"Not I," said the Duck.
"I will, then," said the little Red Hen, and she took the wheat to the
mill.
When she brought the flour home she said, "Who will make some bread with
this flour?"
"Not I," said the Goose.
"Not I," said the Duck.
"I will, then," said the little Red Hen.
When the bread was baked, she said, "Who will eat this bread?"
"I will," said the Goose.
"I will," said the Duck.
"No, you won't," said the little Red Hen. "I shall eat it myself. Cluck!
cluck!" And she called her chickens to help her.
THE GINGERBREAD MAN[11]
Once upon a time there was a little old woman and a little old man, and
they lived all alone in a little old house. They hadn't any little
girls or any little boys, at all. So one day, the little old woman made
a boy out of gingerbread; she made him a chocolate jacket, and put
raisins on it for buttons; his eyes were made of fine, fat currants; his
mouth was made of rose-coloured sugar; and he had a gay little cap of
orange sugar-candy. When the little old woman had rolled him out, and
dressed him up, and pinched his gingerbread shoes into shape, she put
him in a pan; then she put the pan in the oven and shut the door; and
she thought, "Now I shall have a little boy of my own."
When it was time for the Gingerbread Boy to be done she opened the oven
door and pulled out the pan. Out jumped the little Gingerbread Boy on to
the floor, and away he ran, out of the door and down the street! The
little old woman and the little old man ran after him as fast as they
could, but he just laughed, and shouted,--
"Run! run! as fast as you can!
"You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"
And they couldn't catch him.
The little Gingerbread Boy ran on and on, until he came to a cow, by the
roadside. "Stop, little Gingerbread Boy," said the cow; "I want to eat
you." The little Gingerbread Boy laughed and said,--
"I have run away from a little old woman,
"And a little old man,
"And I can run away from you, I can!"
And, as the cow 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 cow couldn't catch him.
The little Gingerbread Boy ran on, and on, and on, till he came to a
horse, in the pasture. "Please stop, little Gingerbread Boy," said the
horse, "you look very good to eat." But the little Gingerbread Boy
laughed out loud. "Oho! oho!" he said,--
"I have run away from a little old woman,
"A little old man,
"A cow,
"And I can run away from you, I can!"
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 smelt 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
began to swim the river. When he was a little way from the bank 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 reached the bank 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] I have tried to give this story in the most familiar form; it
varies a good deal in the hands of different story-tellers, but this is
substantially the version I was "brought up on."
THE LITTLE JACKALS AND THE LION[12]
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 almost 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 at last drowned. 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!"
FOOTNOTES:
[12] The four stories of the little Jackal, in this book, are adapted
from stories in _Old Deccan Days_, by Mary Frere (John Murray), 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 rôle assigned in Germanic lore to Reynard the Fox, and to
"Bre'r Rabbit" in the negro stories of Southern America; he is the
clever and humorous trickster who usually comes out of an encounter with
a whole skin, and turns the laugh on his enemy, however mighty he may
be.[A]
THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE[13]
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 specially fine 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
smelt 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] 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, of course, but as renderings
which have been acceptable to children, and which I believe retain the
original point simply and strongly.
LITTLE JACK ROLLAROUND[14]
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 her slumber became too
sound; 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 squirrels 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Based on Theodor Storm's story of _Der Kleine Häwelmann_ (George
Westermann, Braunschweig). Very freely adapted from the German story.
HOW BROTHER RABBIT FOOLED THE WHALE AND THE ELEPHANT[15]
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 sniggered 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 favour? 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 favour?"
"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 marvellous 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, beside, 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 dived 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 backward.