911414441882011-07-28T22:50:00.000-07:002011-07-28T22:50:48.895-07:00English Talking Book - Beauty and the Beast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/1aoxFSuiAiM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-72729145708131022732011-07-05T10:30:00.000-07:002011-07-05T10:30:49.918-07:00Beauty and the Beast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_qkT_PiGjogs-nVb22pZn_BWO_eAi_a-LCEDT0F-7QGzq7wVGPbg8ruh2KW46zZ9Ga9gw5swDEokwLIKAK-jYGeZwvETPRgkEtGUdJ9AIbEHSbFXWlOi8plKUpCRliwtEgSt5LMePZ0/s1600/Beauty-And-The-Beast-classic-disney-6411821-1024-768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc_qkT_PiGjogs-nVb22pZn_BWO_eAi_a-LCEDT0F-7QGzq7wVGPbg8ruh2KW46zZ9Ga9gw5swDEokwLIKAK-jYGeZwvETPRgkEtGUdJ9AIbEHSbFXWlOi8plKUpCRliwtEgSt5LMePZ0/s640/Beauty-And-The-Beast-classic-disney-6411821-1024-768.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A rich merchant who had three sons and three daughters lived in a big house in the city. His Youngest daughter was so beautiful she was called Beauty by all who knew her. She was as sweet and good as she was beautiful. Sadly all of the merchant's ships were lost at sea and he and his family had to move to a small cottage in the country. His sons worked hard on the land and Beauty was happy working in the house, but his two elder daughters complained and grumbled all day long, especially about Beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 340px;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 204.0pt;" valign="top" width="340"></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One day news came that a ship had arrived which would make the merchant wealthy again. The merchant set off to the city, and just before he left he said, "Tell me, daughters, what gifts would you like me to bring back for you?"<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The two older girls asked for fine clothes and jewels, but Beauty wanted nothing. Realizing this made her sisters look greedy; she thought it best to ask for something. "Bring me a rose, father," she said, "just a beautiful red rose." When the merchant reached the city he found disaster had struck once more and the ship's cargo was ruined. He took the road home wondering how to break the news to his children. He was so deep in thought that he lost his way. Worse still, it started to snow, and he feared he would never reach home alive. Just as he despaired he noticed lights ahead, and riding towards them he saw a fine castle. The gates stood open and flares were alight in the courtyard.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the stables a stall empty with hay in the manger and clean bedding on the floor ready for his horse. The castle itself seemed to be deserted, but a fire was burning in the dining-hall where a table was laid with food. The merchant ate well and still finding no one went upstairs to a bedroom which had been prepared. βIt is almost as if I were expected," he thought.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the morning he found clean clothes had been laid out for him and breakfast was on the table in the dining - hall. After he had eaten he fetched his horse and as he rode away he saw a spray of red roses growing from a rose bush. Remembering Beauty's request, and thinking he would be able to bring a present for at least one daughter, he plucked a rose from the bush.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suddenly a beast-like monster appeared. "Is this how you repay my hospitality?" it roared. "You eat my food, sleep in my guest-room and then insult me by stealing my flowers. You shall die for this." The merchant pleaded for his life, and begged to see his children once more before he died. At last the beast relented. "I will spare your life," it said, "if one of your daughters will come here willingly and die for you. Otherwise you must promise to return within three months and die yourself."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The merchant agreed to return and went on his way. At home his children listened with sorrow to his tales of the lost cargo and his promise to the monster. His two elder daughters turned on Beauty, saying, "Your stupid request for a rose has brought all this trouble on us. It is your fault that father must die." When the three months were up Beauty insisted on going to the castle with her father, pretending only to ride with him for company on the journey. The beast met them, and asked Beauty if she had come of her own accord, and she told him she had.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Good," he said. "Now your father can go home and you will stay with me."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"What shall I call you?" she asked bravely. "You may call me Beast," he replied. Certainly he was very ugly and it seemed a good name for him. Beauty waved a sad farewell to her father. But she was happy that at least she had saved his life. As Beauty wandered through the castle she found many lovely rooms and beautiful courtyards with gardens. At last she came to a room which was surely meant just for her. It had many other favorite books and objects in it. On the wall hung a beautiful mirror and to her surprise, as she looked into it, she saw her father arriving back at their home and her brothers and sisters greeting him. The picture only lasted a few seconds then faded. "This Beast may be ugly, but he is certainly kind," she thought. "He gives me all the things I like and allows me to know how my family is without me."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That night at supper the Beast joined her at the candle-lit table. He sat and stared at her. At the end of the meal he asked: "Will you marry me?" Beauty was startled by the question but said as gently as she could, "No, Beast, you are kind but I cannot marry you."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Each day it was the same. Beauty had everything she wanted during the day and each evening the Beast asked her to marry him, and she always said no. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One night Beauty dreamt that her father lay sick. She asked the Beast if she could go to him, and he refused saying that if she left him he would die of loneliness. But when he saw how unhappy Beauty was, he said: "If you go to your family, will you return within a week?" "Of course," Beauty replied. "Very well, just place this ring on your dressing table the night you wish to return, and you shall come back here. But do not stay away longer than a week, or I shall die."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The next morning Beauty awoke to find herself in her own home. Her father was indeed sick, but Beauty nursed him lovingly. Beauty's sisters were jealous once more. They thought that if she stayed at home longer than a week the Beast would kill her. So they pretended to love her and told her how much they had missed her. Before Beauty knew what had happened ten days had passed. Then she had a dream that the Beast was lying still as though he were dead by the lake near his castle.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"I must return at once," she cried and she placed her ring on the dressing table. The next morning she found herself once more in the Beast's castle. All that day she expected to see him, but he never came. "I have killed the Beast," she cried, "I have killed him." Then she remembered that in her dream he had been by the lake and quickly she ran there. He lay still as death, down by the water's edge. "Oh, Beast!" she wept, "Oh, Beast! I did not mean to stay away so long. Please do not die. Please come back to me. You are so good and kind." She knelt and kissed his ugly head.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Suddenly no Beast was there, but a handsome prince stood before her. "Beauty, my dear one," he said. "I was bewitched by a sell that could only be broken when a beautiful girl loved me and wanted me in spite of my ugliness. When you kissed me just now you broke the enchantment."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #ff3399; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Beauty rode with the prince to her father's house and then they all went together to the prince's kingdom. There he and Beauty were married. In time they became king and queen, and ruled for many happy years.