Some Time Stories by Donald Bisset. P.2

Дата публикации: Aug 01, 2021 1:8:45 PM

The Pig Who Tried to Fly

Once upon a time a pig sat by a wishing-well and wished with all his heart that he could fly.

His name was Icarus.4

“You can fly if you want to, little pig,” said the wishing-weil, “but I would have to change you into a bird first.” “But I want to be a pig that flies,” said Icarus.

“Pigs can’t fly,” said the vvishing-well. Icarus was very sad and walked home wondering what he could do so as to be able to fly.

Next morning he walked out into the woods and he asked each of the birds to give him one of their feathers. They each gave him one and said, “Are you going to try and fly,5 Icarus?” “Yes,” said Icarus.

And he tied all the feathers together to make wings,1 then he climbed to the top of a hill near the sea; and a cat and a rat and a bird and two rabbits, some beetles and a snail came to watch him.

He tied the wings on to his legs and waved them up and down.

Slowly Icarus rose into the air. He was pleased. All the animals cheered, too.

Icarus flew higher and higher, right up near the sun. “What a fine little pig I am,” he said to himself, “that wishing-well was wrong; pigs can fly.”

Just then he flew so dose to the sun that it burnt the string that tied his wings to his legs. Down they fell, in j flames.

And down fell Icarus.

He turned over and over, and then “splash!”—he fell into the sea.

Poor Icarus, he got so wet,2 but he swam ashore and ran all the way home to his mother. She said, “Never

1 mind. 1 Icarus, you did fly for a little while,” and she gave him some cake and jam for tea.

And all the animals came and danced round Icarus singing:

Icarus, Icarus, Icarus Pig,

We’ve all come here to dance you a jig;

Rabbits and birds and beetles too,

Cheer for a pig that almost flew.

That night, Icarus went to see the wishing-well. And looking down the deep well he said, “You know, pigs, as pigs, can’t fly,” and a tear rolled down his cheek.

“Never mind,” said the wishing-well, “I like you best just as you are.”

The Magic Wishing-Tree

The sun shone on the tree in the garden, (lie wind blew gently through its branches and the leaves whispered, “Wish-wish-wish.”

It was a magic free. And whoever stood beneath it and wished would have their wish come true.2

In the house next to the tree there lived a fat old man. Ilis name was William Cadogan Smythe. He sold soap in the village; and he didn’t like girls and boys.

One day he stood underneath the tree and said, “1 wish all the girls and boys who live near me were on the moon!”

As soon as he said it all the girls and boys were on the moon.

It was very cold and lonely up there and some of the younger children began to cry. But they were too far away from their mothers and they didn’t hear them.

As soon as the children had gone all the birds in the tree slopped singing.

A blackbird looked down at Mr. Smythe and said, “I wish all the children were back again!”

Mr. Cadogan Smythe said, “I wish they were all on the moon.” And the blackbird said, “I wish they were all back again.”

The children were getting very confused;1 they didn’t know where they were.

. . Mr. Smythe stamped his

toot and said, “I wish...” but he didn’t say any more because the blackbird s’aid, very quickly, “I wish Mr. Smythe was good.”

And Mr. Smythe, who had just been going to say,2 “I wish all the children were on the moon,” suddenly changed his mind, scratched his head, and said:

“I wish all the children would come to tea this afternoon and we’ll have cakes and orange jelly and lemonade for tea.* And I’ll stop selling soap and open a sweet shopinstead, and l won't let anybody call me William Cadogan Smythe, I’ll just be called Bill Smith. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!”

And immediately all the birds in the tree started to sing again.

The sun shone, the wind blew gently through the branches of the tree, and the leaves whispered,

“Wish-wish-w-ish.”

The Ant and the Sugar

Aunt Lucy had a house and garden. She lived in the house and a hundred ants lived in the garden.

One day one of the ants, whose name was Thomas, said: “I am going to look for something to eat.”

So he crawled under the back door and across the kitchen floor and up the kitchen cupboard door1 till he came to the keyhole, and he crawled through the keyhole.

There he was in the kitchen cupboard. He looked round and he saw a great big bowl of sugar, *

“Oh,” he said, “just what I like best,” and he sat down and began to eat the sugar. It was sweet as sweet. He ate and ate and got fatter and fatter, till, at last, he could eat no more.

