The Princess and the Pea

A prince decided to marry a real princess. He travelled around the world but did not find a real princess to marry. One stormy night, a girl knocked at the door of the castle. She came into the castle out of the rain and told the queen and the prince that she was a princess. The queen prepared a special bed of twenty mattresses. The queen put a hard pea under all of the mattresses to test whether the girl was really a princess. The next morning the girl woke up all black and blue from a very poor sleep.

She told the queen and the prince that she couldn’t sleep at night as there was something very big in her bed.

Everybody understood that the girl was a real princess. The prince and the princess got married. The prince was very happy as he could find a real princess.

-The End -

The Town Mouse and

the Country Mouse.

One day Minny, a mouse, came to her friend. Her friend, an old gray mouse, asked her to sit down at the table and have some tea with her. She put two cups of tea and some bread on the table. She said she had no sugar and no cheese and butter to eat with the bread. But she said that there was a mouse in town who had a lot of good things to eat. Minny said that she often visited her cousin who lived in town. They had a lot of meat, butter, cheese and sugar in their house. 

They had sweets and chocolates, too. But there was a big animal with green eyes, a big mouth and very big teeth. He lived in that house. All the mice were afraid of that animal.* ‘I know, my dear, it is a cat. I am afraid of cats myself,’ said the old gray mouse. ‘Yes, that’s a cat,’ said Minny. ‘You see, my dear, they have a lot of good things to eat but they are afraid of that animal. I think it is better to have only bread and tea than to live in fear.’

-The End -

The Selfish Giant

A giant who lived in a big house had a beautiful garden, but he never let anyone enter his garden. Whenever he was away, children would come there to play.

    One day, the giant decided to visit his friend and left for the neighbouring kingdom. The giant came back from his friend’s place after seven years. Seeing the children play in his garden, he angrily chased them away and built a high wall around the garden.

Winter visited the garden and stayed there. Spring wouldn't come. The trees and flowers were so sad that they lost their beauty and were covered with snow and frost. No birds came to sing there.

One morning, the giant saw the children playing in the garden again. They had entered through a small hole in the wall. And spring was there too. At last! The sun was shining and the birds were singing.

The giant realised that he had been very selfish and was sorry for what he had done. He let the children play in the garden every day. The giant’s favourite among the children was a little boy who had kissed him when he helped him to get on top of the tree. But the little boy stopped coming to the garden and the giant was very sad.

Many years passed and the giant grew old and weak. One winter morning, the giant saw the same boy under a tree. He ran down to the boy in joy. The boy was an angel who had come to take the giant to the garden of Paradise.

-The End -

A Bell f0r the Cat

The cat was causing a lot of problem. It was catching and eating all of the mice!

“What can we do? What can we do?” cried the mice.

One of the older mice called a meeting. “We need to find a way to solve this problem,” said the mouse. “How can we keep that hungry cat from catching any more of us?”

The mice talked and talked and talked. No one could think of a good way to solve the problem.

At last, a little mouse stood up. He said, “I know what to do."

"The cat can sneak up on us because it is so quiet. We should put a bell around the cat’s neck. Then we

could hear when it is coming and run for cover.”

As the mice shouted with joy, a quiet old mouse stood up. The old mouse said, “I think a bell on the cat is a good plan. It would give us a chance to escape that hungry cat. But, tell me, just who will put it there?”

The room became very quiet. Slowly each mouse left

the room. No one wanted to bell the cat.

-The End-