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-44918414341348121472011-07-05T10:19:00.000-07:002011-07-05T10:19:44.884-07:00Jack and the Beanstalk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNfQHOTK75HR-g8L72Tm1vK3_mjUggdWbh2mNnuW4L7Uixw7ClmvywZIJ0wI4I6emP86yHDMJetltZzqKGuxG-Amp0iEcyD1308TBVJ9Kz2FJcaL2Z0DQyGqS3HxoWkTuoc8TX02XCHw/s1600/beanstalk_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNfQHOTK75HR-g8L72Tm1vK3_mjUggdWbh2mNnuW4L7Uixw7ClmvywZIJ0wI4I6emP86yHDMJetltZzqKGuxG-Amp0iEcyD1308TBVJ9Kz2FJcaL2Z0DQyGqS3HxoWkTuoc8TX02XCHw/s640/beanstalk_cover.jpg" width="516" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">There was once a boy called Jack who was brave and quick-witted. He lived with his mother in a small cottage and their most valuable possession was their cow, Milky-White. But the day came when Milky-White gave them no milk and Jack's mother said she must be sold. "Take her to market," she told Jack, "and mind you gets a good price for her."<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So Jack set out to market leading Milky-White by her halter. After a while he sat down to rest by the side of the road. An old man came by and Jack told him where he was going. "Don't bother to go to the market," the old man said. "Sell your cow to me. I will pay you well. Look at these beans. Only plant them, and overnight you will find you have the finest bean plants in the entire world. You'll be better off with these beans than with an old cow or money. Now, how many is five, Jack?"<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"Two in each hand and one in your mouth," replied Jack, as sharp as a needle. "Right you are, here are five beans," said the old man and he handed the beans to Jack and took Milky-White's halter. When he reached home, his mother said, "Back so soon, Jack? Did you get a good price for Milky-White?" Jack told her how he had exchanged the cow for five beans and before he could finish his account, his mother started to shout and box his ears. "You lazy good-for-nothing boy!" she screamed, "How could you hand over our cow for five old beans? What will we live on now? We shall starve to death, you stupid boy."<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>She flung the beans through the open window and sent Jack to bed without his supper. When Jack woke the next morning there was a strange green light in his room. All he could see from, the window was green leaves. A huge beanstalk had shot up overnight. It grew higher than he could see. Quickly Jack got dressed and stepped out of the window right onto the beanstalk and started to climb. "The old man said the beans would grow overnight," he thought. "They must indeed be very special beans."<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Higher and higher Jack climbed until at last he reached the top and found himself on a strange road. Jack followed it until he came to a great castle where he could smell the most delicious breakfast. Jack was hungry. It had been a long climb and he had had nothing to eat since midday the day before. Just as he reached the door of the castle he nearly tripped over the feet of an enormous woman.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"Here, boy," she called. "What are you doing? Don't you know my husband likes to eat boys for breakfast? It's lucky I have already fried up some bacon and mushrooms for him today, or I'd pop you in the frying pan. He can eat you tomorrow, though."<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">"Oh, please don't let him eat me," pleaded Jack. "I only came to ask you for a bite to eat. It smells so delicious."<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now the giant's wife had a kind heart and did not really enjoy cooking boys for breakfast, so she gave Jack a bacon sandwich. He was still eating it when the ground began to shake with heavy footsteps, and a loud voice boomed: "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum." "Quick, hide!" cried the giant's wife and she pushed Jack into the oven. "After breakfast, he'll fall asleep," she whispered. "That is when you must creep away." She left the oven door open a crack so that jack could see into the room. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Again the terrible rumbling voice came: "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread." A huge giant came into the room. "Boys, boys, I smell boys," he shouted. "Wife, have I got a boy for breakfast today?"<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"No, dear," she said soothingly. "You have got bacon and mushrooms. You must still smell the boy you ate last week." The giant sniffed the air suspiciously but at last sat down. He wolfed his breakfast of bacon and mushrooms drank a great bucketful of steaming tea and crunched up a massive slice of toast. Then he fetched a couple of bags of gold from a cupboard and started counting gold coins. Before long he dropped off to sleep. Quietly Jack crept out of the oven.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 340px;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; width: 204.0pt;" valign="top" width="340"></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Carefully he picked up two gold coins and ran as fast as he could to the top of the beanstalk. He threw the gold clown to his mother's garden and climbed after it. At the bottom he found his mother looking in amazement at the gold coins and the beanstalk. Jack told her of his adventures in the giant's castle and when she examined the gold she realized he must be speaking the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jack and his mother used the gold to buy food. But the day came when the money ran out, and Jack decided to climb the beanstalk again. It was all the same as before, the long climb, the road to the castle, the smell of breakfast and the giant's wife. But she was not so friendly this time.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"Aren't you the boy who was here before," she asked, "on the day that some gold was stolen from under my husband's nose?" But Jack convinced her she was wrong and in time her heart softened again and she gave him some breakfast. Once more as: ack was eating the ground shuddered and the great voice boomed: "Tee, Fi, Fo, Fum." Quickly, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ackjumped into the oven. As he entered, the giant bellowed:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">"Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of cm Englishman, Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread." The giant's wife put a plate of sizzling sausages before him, telling him he must be mistaken. After breakfast the giant fetched a hen from a back room. Every time he said "Lay!" the hen laid an egg of solid gold.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"I must steal that hen, if I can," thought Jack, and he waited until the giant fell<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span>asleep. Then he slipped out of the oven, snotched up the and rim for the top of the beanstalk. Keeping the hen under one arm, he scrambled Jack and the Beanstalk clown as fast as he could until he reached the bottom. Jack's mother was waiting but she was not pleased when she saw the hen.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"Another of your silly ideas, is it, bringing an old hen when you might have brought us some gold? I don't know, what is to be done with you?" Then jack set the hen down carefully, and cornmanded "Lay!" just as the giant had done. To his mother's surprise the hen laid an egg of solid gold. Jack and his mother now lived in great luxury. But in time Jack became a little bored and decided to climb the beanstalk again.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This time he did not risk talking to the giant's wife in case she recognized him. He slipped into the kitchen when she was not looking, and hid himself in the log basket. He watched the giant's wife prepare breakfast and then he heard the giant's roar:<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">"Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread." "If it's that cheeky boy who stole your gold and our magic hen, then help you catch him," said the giant's wife. "Why don't we look in the oven? It's my guess he'll be hiding there."<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">You may be sure that jack was glad he was not in the oven. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The giant and his wife hunted high and low but never thought to look in the log basket. At last they gave up and the giant sat down to breakfast. After he had eaten, the giant fetched a harp. When he commanded "Play!" the harp played the most beautiful music. Soon the giant fell asleep, and jack crept out of the log basket. Quickly he snatched up the harp and ran. But the harp called out loudly, "Master, save me! Save me!" and the giant woke. With a roar of rage he chased after Jack.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jack raced down the road towards the beanstalk with the giant's footsteps thundering behind him. When he reached the top of the beanstalk he threw down the harp and started to slither down after it. The giant followed, and now the whole beanstalk shook and shuddered with his weight, and Jack feared for his life. At last he reached the ground, and seizing an axe he chopped at the beanstalk with all his might. Snap!<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"> "Look out, mother!" he called as the giant came tumbling clown, head first. He lay dead at their feet with the beanstalk on the ground beside them. The harp was broken, but the hen continued to lay golden eggs for Jack and his mother and they lived happily and in great comfort for a long, long time.</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-40045706045291192652011-07-05T10:08:00.000-07:002011-07-05T10:08:17.601-07:00Sleeping Beauty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVtM5QFAluMG2uuXHKraqSG1iKsAIHlKBYYwoMcty8QS6ga48K80FvGYDibM7_oLuTWLGjf3v6OAgm4ie7g5b12lj8hOavPPWAPPHqNx3K3h8zavUQFbJIZY2U21-JF6KV7828r5PRsI/s1600/Sleeping-Beauty-Wallpaper-sleeping-beauty-8269892-1024-768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVtM5QFAluMG2uuXHKraqSG1iKsAIHlKBYYwoMcty8QS6ga48K80FvGYDibM7_oLuTWLGjf3v6OAgm4ie7g5b12lj8hOavPPWAPPHqNx3K3h8zavUQFbJIZY2U21-JF6KV7828r5PRsI/s640/Sleeping-Beauty-Wallpaper-sleeping-beauty-8269892-1024-768.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"> <b style="color: blue;"> </b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;">There once lived a king and queen who had no children, which made them very sad. Then one clay, to the queen's delight, she found she was going to have a baby. She and the king looked forward with great excitement to the day of the baby's birth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When the time came, a lovely daughter was born and they arranged a large party for her Christening. As well as lots of other guests, they invited twelve fairies, knowing they would make wishes for their little daughter, the princess.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At the Christening party, the guests and the fairies all agreed that the princess was a beautiful baby. One fairy wished on her the gift of Happiness, another Beauty, others Health, Contentment, Wisdom, Goodness . . . Eleven fairies had made their wishes when suddenly the doors of the castle flew open and in swept a thirteenth fairy. She was furious that she had not been invited to the Christening party, and as she looked around a shiver ran down everyone's spine. They could feel she was evil. She waved her wand over the baby's cradle and cast a spell, not a wish.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"On her sixteenth birthday," she hissed, "the princess will prick herself with a spindle. And she will die." With that a terrible hush fell over the crowd. The twelfth fairy had still to make her wish and she hesitated. She had been going to wish the gift of joy on the baby but now she wanted to stop the princess dying on her sixteenth birthday. Her magic was not strong enough to Sleeping Beauty break the wicked spell but she tried to weaken the evil. She wished that the princess would fall asleep for a hundred years instead of dying.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Over the years the princess grew into the happiest, kindest and most beautiful child anyone had ever seen. It seemed as though all the wishes of the first eleven fairies had come true. The king and queen decided they could prevent the wicked fairy's spell from working by making sure that the princess never saw a spindle.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So they banned all spinning from the land. All the flax and wool in their country had to be sent elsewhere to be spun. On their daughter's sixteenth birthday they held a party for the princess in their castle. They felt sure this would protect her from the danger of finding a spindle on her sixteenth birthday.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;">People came from far and wide to the grand birthday ball for the princess and a magnificent feast was laid out. After all the guests had eaten and drunk as much as they wanted and danced in the great hall, the princess asked if they could all play hide-and-seek, which was a favourite game from her childhood. It was agreed the princess should be the first to hide, and she quickly sped away.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The princess ran to a far corner of the castle and found herself climbing a spiral staircase in a turret she did not remember ever visiting before. "They will never find me here," she thought as she crept into a little room at the top. 'there to her surprise she found an old woman dressed in black, sitting on a chair spinning.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"What are you doing?" questioned the princess as she saw the spindle twirling, for she had never seen anything like it in her whole life. "Come and see, pretty girl," replied the old lady. The princess watched fascinated as she pulled the strands of wool from the sheep's fleece on the floor, and twirling it deftly with her fingers fed it on to the spindle.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"Would you like to try?" she asked cunningly.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;">With all thoughts of hide-and-seek gone, the princess sat down and took the spindle. In a flash she pricked her thumb and even as she cried out, she fell clown as though dead. The wicked fairy's spell had worked. So did the twelfth good fairy's wish. The princess did not die, but fell into a deep deep sleep. The spell worked upon everyone else in the castle too. The king and queen slept in their chairs in the great hall. The guests dropped off to sleep as they went through the castle looking for the princess.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the kitchen the cook fell asleep as she was about to box the pot boy's ears and the scullery maid nodded off as she was plucking a chicken. All over the castle a great silence descended. As the years went by a thorn hedge grew up around the castle. Passers-by asked what was behind the hedge, but few people remembered the castle where the king and queen had lived with their lovely daughter. Sometimes curious travellers tried to force their way through, but the hedge grew so thickly that they soon gave up.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One clay, many many years later, a prince came by. He asked, like other travellers, what was behind the thorn hedge, which was very tall and thick by now. An old man told him a story he had heard about a castle behind the thorns, and the prince became curious. He decided to cut his way through the thorns. This time the hedge seemed to open out before his sword and in a short while the prince was </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;">inside the grounds. He ran across the gardens and through an open door into the lovely old castle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Everywhere he looked β in the great hall, in the kitchens, in the corridors and on the staircases β he saw people asleep. He passed through many rooms until he found himself climbing a winding staircase in an old turret. There in a small room at the top he found himself staring in wonder at the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was so lovely that without thinking he leaned forward and gently kissed her.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As his lips touched her, the princess began to stir and she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a handsome young. man. She thought she must be dreaming, but she looked again and saw he was really there. As she gazed at him she fell in love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They came down the turret stairs together and found the whole castle coming back to life. In the great hall the king and queen were stretching and yawning, puzzled over how they could have dropped off to sleep during their daughter's party. Their guests too were shaking their heads, rubbing their eyes, and wondering why they felt so sleepy. In the kitchen, the cook boxed the ears of the pot boy, and the scullery maid continued to pluck the chicken. