Little Peachling

Many hundred years ago there lived an honest old woodcutter and his wife. One fi ne morning the old man went off to the hills with his billhook, to gather a faggot of sticks, while his wife went down to the river to wash the dirty clothes. When she came to the river, she saw a peach fl oating down the stream; so she picked it up, and carried it home with her, thinking to give it to her husband to eat when he should come in.

The old man soon came down from the hills, and the good wife set the peach before him, when, just as she was inviting him to eat it, the fruit split in two, and a little puling baby was born into the world. So the old couple took the babe, and brought it up as their own; and, because it had been born in a peach, they called it Momotaro, or Little Peachling.

By degrees Little Peachling grew up to be strong and brave, and at last one day he said to his old foster parents:

"I am going to the ogres' island to carry off the riches that they have stored up there. Pray, then, make me some millet dumplings for my journey."

So the old folks ground the millet, and made the dumplings for him; and Little Peachling, after taking an affectionate leave of them, cheerfully set out on his travels.

As he was journeying on, he fell in with a monkey, who gibbered at him, and said: "Kia! Kia! Kia! Where are you off to, Little Peachling?"

"I'm going to the ogres' island, to carry off their treasure," answered Little Peachling.

"What are you carrying in your girdle?"

"I'm carrying the very best millet dumplings in all Japan."

"If you'll give me one, I will go with you," said the monkey.

So Little Peachling gave one of his dump lings to the monkey, who received it and followed him. When he had gone a little further, he heard a pheasant calling: "Ken! Ken! Ken! Where are you off to, Master Peachling?"

Little Peachling answered as before; and the pheasant, having begged and obtained a millet dumpling, entered his service, and followed him.

A little while after this, they met a dog, who cried: "Bow! Wow! Wow! Whither away, Master Peachling?"

"I'm going off to the ogres' island, to carry off their treasure."

"If you will give me one of those nice millet dumplings of yours, I will go with you," said the dog.

"With all my heart," said Little Peachling. So he went on his way, withthe monkey, the pheasant, and the dog following after him.

When they got to the ogres' island, the pheasant fl ew over the castle gate, and the monkey clambered over the castle wall, while Little Peachling, leading the dog, forced in the gate, and got into the castle. Then they did battle with the ogres, and put them to fl ight, and took their king prisoner. So all the ogres paid homage to Little Peachling, and brought out the treasures which they had gathered. There were caps and coats that made their wearers invisible, jewels which governed the ebb and flow of the tide, coral, musk, emeralds, amber, and tortoise shell, besides gold and silver. All these were laid before

Little Peachling by the conquered ogres. So Little Peachling went home laden with riches, and maintained his foster parents in peace and plenty for the remainder of their lives.

Source: Developing English Competencies for Grade XI of Language Programme

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Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Ali Baba was such a poor man that he had only one shoe for his two feet. Even the mice in his house were hungry.
One day, his wife said, "We have no food in the house. No rice. No potatoes. Go and collect leaves in the forest so that I can make a soup."
Ali was a lazy man. He looked for leaves for about ten minutes and then he climbed a tree to sleep. He was afraid of wolves. When he woke up, he was surprised to see forty thieves on forty horses. They stopped in front of a big rock.
"Open Sesame!" shouted the leader.
A door on the rock opened. The thieves carried sacks full of gold into the cave. When they had finished, the leader shouted.
"Close Sesame!" and the door closed. As soon as the thieves had disappeared Ali Baba jumped down from the tree, said, "Open Sesame" and went into the cave.
There were shelves all around the walls. The shelves were full of sacks. And the sacks were full of gold. Ali took a sack home with him.
Unfortunately, one of the thieves saw Ali's footprints on the sand. He followed them to Ali's home. He took out his knife and made a cross on the door.
"Now I shall know which house it is," he said.
He rode off to get the other thieves. But Ali had seen the thief.                 
He and his wife took brooms and swept away the footprints. Then he made crosses on every door at the street. When the forty thieves arrived they had their knives between their teeth. But they couldn't fi nd either Ali – or the gold. And Ali and his wife lived happily ever after.
Taken from Addison–Wesley Kids 4, 1990

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Goldilocks And The Three Bears

Once there were three bears that lived in a house in the woods: a papa bear, a mama bear, and a baby bear. One morning they decided to take a walk before breakfast to let their porridge cool.