Then he decided to go home, and started to crawl out by the keyhole, but he had got so fat eating the sugar that he couldn’t get through it.

Poor Ihomas sat down and cried. He knew his mother would be waiting for him. Again he tried to get through the keyhole, but it was no good, he was too fat.

So he waited, and to make himself thinner he did exercises. He touched his toes and did deep breathing and knees bend,2 one-two, one-two. And he ran round and round the cupboard until, at last, he was quite thin again.

He was just going to crawl through the keyhole and go home when he felt weak with hunger,3 so he thought,

! “I’ll just have a little something before 1 go,” and he ale some sugar.

It wa.< lovely, so he ate a lot to get his strength up 4 to walk all the way home. Then he started to crawl through • the keyhole, but he couldn’t, he was too fat again. So he waited and did his exercises again and again until he grew thin, then he started to go home.

He felt ever so hungry, but this time he knew better than5 to eat more sugar. He crawled on through the keyhole and down the cupboard, across the kitchen floor, under the back door and out into the garden.

When he got home he told his mother all about the sugar. She called all the other ants together and said, “Let us go and see Aunt Lucy.”

So they crawled across the garden and under the back door, across the kitchen floor into the passage beyond, and then into Aunt Lucy’s sitting-room, across the carpet, up the side of her chair and into Aunt Lucy’s lap.

She was pleased to see them. They told her all about Thomas and how he could get into the cupboard before eating sugar, and couldn’t get out after eating it.

So Aunt Lucy said that she would always leave a little saucer of sugar for them on the kitchen floor, in the corner. And all the ants said, “Thank you very much,” and kissed Aunt Lucy a tickly kiss “Good-bye”, and went home.

Bump!

In a hole in a wall in a room in a house in a street In a town in a country in the world in the sky there lived a mouse whose name was Albert.

He lay on his bed and ate some cheese and watched a spider who was trying to swing from one beam to another.

The spider was hanging by a long thread and swung as hard as he could—one, then he swung again — two and again — three, and banged his head a great big bump on the other beam, and crawled back on to his web in a very bad temper.1

He sat down and thought for a bit, then came out and tried again.

This time he got across.

Albert grew tired of watching the spider and got up and went to the Zoo to see his friend the kangaroo, whose name was Bob.

Bob was wearing some new shoes, which had sponge in the soles 2 to help him bounce better.

He was practising his bouncing when Albert arrived. Look how high I can bounce,’ said Bob. And he bounced up and down.

He bounced so high he could see over the fence; then higher and he could see over the houses; then higher still, he could see over the tall towers; then higher —and just then an aeroplane was passing and Bob bumped his head a great big bump on the underneath part of it.

“What a bump!” thought Albert. “Just like the spider’s when he bumped his head on the beam.”

Bob had one more bounce and he bounced as high, almost as high, as the sun. Then he went and saw his

keeper, who bathed Bob’s head with warm water so that the bump didn’t feel so sore.1

Then they all had tea.

After tea, Albert went home and got some hot water and bathed the spider’s bump.

“What a friend Albert is,” thought the spider as he curled up on his web and went to sleep.

Olive Snail and Gilbert2

Thousands of years ago, when the king of Tipperary8 was ,a very young man, a canary sang in a golden cage at the bottom of the king’s garden.

The canary’s name was Gilbert. One morning when he was having his breakfast—he had cornflakes with milk and sugar4 —he ate so fast that he swallowed some

down the wrong way1 and nearly choked.

He coughed and coughed arid coughed.

He coughed so loudly that a snail, whose name was Olive, who lived at the other end of the king’s garden, got very worried 2 and decided to hurry across the garden to pat Gilbert on the back so that he could stop coughing.

First of all Olive Snail sent a letter to her mother to say where she was going.

Mrs. G. SNAIL. The Potato Field, Bottom of the Garden, The Palace, Tipperary.

Then she started off. All day long the hot sun beat down on her, but she struggled bravely on, determined to help him,1 and at dusk, she arrived at Gilbert’s cage.

Poor Gilbert was still coughing, so Olive patted him on the back as hard as she could with her horns. What a relief it was,2 because, you see, the patting loosed the cornflakes and Gilbert stopped coughing, and felt so pleased that he opened his beak and sang.

Olive was charmed, she felt she could listen to him for hours, and wished that she could sing too.

After that they became great friends and went to tea with each other3 nearly every day.