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Outside horses stamped and neighed in their stables, dogs barked in the yards, while in the trees birds who had stayed silent for so long burst into song. The hundred-year spell had been broken. The princess told her parents how much she loved the handsome young man who had kissed her, and they were delighted to find he was a prince from a neighbouring country. The king gave them his blessing and a grand wedding was arranged.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><b> At the wedding party the princess looked more beautiful than ever, and the prince loved her more every moment. The twelve good fairies who had come to her Christening were invited once again and were delighted to see the happiness of the prince and princess. Towards evening the newly married pair rode off together to their new home in the prince's country, where they lived happily ever after.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-29805881230308873672011-06-27T01:36:00.000-07:002011-06-27T02:23:02.632-07:00The Gingerbread Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiISMH3RdMjiaVGkBgP6VC7A-I_wx9GdGr4-1jzxAmbBFcchQxotJHF-toQT6oppqgFKK1ClZD4ckZtYU_q74ZCC-JuO0NmqVQNmJ3EsTVnRA2E7SNt7xIhzueOuaSF-zcxG_k49S9E7nw/s1600/gingerbread-man1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiISMH3RdMjiaVGkBgP6VC7A-I_wx9GdGr4-1jzxAmbBFcchQxotJHF-toQT6oppqgFKK1ClZD4ckZtYU_q74ZCC-JuO0NmqVQNmJ3EsTVnRA2E7SNt7xIhzueOuaSF-zcxG_k49S9E7nw/s400/gingerbread-man1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span class="style9"> A</span>n old woman was baking one day, and she made some gingerbread. She had some dough left over,<u><strike><img src="http://www.childrenstory.info/childrenstorybooks/storiesforyoungchildren/image1.jpg" /></strike></u></span></div></div><div class="style3"></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">so she made the shape of a little man. She made eyes for him, a nose and a smiling mouth all of currants, and placed more currants down his front to look like buttons. Then she laid him on a baking tray and put him into the oven to bake.</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">After a little while, she heard something rattling at the oven door. She opened it and to her surprise out jumped the little gingerbread man she had made. She tried to catch him as he ran across the kitchen, but he slipped past her, calling as he ran:</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"Run, run, as fast as you can,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">She chased after him into the garden where her husband was digging. He put down</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">his spade and tried to catch him too, but as the gingerbread man sped past him he called over his shoulder:</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"Run, run, as fast as you can,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">As he ran down the road he passed a cow. The cow called out, "Stop, gingerbread man! You look good to eat!" But the gingerbread man laughed and shouted over his shoulder:</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"I've run from an old woman</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And an old man.</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Run, run, as fast as you can,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The cow ran after the old woman and the old man, and soon they all passed a horse. "Stop!" called out the horse, "I'd like to eat you." But the gingerbread man called out:</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"I've run from an old woman</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And an old man,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And a cow!</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Run, run, as fast as you can,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">He ran on, with the old woman and the old man and the cow and the horse following, and he went past a party of people haymaking. They all looked up as they saw the gingerbread man, and as he passed them he called out:</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"I've run from an old woman,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And from an old man,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">And a cow and a horse.</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Run, run, as fast as you can,</span></div></div><div class="style3" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The haymakers joined in the chase behind the old woman and the old man, the cow and the horse, and they all followed,him as he ran through the fields. There he met a fox, so he called out to the fox: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"Run, run, as fast as you can, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">But the sly fox said, "Why should I bother to catch you?" although he thought to himself, "That gingerbread man would be good to eat."</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="311" src="http://www.childrenstory.info/childrenstorybooks/storiesforyoungchildren/image6.jpg" style="text-align: left;" width="385" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Just after he had run past the fox the gingerbread man had to stop because he came to a wide, deep, swift-flowing river.</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The fox saw the old woman and the old man, the cow, the horse and the haymakers all chasing the gingerbread man so he said,</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"Jump on my back, and I'll take you across the river!" The gingerbread man jumped on the fox's back and the fox began to swim.</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">As they reached the middle of the river, where the water was deep, the fox said,</span></div></div><div class="style3"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">"Can you stand on my head, Gingerbread Man, or you will get wet." So the gingerbread man pulled himself up and stood on the fox's head. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">As the current flowed more swiftly, the fox said,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">"Can you move on to my nose, Gingerbread Man, so that I can carry you more safely? I would not like you to drown." The gingerbread man slid on to the fox's nose. But when they reached the bank of the river, the fox suddenly went snap! The gingerbread man disappeared into the fox's mouth, and was never seen again.</span><ins style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; display: inline-table; height: 90px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 728px;"></ins></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><ins id="aswift_4_anchor" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; display: block; height: 90px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; visibility: visible; width: 728px;"></ins><br />
