Stories To Tell To Children
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Sara Cone Bryant >> Stories To Tell To Children
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And, as the horse chased him, he looked
over his shoulder and cried,--
"Run! run! as fast as you can!
"You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
And the horse couldn't catch him.
By and by the little Gingerbread Boy
came to a barn full of threshers. When
the threshers smelled the Gingerbread Boy,
they tried to pick him up, and said, "Don't
run so fast, little Gingerbread Boy; you
look very good to eat." But the little
Gingerbread Boy ran harder than ever, and as
he ran he cried out,--
"I have run away from a little old woman,
"A little old man,
"A cow,
"A horse,
"And I can run away from you, I can!"
And when he found that he was ahead
of the threshers, he turned and shouted
back to them,--
"Run! run! as fast as you can!
"You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
And the threshers couldn't catch him.
Then the little Gingerbread Boy ran
faster than ever. He ran and ran until he
came to a field full of mowers. When the
mowers saw how fine he looked, they ran
after him, calling out, "Wait a bit! wait a
bit, little Gingerbread Boy, we wish to eat
you!" But the little Gingerbread Boy
laughed harder than ever, and ran like the
wind. "Oho! oho!" he said,--
"I have run away from a little old woman,
"A little old man,
"A cow,
"A horse,
"A barn full of threshers,
"And I can run away from you, I can!"
And when he found that he was ahead
of the mowers, he turned and shouted
back to them,--
"Run! run! as fast as you can!
"You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
And the mowers couldn't catch him.
By this time the little Gingerbread Boy
was so proud that he didn't think anybody
could catch him. Pretty soon he saw a
fox coming across a field. The fox looked
at him and began to run. But the little
Gingerbread Boy shouted across to him,
"You can't catch me!" The fox began to
run faster, and the little Gingerbread Boy
ran faster, and as he ran he chuckled,--
"I have run away from a little old woman,
"A little old man,
"A cow,
"A horse,
"A barn full of threshers,
"A field full of mowers,
"And I can run away from you, I can!
"Run! run! as fast as you can!
"You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
"Why," said the fox, "I would not catch
you if I could. I would not think of
disturbing you."
Just then, the little Gingerbread Boy
came to a river. He could not swim across,
and he wanted to keep running away from
the cow and the horse and the people.
"Jump on my tail, and I will take you
across," said the fox.
So the little Gingerbread Boy jumped on
the fox's tail, and the fox swam into the
river. When he was a little way from shore
he turned his head, and said, "You are too
heavy on my tail, little Gingerbread Boy,
I fear I shall let you get wet; jump on my
back."
The little Gingerbread Boy jumped on
his back.
A little farther out, the fox said, "I am
afraid the water will cover you, there; jump
on my shoulder."
The little Gingerbread Boy jumped on
his shoulder.
In the middle of the stream the fox said,
"Oh, dear! little Gingerbread Boy, my
shoulder is sinking; jump on my nose,
and I can hold you out of water."
So the little Gingerbread Boy jumped
on his nose.
The minute the fox got on shore he
threw back his head, and gave a snap!
"Dear me!" said the little Gingerbread
Boy, "I am a quarter gone!" The next
minute he said, "Why, I am half gone!"
The next minute he said, "My goodness
gracious, I am three quarters gone!"
And after that, the little Gingerbread
Boy never said anything more at all.
THE LITTLE JACKALS AND THE LION[1]
[1] The four stories of the little Jackal, in this book, are
adapted from stories in Old Deccan Days, a collection of orally
transmitted Hindu folk tales, which every teacher would gain by
knowing. In the Hindu animal legends the Jackal seems to
play the role assigned in Germanic lore to Reynard the Fox,
and to "Bre'r Rabbit" in the stories of our Southern negroes:
he is the clever and humorous trickster who comes out of every
encounter with a whole skin, and turns the laugh on every
enemy, however mighty.
Once there was a great big jungle; and in
the jungle there was a great big Lion; and
the Lion was king of the jungle. Whenever
he wanted anything to eat, all he had to
do was to come up out of his cave in the
stones and earth and ROAR. When he had
roared a few times all the little people of
the jungle were so frightened that they
came out of their holes and hiding-places
and ran, this way and that, to get away.
Then, of course, the Lion could see where
they were. And he pounced on them,
killed them, and gobbled them up.
He did this so often that at last there
was not a single thing left alive in the jungle
besides the Lion, except two little Jackals,
--a little father Jackal and a little mother
Jackal.