A little girl named Goldilocks lived with her mother nearby. Goldilocks took a walk through the woods and found the bear’s house. She smelled the porridge in the kitchen and went inside. Goldilocks tasted the porridge in each bowl and finally ate up the porridge in the small bowl.

Then she sat on a big chair, but she didn’t like it, because it was hard.

Afterwards she sat on the small chair, and it was just right. But while she was sitting on it she broke it. After eating the porridge, Goldilocks felt full and sleepy, and then she went upstairs. There she found a small bed. She lay down on it and fell asleep.

While she was sleeping, the three bears came home. When they went into the kitchen, they got very surprised. Someone had tasted their porridge, even eaten up baby bear’s porridge, while they were taking a walk. Moreover the poor baby bear was upset when he found that his little chair broke into pieces. When they went upstairs, they found out that Goldilocks was sleeping. Baby bear cried out,

“Someone has been sleeping in my bed and here she is!”

Goldilocks woke up when she saw the three bears; she jumped out of bed and ran out of the house to her home. Never again did she make herself at home in anyone else’s house.

(Source: Dit. PSMP, 2006)

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Live Chicken for Dinner?

A landowner from Seoul went to visit his farmer in the countryside and was treated to a grand dinner of boiled chicken.

 In the course of the meal, the farmer's youngest son ran in, shouting, "There it is! He's eating the dead chicken.' The landowner thought that he had been served a long-dead chicken. So he put down his chopsticks and told the servant to clear the table, politely saying,

 "This is enough for me. My stomach can't take any more food.'

Just then, the boy started eating the chicken's legs greedily, saying at the same time, "Oh, this is really delicious.'

"Why are you eating the dead chicken?' asked the surprised landowner.

"Who eats live chickens?' replied the boy.

Taken from English Bestseller 12, 2001

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Buggy Races

             Once upon a time there lived two best friends, the hare and the tortoise. They liked to race against each other, but the hare always won.

One day, the hare asked the tortoise to race down to the beach. The tortoise refused, he said that he will loose anyway. The hare replied in a kind voice that he felt sorry about it.

But the next day, the hare found a way to race the tortoise that would be fair and lots of fun too. He asked the tortoise to come with him. The tortoise was slowly plodding over the sandhill towards the beach. Now the two friends can race against each other all day and something tells me that the tortoise might win this time.

Adapted from 50 Bedtime Stories, 2002

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The Frog Princess

             Long ago, in a far away land, a prince lived with his mother, a queen, and his father, a king. The prince was a happy boy. He played with other boys and girls. He went to school with them . when the prince was sixteen, he asked to the queen and the king, ‘Can I get married?’

                ‘Yes’ said the queen, ‘You can get married when you meet the right girl.’

                ‘I found the right the right girl today. Her name is Sally,’ Said the prince.

                ‘Oh, no!’ said the king, ‘You can’t marry Sally. She is not a princess. You must marry a princess.’

                ‘But there are no princess in our land,’ said the prince.

                ‘No, a long time ago before you were born, a witch spelled the entire little princess into frogs,’ said the queen.

                ‘But how can I change these frog into princess?’ asked the prince.

                ‘You must kiss the frog. That is the only way,’ said the king,’ But remember, all princess are frogs, but not all frogs are princess,’ said the king.

                So the prince went to the countryside and kissed many frogs, but nothing happened. Finally he found a frog that looked different. This frog was very beautiful. So he picked up the frog and kissed it and ‘Bang!’ ‘Flash!’ the frog turned into a beautiful princess.

                ‘Oh, will you marry me?’ asked the prince.

                ‘Marry you?’ asked the princess, ‘Of course not! I can’t marry a prince who kisses frogs.’ Then she ran away.