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</div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-80969059606424315202011-06-25T18:14:00.000-07:002011-06-25T18:14:03.439-07:00Cinderella<div class="MsoBodyText"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FwP2VGOGZbC-DCMN9xpEuIZLerWN78v8g3pSQw1FFfMePeemfaU0E57TOhq2S7RPoyuAoPVpVSUcSL30i2Om3oqnjq9NL-3b2fEY1CSoeUBMBM5ydyHqR_vVtj1Sre4Tojnak84nOwo/s1600/Cinderella-Wallpaper-disney-princess-6248828-1024-768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FwP2VGOGZbC-DCMN9xpEuIZLerWN78v8g3pSQw1FFfMePeemfaU0E57TOhq2S7RPoyuAoPVpVSUcSL30i2Om3oqnjq9NL-3b2fEY1CSoeUBMBM5ydyHqR_vVtj1Sre4Tojnak84nOwo/s1600/Cinderella-Wallpaper-disney-princess-6248828-1024-768.jpg" /></a></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Once upon a time there lived a young pretty girl. Her mother was dead and her father had married a widow with two daughters. Her stepmother didn't like her and scolded her always. She only loved and cared for her own daughters. For this reason Cinderella always lived unhappily.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Her step mother never gave her good clothes to wear, good food to eat and any time for rest. Her life was very miserable. She worked hard all day. Only in the evening she was allowed to sit near the cinders, for a while. Thatβs why everybody called her Cinderella.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">One fine morning, an announcement was made in the town. It was about the ball dance to be held in the palace. The step mother and her daughters became very excited for the ball dance. They purchased new gowns, new shoes and new jewelries for the function. When Cinderella heard about it she also wanted to go there but she didnβt have the guts to ask her stepmother.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">She went back to her room and started crying on her destiny. She was missing her mother very much when suddenly a fairy appeared in front of her. Don't worry Cinderella, said the fairy. I know you want to go to the ball dance. And so you shall... But how can I, asked Cinderella.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">The fairy smiled. With a flick of her magic stick Cinderella found herself wearing the most beautiful dress she had ever seen with lovely shoes and jewelries. The fairy also brought a sparkling coach for Cinderella to reach the palace. Cinderella could hardly believe her eyes. She was very happy. Cinderella thanked the fairy and went towards the palace.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">When she entered the palace she was very surprised to see it so beautifully decorated. She met people around, danced and enjoyed a lot at the ball. Soon the prince and the king entered the hall. Everyone stopped dancing. They wanted to meet the prince, but... but the prince was finding someone lese in the huge crowd. He was finding his princess of dreams. He saw Cinderella standing far off near the stairs; the prince went towards Cinderella and offered her to dance with him. Both of then danced together for a long time. It seemed as if the prince was in love with Cinderella.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Now it was half night, Cinderella had to return back home before her stepmother and sisters returned. She remembered what the fairy had said, and without a word of goodbye she slipped from the Princeβs arms and ran down the steps. As she ran she lost one of her shoes, but not for a moment did she dream of stopping to pick it up!</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;" />The Prince who was now madly in love with her picked up the shoes and asked his ministers to go and search for the girl. I will never be content until I find her!β</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">So the ministers tried the slipper on the foot of every girl in the town but were not successful. When they reached Cinderellaβs home, her sisters too tried to wear the shoes but unluckily they failed. The shoes didnβt fit anyone of them. Cinderella was standing nearby, the ministers asked her to try the shoe as well. Her sisters laughed at this. When Cinderella wore the shoe it fitted perfectly. Everyone was surprised to see that. The prince also reached there, he was happy to find her dream girl. He took Cinderella to his palace and soon they got married.</span></div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Cinderella begins a happy life with the princeβ¦..</span></div><span style="left: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
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</span>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-52594256401720145802011-06-25T17:53:00.000-07:002011-06-25T17:53:49.407-07:00Little Red Riding Hood<div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqSVAQFwDfPl2yFkYSC3OnKCok72sfil43h5SC0yYUOCF-VeBtL2VAakQJKYw_374POWfmiKFUUDh-eQXXZYnvwOGZOTth0eWfDSzWcAXDbwRf9_T0_6J_kfgdm4jpwJIo-2NmCp_WNM/s1600/little-red-riding-hood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqSVAQFwDfPl2yFkYSC3OnKCok72sfil43h5SC0yYUOCF-VeBtL2VAakQJKYw_374POWfmiKFUUDh-eQXXZYnvwOGZOTth0eWfDSzWcAXDbwRf9_T0_6J_kfgdm4jpwJIo-2NmCp_WNM/s640/little-red-riding-hood.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little riding hood of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red Riding Hood.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47;"> One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'I will take great care,' said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"> 'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Thank you kindly, wolf.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'To my grandmother's.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'What have you got in your apron?'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,' replied Little Red Riding Hood.</b></span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then he said: 'See, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here - why do you not look round? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> So she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Who is there?'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Little Red Riding Hood,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open the door.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"> 'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get up.'</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> Little Red Riding Hood, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her.</b></span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear! how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'All the better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'All the better to see you with, my dear.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'All the better to hug you with.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'All the better to eat you with!'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red Riding Hood.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old woman is snoring! I must just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Do I find you here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' But just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf.</b></span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47;"> When he had made two snips, he saw the little red riding hood shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf.'</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> After that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red Riding Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived. But Red Riding Hood thought to herself: 'As long as I live, I will never leave the path by myself to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>It is also related that once, when Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red Riding Hood, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said 'good morning' to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up.</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> 'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, so that he can not come in.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: 'Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red Riding Hood, and am bringing you some cakes.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what was in his thoughts.</b></span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> In front of the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child: 'Take the pail, Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.'</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b> Red Riding Hood carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned. But Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again.</b></span></div></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-81094155446800181322011-06-24T08:48:00.000-07:002011-06-25T17:56:31.228-07:00The Frog Prince<div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKq-TbXHtkTqIRSGgzv1lOKABvzJjbiLLE5V-Cezw0XdLZjri88LcME2WGivX3Nbf_swRGkJW8G-vs2P3QvR_Pb0FOu-GSiTZ2WBi95QL3PdiKNJ_bUt8bBjRGkLmBf6xhIPX8IldBscg/s1600/THE_FROG_PRINCE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKq-TbXHtkTqIRSGgzv1lOKABvzJjbiLLE5V-Cezw0XdLZjri88LcME2WGivX3Nbf_swRGkJW8G-vs2P3QvR_Pb0FOu-GSiTZ2WBi95QL3PdiKNJ_bUt8bBjRGkLmBf6xhIPX8IldBscg/s640/THE_FROG_PRINCE.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water with a rose in the middle of it, she sat herself down to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and catching it again as it fell.