They had run away so many times that
they were quite thin and very tired, and
they could not run so fast any more. And
one day the Lion was so near that the little
mother Jackal grew frightened; she said,--
"Oh, Father Jackal, Father Jackal! I
b'lieve our time has come! the Lion will
surely catch us this time!"
"Pooh! nonsense, mother!" said the
little father Jackal. "Come, we'll run on
a bit!"
And they ran, ran, ran very fast, and the
Lion did not catch them that time.
But at last a day came when the Lion
was nearer still and the little mother Jackal
was frightened about to death.
"Oh, Father Jackal, Father Jackal!"
she cried; "I'm sure our time has come!
The Lion's going to eat us this time!"
"Now, mother, don't you fret," said the
little father Jackal; "you do just as I tell
you, and it will be all right."
Then what did those cunning little Jackals
do but take hold of hands and run up
towards the Lion, as if they had meant
to come all the time. When he saw them
coming he stood up, and roared in a terrible
voice,--
"You miserable little wretches, come
here and be eaten, at once! Why didn't
you come before?"
The father Jackal bowed very low.
"Indeed, Father Lion," he said, "we
meant to come before; we knew we ought
to come before; and we wanted to come
before; but every time we started to come,
a dreadful great lion came out of the woods
and roared at us, and frightened us so that
we ran away."
"What do you mean?" roared the Lion.
"There's no other lion in this jungle, and
you know it!"
"Indeed, indeed, Father Lion," said the
little Jackal, "I know that is what everybody
thinks; but indeed and indeed there
is another lion! And he is as much bigger
than you as you are bigger than I! His face
is much more terrible, and his roar far, far
more dreadful. Oh, he is far more fearful
than you!"
At that the Lion stood up and roared so
that the jungle shook.
"Take me to this lion," he said; "I'll
eat him up and then I'll eat you up."
The little Jackals danced on ahead, and
the Lion stalked behind. They led him to
a place where there was a round, deep well
of clear water. They went round on one
side of it, and the Lion stalked up to the
other.
"He lives down there, Father Lion!"
said the little Jackal. "He lives down
there!"
The Lion came close and looked down
into the water,--and a lion's face looked
back at him out of the water!
When he saw that, the Lion roared and
shook his mane and showed his teeth. And
the lion in the water shook his mane and
showed his teeth. The Lion above shook
his mane again and growled again, and
made a terrible face. But the lion in the
water made just as terrible a one, back.
The Lion above couldn't stand that. He
leaped down into the well after the other
lion.
But, of course, as you know very well,
there wasn't any other lion! It was only
the reflection in the water!
So the poor old Lion floundered about
and floundered about, and as he couldn't
get up the steep sides of the well, he was
drowned dead. And when he was drowned
the little Jackals took hold of hands and
danced round the well, and sang,--
"The Lion is dead! The Lion is dead!
"We have killed the great Lion who
would have killed us!
"The Lion is dead! The Lion is dead!
"Ao! Ao! Ao!"
THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE[1]
[1] The following story of the two mice, with the similar fables
of The Boy who cried Wolf, The Frog King, and The Sun and
the Wind, are given here with the hope that they may be of use
to the many teachers who find the over-familiar material of the
fables difficult to adapt, and who are yet aware of the great
usefulness of the stories to young minds. A certain degree of
vividness and amplitude must be added to the compact statement
of the famous collections, and yet it is not wise to change the
style-effect of a fable, wholly. I venture to give these
versions, not as perfect models, surely, but as renderings which
have been acceptable to children, and which I believe retain the
original point simply and strongly.
Once a little mouse who lived in the
country invited a little Mouse from the city
to visit him. When the little City Mouse
sat down to dinner he was surprised to find
that the Country Mouse had nothing to eat
except barley and grain.
"Really," he said, "you do not live well
at all; you should see how I live! I have all
sorts of fine things to eat every day. You
must come to visit me and see how nice it
is to live in the city."
The little Country Mouse was glad to do
this, and after a while he went to the city
to visit his friend.
The very first place that the City Mouse
took the Country Mouse to see was the
kitchen cupboard of the house where he
lived. There, on the lowest shelf, behind
some stone jars, stood a big paper bag
of brown sugar. The little City Mouse
gnawed a hole in the bag and invited his
friend to nibble for himself.
The two little mice nibbled and nibbled,
and the Country Mouse thought he
had never tasted anything so delicious in
his life. He was just thinking how lucky
the City Mouse was, when suddenly the
door opened with a bang, and in came the
cook to get some flour.
"Run!" whispered the City Mouse.
And they ran as fast as they could to the
little hole where they had come in. The
little Country Mouse was shaking all over
when they got safely away, but the little
City Mouse said, "That is nothing; she will
soon go away and then we can go back."
