Kids Stories

Long ago an old man called Uncle Remus used to tell stories to a little boy. The two of them lived on a plantation in the southern states of America, and the stories were always about certain animals. Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox in particular, but several others too, Brer Bear and Brer Possum for instance. All too often Brer Rabbit, who was an impudent scoundrel, came out best, although he was one of the smaller creatures. Of course, to do this he had to use his wits.   One evening, Uncle Remus ate his supper as usual and then looked at the child over his spectacles.   "Now then, honey", he said. "Let's see if I can call to mind how old Brer Rabbit got himself a two-storey house without paying much for it".   He paused a moment. Then he began:   It turned out one time that a whole lot of creatures decided to build a house together. Old Brer Bear, he was among them, and Brer Fox and Brer Wolf and Brer Coon and Brer Possum, and possibly Brer Mink too. A...

  T here was once a pretty little girl who lived in a cottage on the edge of a wood. Her grandmother, who lived at the other side of the wood, had made her a warm red cape with a hood and, as she often wore it, she became known as Little Red Riding Hood.   One day her mother called her and said, "Little Red Riding Hood, will you take this basket of food to your grandmother? She isn't very well; Carry the basket carefully for I have filled it with some cakes, some fresh bread and some butter".   Little Red Riding Hood put on her red cape and, carrying the basket carefully, she set off through the wood to her grandmother's cottage. By and by she wandered off the path to pick some flowers. Then, quite unexpectedly, she met a wolf. He could have eaten her there and then, but he could hear some woodcutters working close by.   "Where are you going, little girl?" he asked instead.   "I'm going to my grandmother", Little Red Riding Hood answ...

  O nce upon a time there was a little red hen. She lived with a pig, a duck and a cat. They all lived in a house which the little red hen kept clean and tidy. The others never helped. Although they said they meant to, they were all far too lazy. The pig liked to grunt in the mud outside, the duck used to swim in the pond all day, and the cat enjoyed lying in the sun, purring.   One day the little red hen found a grain of corn.   "Who will plant this grain of corn?" she asked.   "Not I", grunted the pig from his muddy patch in the garden.   "Not I", quacked the duck from her pond.   "Not I", purred the cat from his place in the sun.   So the little red hen found a nice bit of earth, scratched it with her feet and planted the grain of corn herself.   During the summer the grain of corn grew. First it grew into a tall green stalk, then it ripened in the sun until it had turned a lovely golden colour.   "Who will help me cut ...

A long time ago, a husband and wife lived happily in a cottage at the edge of a wood. But one day the wife fell ill. She could eat nothing and grew thinner and thinner. The only thing that could cure her, she believed, was a strange herb that grew in the beautiful garden next to their cottage. She begged her husband to find a way into the garden and steal some of this herb, which was called rapunzel.   N ow this garden belonged to a wicked witch, who used it to grow herbs for her spells. One day, she caught the husband creeping into her garden. When he told her what he had come for, the witch gave him some rapunzel, but she made him promise to give her their first-born child in return. The husband agreed, thinking that the witch would soon forget the promise. He took the rapunzel back to the cottage and gave it to his wife. As soon as she had eaten it she felt better.   A year later, a baby girl was born and the witch did come and take her away. She told the couple th...

  T here was once a little jackal who lived in the jungle. He was a greedy little jackal, and one of his favourite meals was fresh crabs from the river. One day he went down to the big river near his home and put his paw in the water to pull out a crab.   Snap! A large, lazy crocodile who had been lying in the water snapped his jaws and caught the jackal's paw. The little jackal did not cry out, although he was very frightened. Instead he laughed.   "Ha! Ha! That crocodile in the river thinks he has caught my paw, but the stupid animal does not realize he has snapped up a piece of wood and is holding it in his jaws".   The crocodile immediately opened his mouth for he did not want to be seen with a log of wood in his jaws. Quickly the little jackal danced away and called cheekily from a safe distance:   "I'll catch some crabs another day, Mr. Crocodile".   The crocodile lashed his tail with rage and resolved to catch the little jackal and eat ...

O ne winter a beautiful queen sat sewing by a window. As she gazed down at the snow-covered garden she saw a black raven and, at the same moment, she happened to prick her finger on her needle - a drop of blood fell on the snow. The colours were so strong that the queen said to herself'. If only I could have a child whose skin was as white as snow, with hair as black as a raven and lips as red as blood.   Not long afterwards the queen had a baby daughter, and when she saw her jet black hair, snowy white skin and red lips she remembered her strange wish on that winter's day and named her Snow White.   But after a few years Snow Whites mother died and her father married again. The new queen, Snow White's stepmother, was beautiful too, but she was also proud and vain. She had a magic mirror and each day she would admire herself in it and ask,   "Mirror, mirror, on the wall,   Who is the fairest one of all?"   and the mirror would always reply,  ...