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> After a time she threw it up so high that she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball bounded away, and rolled along on the ground, until at last it fell down into the spring. The princess looked into the spring after her ball, but it was very deep, so deep that she could not see the bottom of it. She began to cry, and said, 'Alas! if I could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, 'Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Alas!' said she, 'what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The frog said, 'I do not want your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from off your golden plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'What nonsense,' thought the princess, 'this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out of the spring to visit me, though he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> So she said to the frog, 'Well, if you will bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then the frog put his head down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the spring.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up; and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The frog called after her, 'Stay, princess, and take me with you as you said,'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> But she did not stop to hear a word.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise - tap, tap - plash, plash - as if something was coming up the marble staircase, and soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the door, and a little voice cried out and said:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Open the door, my princess dear,<br />
Open the door to thy true love here!<br />
And mind the words that thou and I said<br />
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'</span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten. At this sight she was sadly frightened, and shutting the door as fast as she could came back to her seat.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The king, her father, seeing that something had frightened her, asked her what was the matter.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'There is a nasty frog,' said she, 'at the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning. I told him that he should live with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come in.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Open the door, my princess dear,<br />
Open the door to thy true love here!</span></blockquote></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">And mind the words that thou and I said<br />
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'</span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then the king said to the young princess, 'As you have given your word you must keep it; so go and let him in.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> She did so, and the frog hopped into the room, and then straight on - tap, tap - plash, plash - from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the princess sat.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, 'and let me sit next to you.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> As soon as she had done this, the frog said, 'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, 'Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> As soon as it was light the frog jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Open the door, my princess dear,<br />
Open the door to thy true love here!<br />
And mind the words that thou and I said<br />
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'</span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept upon her pillow as before, till the morning broke. And the third night he did the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and standing at the head of her bed.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated so to abide till some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'You,' said the prince, 'have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you as long as you live.'</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying 'Yes' to all this; and as they spoke a brightly coloured coach drove up, with eight beautiful horses, decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness; and behind the coach rode the prince's servant, faithful Heinrich, who had bewailed the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> They then took leave of the king, and got into the coach with eight horses, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great many years.</span></div></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-56773571265417879812011-06-23T14:15:00.000-07:002011-06-25T18:02:54.718-07:00Hansel and Gretel<div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-QnQDEiEiyM3n1TknX6g14eKcLKU22qY5CcNlDykVuZc9z2DwX_Mv58O8aQ248xhZiHaJYpOBch6fznIppcmkYGcoSCSJ0cGDiMoSUWHRMD7tZMkePHLsZyU0XOOCzQjqSk9EmjZGiA/s1600/hanselandgretel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-QnQDEiEiyM3n1TknX6g14eKcLKU22qY5CcNlDykVuZc9z2DwX_Mv58O8aQ248xhZiHaJYpOBch6fznIppcmkYGcoSCSJ0cGDiMoSUWHRMD7tZMkePHLsZyU0XOOCzQjqSk9EmjZGiA/s640/hanselandgretel.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once, when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily bread.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Now when he thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety. He groaned and said to his wife, "What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?"</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "I'll tell you what, husband," answered the woman, "early tomorrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where it is the thickest. There we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "No, wife," said the man, "I will not do that. How can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest? The wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Oh! you fool," said she, "then we must all four die of hunger, you may as well plane the planks for our coffins," and she left him no peace until he consented.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "But I feel very sorry for the poor children, all the same," said the man.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-mother had said to their father. Gretel wept bitter tears, and said to Hansel, "Now all is over with us."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Be quiet, Gretel," said Hansel, "do not distress yourself, I will soon find a way to help us." And when the old folks had fallen asleep, he got up, put on his little coat, opened the door below, and crept outside.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The moon shone brightly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house glittered like real silver pennies. Hansel stooped and stuffed the little pocket of his coat with as many as he could get in. Then he went back and said to Gretel, "Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not forsake us," and he lay down again in his bed.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the two children, saying, "Get up, you sluggards. We are going into the forest to fetch wood." She gave each a little piece of bread, and said, "There is something for your dinner, but do not eat it up before then, for you will get nothing else."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Gretel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When they had walked a short time, Hansel stood still and peeped back at the house, and did so again and again. His father said, "Hansel, what are you looking at there and staying behind for? Pay attention, and do not forget how to use your legs."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Ah, father," said Hansel, "I am looking at my little white cat, which is sitting up on the roof, and wants to say good-bye to me."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The wife said, "Fool, that is not your little cat, that is the morning sun which is shining on the chimneys."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel, however, had not been looking back at the cat, but had been constantly throwing one of the white pebble-stones out of his pocket on the road.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said, "Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel and Gretel gathered brushwood together, as high as a little hill. The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning very high, the woman said, "Now, children, lay yourselves down by the fire and rest, we will go into the forest and cut some wood. When we have done, we will come back and fetch you away."