After the cook had gone away and shut
the door they stole softly back, and this
time the City Mouse had something new
to show: he took the little Country Mouse
into a corner on the top shelf, where a
big jar of dried prunes stood open. After
much tugging and pulling they got a large
dried prune out of the jar on to the shelf
and began to nibble at it. This was even
better than the brown sugar. The little
Country Mouse liked the taste so much
that he could hardly nibble fast enough.
But all at once, in the midst of their eating,
there came a scratching at the door and a
sharp, loud MIAOUW!
"What is that?" said the Country
Mouse. The City Mouse just whispered,
"Sh!" and ran as fast as he could to the
hole. The Country Mouse ran after, you
may be sure, as fast as HE could. As soon
as they were out of danger the City Mouse
said, "That was the old Cat; she is the
best mouser in town,--if she once gets
you, you are lost."
"This is very terrible," said the little
Country Mouse; "let us not go back to the
cupboard again."
"No," said the City Mouse, "I will take
you to the cellar; there is something especial
there."
So the City Mouse took his little friend
down the cellar stairs and into a big cupboard
where there were many shelves. On
the shelves were jars of butter, and cheeses
in bags and out of bags. Overhead hung
bunches of sausages, and there were spicy
apples in barrels standing about. It
smelled so good that it went to the little
Country Mouse's head. He ran along the
shelf and nibbled at a cheese here, and a
bit of butter there, until he saw an especially
rich, very delicious-smelling piece of
cheese on a queer little stand in a corner.
He was just on the point of putting his
teeth into the cheese when the City Mouse
saw him.
"Stop! stop!" cried the City Mouse.
"That is a trap!"
The little Country Mouse stopped and
said, "What is a trap?"
"That thing is a trap," said the little
City Mouse. "The minute you touch the
cheese with your teeth something comes
down on your head hard, and you're dead."
The little Country Mouse looked at the
trap, and he looked at the cheese, and he
looked at the little City Mouse. "If you'll
excuse me," he said, "I think I will go
home. I'd rather have barley and grain
to eat and eat it in peace and comfort, than
have brown sugar and dried prunes and
cheese,--and be frightened to death all
the time!"
So the little Country Mouse went back
to his home, and there he stayed all the rest
of his life.
LITTLE JACK ROLLAROUND[1]
[1] Based on Theodor Storm's story of Der Kleine Hawelmanu
(George Westermann, Braunschweig). Very freely adapted from
the German story.
Once upon a time there was a wee little
boy who slept in a tiny trundle-bed near
his mother's great bed. The trundle-bed
had castors on it so that it could be rolled
about, and there was nothing in the world
the little boy liked so much as to have
it rolled. When his mother came to bed
he would cry, "Roll me around! roll me
around!" And his mother would put out
her hand from the big bed and push the
little bed back and forth till she was tired.
The little boy could never get enough; so
for this he was called "Little Jack Rollaround."
One night he had made his mother roll
him about, till she fell asleep, and even then
he kept crying, "Roll me around! roll me
around!" His mother pushed him about
in her sleep, until she fell too soundly
aslumbering; then she stopped. But Little
Jack Rollaround kept on crying, "Roll
around! roll around!"
By and by the Moon peeped in at the
window. He saw a funny sight: Little
Jack Rollaround was lying in his trundle-
bed, and he had put up one little fat leg
for a mast, and fastened the corner of his
wee shirt to it for a sail, and he was blowing
at it with all his might, and saying,
"Roll around! roll around!" Slowly,
slowly, the little trundle-bed boat began
to move; it sailed along the floor and up
the wall and across the ceiling and down
again!
"More! more!" cried Little Jack
Rollaround; and the little boat sailed faster up
the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall,
and over the floor. The Moon laughed at
the sight; but when Little Jack Rollaround
saw the Moon, he called out, "Open the
door, old Moon! I want to roll through
the town, so that the people can see me!"
The Moon could not open the door, but
he shone in through the keyhole, in a broad
band. And Little Jack Rollaround sailed
his trundle-bed boat up the beam, through
the keyhole, and into the street.
"Make a light, old Moon," he said; "I
want the people to see me!"
So the good Moon made a light and
went along with him, and the little trundle-
bed boat went sailing down the streets
into the main street of the village. They
rolled past the town hall and the schoolhouse
and the church; but nobody saw
little Jack Rollaround, because everybody
was in bed, asleep.
"Why don't the people come to see me?"
he shouted.
High up on the church steeple, the
Weather-vane answered, "It is no time for
people to be in the streets; decent folk are
in their beds."