  T his story is one of the tales that the ancient Greeks told about their gods. It is the story of Persephone, the lovely daughter of Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest.   Demeter travelled around the world with Persephone, visiting all the trees and plants that produce food. As she passed by, they grew and flourished, and their fruit ripened. On hot days as she walked through a field of corn, the husks would swell and the corn would turn golden. Whenever she visited orchards and vineyards, the apples, peaches, pears and grapes would be sweet and ready to eat. Persephone would dance with joy to see how lovely the flowers looked when Demeter touched them.   One day Persephone asked her mother if she could go and play with her friends on the mountainside. Demeter agreed, but warned her not to stray too far. While Demeter visited some valleys where the harvest was late, Persephone and her friends scrambled happily over the mountainside. They found many flowers growin...

A n old woman was baking one day, and she made some gingerbread. She had some dough left over, so she made the shape of a little man. She made eyes for him, a nose and a smiling mouth all of currants, and put currants down his front to look like buttons. Then she laid him on a baking tray and put him in the oven. After a little while, she heard something rattling at the oven door. She opened it and to her surprise out jumped the little gingerbread man. She tried to catch him, but he slipped past her, calling as he ran, "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" She chased after him into the garden where her husband was digging. He put down his spade and tried to catch him too, but the gingerbread man ran past him, calling "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" He ran down the road with the old woman and the old man following. Soon he passed a cow. The cow called ou...

O ne dark and stormy night, a tramp knocked on the door of a cottage and asked for shelter. An old woman answered the door and told the tramp sourly that he could come in if he wanted, but he must not expect any food for she had none in the house. "And don't think you'll get a bed to sleep on either", she added, "as I only have one and that is where I sleep". The tramp was hungry, but he could see he wasn't going to get any food, so he sat by the fire and took an old nail out of his pocket and tossed it from hand to hand. "Do you see this nail here?" he said at last. "You'd never believe it, but last night I made the finest soup I have ever eaten by cooking this nail, and what is more I still have it to make more tonight. Would you like me to make you some nail soup?" "Nail soup!" snorted the old woman. "I have never heard of such a thing. Don't talk nonsense". But the tramp could see she was curiou...

Once upon a time there was a shoemaker who made very good shoes. But though he worked hard in his shop, times were difficult and he became poorer and poorer. One evening he realized he had only enough leather to make one more pair of shoes. He cut up the leather and laid the pieces out on his workbench to sew in the morning when the light was better. "I may never make another pair of shoes", he sighed as he put up the shutters over his shop window. The next morning when he went back to his workbench he found a beautiful pair of shoes. He examined them carefully and discovered they were made from the leather he had cut out the night before. The stitches were exquisite, very tiny and neat, and he knew the shoes were far better than any he could have made. Quickly he took down his shutters and placed the shoes in his shop window. Soon the door opened and in came a grand gentleman. He bought the shoes and paid four times more than the price of an ordinary pair. Wit...

There was once a gentleman who lived in a fine house, with his kind and gentle wife and their pretty daughter. His wife died, so the gentleman married again. His new wife was not at all kind or pretty. She had been married before and had two daughters who were known, behind their backs, as the Ugly Sisters. Although they had no reason to be unkind, the two sisters were horrid to their new stepsister. They ordered her about, scolded her and made her do all the work in the big house. Her clothes became ragged and thin and far too small. The poor girl was always cold and tired. In the evenings she would rest on a stool close to the fire, almost in the cinders and ashes. "Cinderella, That's the perfect name for you", jeered the stepsisters when they saw her trying to keep warm. Now the king and queen of their country had a son, and they planned a big ball for the prince in the hope that he might find a bride. Invitations were sent to all the big houses. When ...

One summer's day, when the corn was golden yellow and the hay was being dried in the fields, a mother duck was sitting on her nest of eggs. She sat in the rushes of a deep moat that surrounded a lovely country manor and waited for her eggs to hatch. They were taking a very long time and she was getting very tired. At last she felt a movement beneath her. The eggs began to crack and out popped tiny fluffy ducklings. All the eggs hatched except for one, which was larger than the rest. The mother duck was impatient to take her new ducklings swimming but could not leave the last egg unhatched. She sat, and she sat, and she sat, and just as she was about to give up, she heard a tap. Out of the egg tumbled the oddest ugliest duckling imaginable. She took the babies into the water and proudly watched as they all swam straightaway, even the ugly duckling. She led them in a procession around the moat, showing them off to the other ducks. As they bobbed along behind her she heard many...