</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, each ate a little piece of bread, and as they heard the strokes of the wood-axe they believed that their father was near. It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards. And as they had been sitting such a long time, their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When at last they awoke, it was already dark night. Gretel began to cry and said, "How are we to get out of the forest now?"</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> But Hansel comforted her and said, "Just wait a little, until the moon has risen, and then we will soon find the way." And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took his little sister by the hand, and followed the pebbles which shone like newly-coined silver pieces, and showed them the way.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> They walked the whole night long, and by break of day came once more to their father's house. They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said, "You naughty children, why have you slept so long in the forest? We thought you were never coming back at all."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The father, however, rejoiced, for it had cut him to the heart to leave them behind alone.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Not long afterwards, there was once more great dearth throughout the land, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their father:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Everything is eaten again, we have one half loaf left, and that is the end. The children must go, we will take them farther into the wood, so that they will not find their way out again. There is no other means of saving ourselves."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The man's heart was heavy, and he thought, "It would be better for you to share the last mouthful with your children." The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to say, but scolded and reproached him. He who says a must say b, likewise, and as he had yielded the first time, he had to do so a second time also.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The children, however, were still awake and had heard the conversation. When the old folks were asleep, Hansel again got up, and wanted to go out and pick up pebbles as he had done before, but the woman had locked the door, and Hansel could not get out. Nevertheless he comforted his little sister, and said, "Do not cry, Gretel, go to sleep quietly, the good God will help us."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Early in the morning came the woman, and took the children out of their beds. Their piece of bread was given to them, but it was still smaller than the time before. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his in his pocket, and often stood still and threw a morsel on the ground.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Hansel, why do you stop and look round?" Said the father. "Go on."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say good-bye to me, answered Hansel.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Fool." Said the woman, "That is not your little pigeon, that is the morning sun that is shining on the chimney."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel, however, little by little, threw all the crumbs on the path. The woman led the children still deeper into the forest, where they had never in their lives been before.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then a great fire was again made, and the mother said, "Just sit there, you children, and when you are tired you may sleep a little. We are going into the forest to cut wood, and in the evening when we are done, we will come and fetch you away."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When it was noon, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had scattered his by the way. Then they fell asleep and evening passed, but no one came to the poor children.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> They did not awake until it was dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister and said, "Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again."</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and fields had picked them all up. Hansel said to Gretel, "We shall soon find the way."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> But they did not find it. They walked the whole night and all the next day too from morning till evening, but they did not get out of the forest, and were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three berries, which grew on the ground. And as they were so weary that their legs would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell asleep.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> It was now three mornings since they had left their father's house. They began to walk again, but they always came deeper into the forest, and if help did not come soon, they must die of hunger and weariness. When it was mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a bough, which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. And when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them, and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted. And when they approached the little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "We will set to work on that," said Hansel, "and have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and you Gretel, can eat some of the window, it will taste sweet."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant against the window and nibbled at the panes. Then a soft voice cried from the parlor -</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Nibble, nibble, gnaw</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> who is nibbling at my little house?"</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The children answered -</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "The wind, the wind,</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> the heaven-born wind,"</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> and went on eating without disturbing themselves. Hansel, who liked the taste of the roof, tore down a great piece of it, and Gretel pushed out the whole of one round window-pane, sat down, and enjoyed herself with it.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Suddenly the door opened, and a woman as old as the hills, who supported herself on crutches, came creeping out. Hansel and Gretel were so terribly frightened that they let fall what they had in their hands.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The old woman, however, nodded her head, and said, "Oh, you dear children, who has brought you here? Do come in, and stay with me. No harm shall happen to you."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> She took them both by the hand, and led them into her little house. Then good food was set before them, milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little beds were covered with clean white linen, and Hansel and Gretel lay down in them, and thought they were in heaven.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The old woman had only pretended to be so kind. She was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near. When Hansel and Gretel came into her neighborhood, she laughed with malice, and said mockingly, "I have them, they shall not escape me again."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Early in the morning before the children were awake, she was already up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so pretty, with their plump and rosy cheeks, she muttered to herself, that will be a dainty mouthful.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then she seized Hansel with her shrivelled hand, carried him into a little stable, and locked him in behind a grated door. Scream as he might, it would not help him. Then she went to Gretel, shook her till she awoke, and cried, "Get up, lazy thing, fetch some water, and cook something good for your brother, he is in the stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Gretel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain, for she was forced to do what the wicked witch commanded. And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel got nothing but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little stable, and cried, "Hansel, stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon be fat."