"Then I'll go to the woods, so that the
animals may see me," said Little Jack.
"Come along, old Moon, and make a
light!"
The good Moon went along and made
a light, and they came to the forest. "Roll!
roll!" cried the little boy; and the trundle-
bed went trundling among the trees in the
great wood, scaring up the chipmunks and
startling the little leaves on the trees. The
poor old Moon began to have a bad time
of it, for the tree-trunks got in his way so
that he could not go so fast as the bed, and
every time he got behind, the little boy
called, "Hurry up, old Moon, I want the
beasts to see me!"
But all the animals were asleep, and
nobody at all looked at Little Jack Rollaround
except an old White Owl; and all
she said was, "Who are you?"
The little boy did not like her, so he
blew harder, and the trundle-bed boat
went sailing through the forest till it came
to the end of the world.
"I must go home now; it is late," said
the Moon.
"I will go with you; make a path!" said
Little Jack Rollaround.
The kind Moon made a path up to the
sky, and up sailed the little bed into the
midst of the sky. All the little bright Stars
were there with their nice little lamps. And
when he saw them, that naughty Little
Jack Rollaround began to tease. "Out of
the way, there! I am coming!" he shouted,
and sailed the trundle-bed boat straight at
them. He bumped the little Stars right
and left, all over the sky, until every one
of them put his little lamp out and left it
dark.
"Do not treat the little Stars so," said
the good Moon.
But Jack Rollaround only behaved the
worse: "Get out of the way, old Moon!"
he shouted, "I am coming!"
And he steered the little trundle-bed
boat straight into the old Moon's face,
and bumped his nose!
This was too much for the good Moon;
he put out his big light, all at once, and
left the sky pitch-black.
"Make a light, old Moon! Make a
light!" shouted the little boy. But the
Moon answered never a word, and Jack
Rollaround could not see where to steer.
He went rolling criss-cross, up and down,
all over the sky, knocking into the planets
and stumbling into the clouds, till he did
not know where he was.
Suddenly he saw a big yellow light at
the very edge of the sky. He thought it
was the Moon. "Look out, I am coming!"
he cried, and steered for the light.
But it was not the kind old Moon at all;
it was the great mother Sun, just coming
up out of her home in the sea, to begin her
day's work.
"Aha, youngster, what are you doing
in my sky?" she said. And she picked
Little Jack Rollaround up and threw him,
trundle-bed boat and all, into the middle
of the sea!
And I suppose he is there yet, unless
somebody picked him out again.
HOW BROTHER RABBIT FOOLED THE WHALE AND THE ELEPHANT[1]
[1] Adapted from two tales included in the records of the
American Folk-Lore Society.
One day little Brother Rabbit was running
along on the sand, lippety, lippety,
when he saw the Whale and the Elephant
talking together. Little Brother Rabbit
crouched down and listened to what they
were saying. This was what they were saying:--
"You are the biggest thing on the land,
Brother Elephant," said the Whale, "and
I am the biggest thing in the sea; if we join
together we can rule all the animals in the
world, and have our way about everything."
"Very good, very good," trumpeted the
Elephant; "that suits me; we will do it."
Little Brother Rabbit snickered to
himself. "They won't rule me," he said. He
ran away and got a very long, very strong
rope, and he got his big drum, and hid the
drum a long way off in the bushes. Then
he went along the beach till he came to the
Whale.
"Oh, please, dear, strong Mr. Whale,"
he said, "will you have the great kindness
to do me a favor? My cow is stuck in the
mud, a quarter of a mile from here. And
I can't pull her out. But you are so strong
and so obliging, that I venture to trust you
will help me out."
The Whale was so pleased with the compliment
that he said, "Yes," at once.
"Then," said the Rabbit, "I will tie this
end of my long rope to you, and I will run
away and tie the other end round my cow,
and when I am ready I will beat my big
drum. When you hear that, pull very, very
hard, for the cow is stuck very deep in the
mud."
"Huh!" grunted the Whale, "I'll pull
her out, if she is stuck to the horns."
Little Brother Rabbit tied the rope-end
to the whale, and ran off, lippety, lippety,
till he came to the place where the Elephant was.
"Oh, please, mighty and kindly Elephant,"
he said, making a very low bow
"will you do me a favor?"
"What is it?" asked the Elephant.
"My cow is stuck in the mud, about a
quarter of a mile from here," said little
Brother Rabbit, "and I cannot pull her
out. Of course you could. If you will be
so very obliging as to help me--"
"Certainly," said the Elephant grandly,
"certainly."
