Kid Stories

   Long, long ago, as far back as the time when animals spoke, there lived a community of cats in a deserted house they had taken possession of not far from a large town. They had everything they could possibly desire for their comfort, they were well fed and well lodged, and if by any chance an unlucky mouse was stupid enough to venture in their way, they caught it, not to eat it, but for the pure pleasure of catching it. The old people of the town related how they had heard their parents speak of a time when the whole country was so overrun with rats and mice that there was not so much as a grain of corn nor an ear of maize to be gathered in the fields; and it might be out of gratitude to the cats who had rid the country of these plagues that their descendants were allowed to live in peace. No one knows where they got the money to pay for everything, nor who paid it, for all this happened so very long ago. But one thing is certain, they were rich enough to keep a serva...

  Once upon a time in Japan, there lived in the country an old man and his wife. They were very lonely because they had no children.   One day the old man went into the mountains to cut firewood and his wife went to the river to wash clothes.   No sooner had the old woman begun her washing than she was very surprised to see a big peach floating down the river. It was a huge peach. The biggest she had ever seen. She pulled the peach out of the river and took it home to give her husband for supper.   Late in the afternoon the old man came home, and the old woman said to him: "Look what a wonderful peach I found for your supper." The old man said it was truly a beautiful peach. He was so hungry that he said: "Let's divide it and eat it."   So the old woman brought a big knife from the kitchen and was getting ready to cut the peach in half. But just then there was the sound of a human voice from inside the peach. "Wait! Don't cut me!" said...

  Down in the south, where the sun shines so hotly that everything and everybody sleeps all day, and even the great forests seem silent, except early in the morning and late in the evening-down in this country there once lived a young man and a maiden. The girl had been born in the town, and had scarcely ever left it; but the young man was a native of another country, and had only come to the city near the great river because he could find no work to do where he was.   A few months after his arrival, when the days were cooler, and the people did not sleep so much as usual, a great feast was held a little way out of the town, and to this feast everyone flocked from thirty miles and more. Some walked and some rode, some came in beautiful golden coaches; but all had on splendid dresses of red or blue, while wreaths of flowers rested on their hair.   It was the first time that the youth had been present on such an occasion, and he stood silently aside watching the gra...

  There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was called the Simpleton, and was despised, laughed at, and neglected, on every occasion. It happened one day that the eldest son wished to go into the forest to cut wood, and before he went his mother gave him a delicious pancake and a flask of wine, that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst. When he came into the forest a little old gray man met him, who wished him good day, and said, "Give me a bit of cake out of your pocket, and let me have a drink of your wine; I am so hungry and thirsty."   But the prudent youth answered, "Give you my cake and my wine? I haven't got any; be off with you." And leaving the little man standing there, he went off.   Then he began to fell a tree, but he had not been at it long before he made a wrong stroke, and the hatchet hit him in the arm, so that he was obliged to go home and get it bound up. That was what came of the little gray man.   Afterwards the s...

In the forest there was a clearing where all the animals gathered each evening after going to the river to drink. The tortoise was usually the last to arrive, and the other animals would laugh at him as he plodded into the clearing. "Come on, Slowcoach", they would call out as he came through the grass towards them. The tortoise would blink at them and continue slowly on his way until he reached the spot where he wanted to settle down. The liveliest of all the animals in the forest was the hare. He ran so fast that he was always the first to arrive at the clearing. "Just look at me", he was boasting one evening. "I can run faster than any of you". The tortoise ambled into the clearing, last as usual. To everyone's surprise, he went slowly across to the hare. "Since you run so fast, could you beat me in a race?" he asked. "I, beat you, in a race!" exclaimed the hare, and he fell on the ground laughing. "Of course I wou...

  HIGH above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.   He was very much admired indeed. ‘He is as beautiful as a weathercock,' remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; ‘only not quite so useful,' he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.   ‘Why can't you be like the Happy Prince?' asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. ‘The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.'   ‘I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy,' muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.   ‘He looks just like an angel,' said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks, and their clean white pina...

Along time ago, when impossible things were possible, there was a fisherman and his son. One day when the fisherman hauled in his net he found a huge gleaming red fish amongst the rest of his catch. For a few moments he was so excited he could only stare at it. This fish will make me famous, he thought. "Never before has a fisherman caught such a fish". "Stay here", he said to his son, "and look after these fish, while I go and fetch the cart to take them home". The fisherman's son, too, was amazed by the great red fish, and while he was waiting for his father, he stroked it and started to talk to it. "It seems a shame that a beautiful creature like you should not swim free", he said, and no sooner had he spoken than he decided to put the fish back into the sea. The great red fish slipped gratefully into the water, raised its head and spoke to the boy. "It was kind of you to save my life. Take this bone which I have pulled...