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to her, and the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought it was Hansel's finger, and was astonished that there was no way of fattening him.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel still remained thin, she was seized with impatience and would not wait any longer.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Now, then, Gretel," she cried to the girl, "stir yourself, and bring some water. Let Hansel be fat or lean, to-morrow I will kill him, and cook him."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Ah, how the poor little sister did lament when she had to fetch the water, and how her tears did flow down her cheeks. "Dear God, do help us," she cried. "If the wild beasts in the forest had but devoured us, we should at any rate have died together."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Just keep your noise to yourself," said the old woman, "it won't help you at all."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Early in the morning, Gretel had to go out and hang up the cauldron with the water, and light the fire.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "We will bake first," said the old woman, "I have already heated the oven, and kneaded the dough." She pushed poor Gretel out to the oven, from which flames of fire were already darting. "Creep in," said the witch, "and see if it properly heated, so that we can put the bread in." And once Gretel was inside, she intended to shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her, too.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> But Gretel saw what she had in mind, and said, "I do not know how I am to do it. How do I get in?"</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Silly goose," said the old woman, "the door is big enough. Just look, I can get in myself." And she crept up and thrust her head into the oven.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then Gretel gave her a push that drove her far into it, and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. Oh. Then she began to howl quite horribly, but Gretel ran away, and the godless witch was miserably burnt to death. Gretel, however, ran like lightning to Hansel, opened his little stable, and cried, "Hansel, we are saved. The old witch is dead."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then Hansel sprang like a bird from its cage when the door is opened. How they did rejoice and embrace each other, and dance about and kiss each other. And as they had no longer any need to fear her, they went into the witch's house, and in every corner there stood chests full of pearls and jewels.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "These are far better than pebbles." Said Hansel, and thrust into his pockets whatever could be got in.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> And Gretel said, "I, too, will take something home with me," and filled her pinafore full.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "But now we must be off," said Hansel, "that we may get out of the witch's forest."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When they had walked for two hours, they came to a great stretch of water.</span></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "We cannot cross," said Hansel, "I see no foot-plank, and no bridge.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "And there is also no ferry," answered Gretel, "but a white duck is swimming there. If I ask her, she will help us over." Then she cried -</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "Little duck, little duck, dost thou see,</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Hansel and Gretel are waiting for thee.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> There's never a plank, or bridge in sight,</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> take us across on thy back so white."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told his sister to sit by him.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> "No," replied Gretel, "that will be too heavy for the little duck. She shall take us across, one after the other."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The good little duck did so, and when they were once safely across and had walked for a short time, the forest seemed to be more and more familiar to them, and at length they saw from afar their father's house. Then they began to run, rushed into the parlor, and threw themselves round their father's neck. The man had not known one happy hour since he had left the children in the forest. The woman, however, was dead. Gretel emptied her pinafore until pearls and precious stones ran about the room, and Hansel threw one handful after another out of his pocket to add to them. Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> My tale is done, there runs a mouse, whosoever catches it, may make himself a big fur cap out of it.</span></div></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7613313573547889734.post-52515788505418121062011-06-22T11:04:00.000-07:002011-06-25T18:03:35.846-07:00Rapunzel<div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBj3kvPo-bqTnl8WVOO-ouZLXagb9RQVA5TBNdOhTsjylDYLkqAYzBq7iwBHvtkXLiBn2th1SqhMF6bzOsPlE1EW-dNlmQsVCt5hkGLHNv8Bq7FhY2WUr8TS_k2dtk-MzF34In6aTyi6g/s1600/Rapunzel-Tangled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBj3kvPo-bqTnl8WVOO-ouZLXagb9RQVA5TBNdOhTsjylDYLkqAYzBq7iwBHvtkXLiBn2th1SqhMF6bzOsPlE1EW-dNlmQsVCt5hkGLHNv8Bq7FhY2WUr8TS_k2dtk-MzF34In6aTyi6g/s640/Rapunzel-Tangled.jpg" width="456" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">There were once a man and a woman who had long, in vain, wished for a child. At length it appeared that God was about to grant their desire.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion, and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it. She quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Her husband was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The man, who loved her, thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her - so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> If he was to have any rest, her husband knew he must once more descend into the garden. Therefore, in the gloom of evening, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'How can you dare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!'</span></div></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Ah,' answered he, 'let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: 'If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The man in his terror consented to everything.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> When the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Let down your hair to me.'</span></span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress, she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it.</span></div></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Let down your hair to me.'</span></span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Let down your hair to me.'</span></span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does'; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> She said: 'I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son - he is with me in a moment.'</span></div></div></div><div class="story_text" style="line-height: 1.31;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. 'What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king's son came and cried:</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 31px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Let down your hair to me.'</span></span></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> 'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.'</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> The king's son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.</span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> He wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=7613313573547889734&postID=5251578850541812106" name="5"></a></span></div></div><div><br />
</div></div>Najwa Shazwanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03373617067092297935noreply@blogger.com0