"Then," said little Brother Rabbit, "I
will tie one end of this long rope to your
trunk, and the other to my cow, and as
soon as I have tied her tightly I will beat
my big drum. When you hear that, pull;
pull as hard as you can, for my cow is very
heavy."
"Never fear," said the Elephant, "I
could pull twenty cows."
"I am sure you could," said the Rabbit,
politely, "only be sure to begin gently, and
pull harder and harder till you get her."
Then he tied the end of the rope tightly
round the Elephant's trunk, and ran away
into the bushes. There he sat down and
beat the big drum.
The Whale began to pull, and the Elephant
began to pull, and in a jiffy the rope
tightened till it was stretched as hard as
could be.
"This is a remarkably heavy cow," said
the Elephant; "but I'll fetch her!" And
he braced his forefeet in the earth, and gave
a tremendous pull.
"Dear me!" said the Whale. "That
cow must be stuck mighty tight;" and he
drove his tail deep in the water, and gave
a marvelous pull.
He pulled harder; the Elephant pulled
harder. Pretty soon the Whale found
himself sliding toward the land. The
reason was, of course, that the Elephant
had something solid to brace against,
and, too, as fast as he pulled the rope in
a little, he took a turn with it round his
trunk!
But when the Whale found himself
sliding toward the land he was so provoked
with the cow that he dove head first,
down to the bottom of the sea. That was
a pull! The Elephant was jerked off his
feet, and came slipping and sliding to the
beach, and into the surf. He was terribly
angry. He braced himself with all his
might, and pulled his best. At the jerk, up
came the Whale out of the water.
"Who is pulling me?" spouted the Whale.
"Who is pulling me?" trumpeted the Elephant.
And then each saw the rope in the other's hold.
"I'll teach you to play cow!" roared the Elephant.
"I'll show you how to fool me!" fumed
the Whale. And they began to pull again.
But this time the rope broke, the Whale
turned a somersault, and the Elephant fell
over backwards.
At that, they were both so ashamed that
neither would speak to the other. So that
broke up the bargain between them.
And little Brother Rabbit sat in the bushes
and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
THE LITTLE HALF-CHICK
There was once upon a time a Spanish
Hen, who hatched out some nice little
chickens. She was much pleased with their
looks as they came from the shell. One,
two, three, came out plump and fluffy; but
when the fourth shell broke, out came a little
half-chick! It had only one leg and one
wing and one eye! It was just half a chicken.
The Hen-mother did not know what in
the world to do with the queer little Half-
Chick. She was afraid something would
happen to it, and she tried hard to protect
it and keep it from harm. But as soon as
it could walk the little Half-Chick showed
a most headstrong spirit, worse than any
of its brothers. It would not mind, and it
would go wherever it wanted to; it walked
with a funny little hoppity-kick, hoppity-
kick, and got along pretty fast.
One day the little Half-Chick said,
"Mother, I am off to Madrid, to see the
King! Good-by."
The poor Hen-mother did everything
she could think of, to keep him from doing
so foolish a thing, but the little Half-Chick
laughed at her naughtily. "I'm for seeing
the King," he said; "this life is too quiet
for me." And away he went, hoppity-kick,
hoppity-kick, over the fields.
When he had gone some distance the
little Half-Chick came to a little brook
that was caught in the weeds and in much
trouble.
"Little Half-Chick," whispered the
Water, "I am so choked with these weeds
that I cannot move; I am almost lost,
for want of room; please push the sticks
and weeds away with your bill and help
me."
"The idea!" said the little Half-Chick.
"I cannot be bothered with you; I am off
for Madrid, to see the King!" And in spite
of the brook's begging he went away,
hoppity-kick, hoppity-kick.
A bit farther on, the Half-Chick came
to a Fire, which was smothered in damp
sticks and in great distress.
"Oh, little Half-Chick," said the Fire,
"you are just in time to save me. I am
almost dead for want of air. Fan me a
little with your wing, I beg."
"The idea!" said the little Half-Chick.
"I cannot be bothered with you; I am off
to Madrid, to see the King!" And he
went laughing off, hoppity-kick, hoppity-kick.
When he had hoppity-kicked a good way,
and was near Madrid, he came to a clump
of bushes, where the Wind was caught
fast. The Wind was whimpering, and begging
to be set free.
"Little Half-Chick," said the Wind, "you
are just in time to help me; if you will brush
aside these twigs and leaves, I can get my
breath; help me, quickly!"
"Ho! the idea!" said the little Half-
Chick. "I have no time to bother with you.
I am going to Madrid, to see the King."
And he went off, hoppity-kick, hoppity-
kick, leaving the Wind to smother.
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