                                                 Adapted from: Winner in Smart Steps For Junior High School

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Cupid

Cupid is the chubby little boy with wings that we see on Valentine’s day cards. He carries a bowl and arrow and is a symbol of romance. In ancient Greece and Rome, Cupid (The Greeks called him Eros) was the God of love. He was invisible and flew around shooting people with his arrows. The people who he shoot fell in love with the first person they met. Sometimes, Cupid played cruel jokes on people and made them fall in love with animals or the people they hated.

Once Cupid cut himself with his own arrow by accident and fell in love with a human named psyche. She became his wife, and after many problems they had a child called Pleasure.

Today, Cupid is still making people happy and sad, breaking hearts and causing problems. Just the same, most of us think that love is worth all the trouble.

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Momotaro

           Once upon a time, there lived in Japan a peasant and his wife. They were sad couple because they had no children. They kept praying to their God to give them a child.

While cutting wood by  a stream one day, the man saw the large peach floating on the water. He run to pick it up. His wife excited because she had neever seen such a large peach before. They were about  to cut the peach when they heard a voice from inside.

The couple were too surprised to do  anything. The peach then cracked, and there was a beautiful baby boy inside. The couple were very happy, of course. They named the baby Momotaro, which meant  ‘Peach Boy’.

Momotaro grew up to be a clever, courageous young man. His ‘parents’ loved him very much.

One day, Momotaro told his parents that he was going to fight the pirates who always attacked their village. These pirates lived on an island a few kilometers away. Momotaro’s mother packed his food, and his father gave him a sword. Having blessed Momotaro, they sent him off of his journey.

Sailing on his boat, Momotaro met an eagle going n the same direction. They became good friends, soon, both of them arrived on the island of the pirates.

Momotaro drew out the sacred sword his father had given him and began to fight the pirates. The eagle flew over theves’ heads, pecking at their eyes. Finally, the pirates were defeated.

Momotaro brought home all the goods that pirates had stolen. His parents were proud of him. And they were overjoyed at his victory and safe return.

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The Legend of ‘Lau Kawar”

           Once upon the time, there was a big feast in ‘Kanwar’ village, Tanah Karo. The villagers celebrated their successful harvest. They were singing and dancing during the feast.

Meanwhile, an old woman was alone at home. She didn’t go to the party because she was sick. When she felt hungry, she went to the kitchen. But there was no food there. She was very sad.

In the party , the son remembered his mother was at home. He wrapped some rice and a fried fish for his mother. Then he asked his daughter to give the food to her grandma.

The little girl ran home. But on her way, she stopped and ate the food. After eating the food, she wrapped the food again. When she arrived home, she gave the food to the old woman.

The old woman unwrapped the food and felt very disappointed. There was only very little rice and a fishbone.

She cried and prayed to God, ‘Oh God! I beg you to eliminate this place and all the people her because they have forgotten an aold woman, like me!’

Suddenly, thunder came. The sky turned dark. The land was shaking and then turned into a big crater. The rain was pouring on it. It didn’t stop for several days. When it stopped, the village disappeared. There was a large lake replaced it. People called it ‘Lau Kawar’. It means Kanwar lake.

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A Bowl of Magic Flour

One upon a time, there was a farmer living in a small village in England. His name was jack. He was a kind and wise man. He liked to help his neighbors.

Jack had a mill machine. People came to his place to mill their grain. Jack served him happily. However, his wife was very stingy, mean woman. She often complained. She was angry every time jack spared some food to the neighbors.

One day, a fairy dropped at their house. The fairy gave them a bowl of magic flour. The wife took half and cooked it porridge. She was eating it and said, ‘i wish all the flour at this place turned into gold.’ From that moment, all the flour at Jack’s place turned into gold.

When people came to mill their grain, the grain turned into gold, too. At first, they were happy because they had a lot of gold. However, after several weeks there was no flour at the village. Instead, there was gold everywhere. Everybody was hungry and unhappy.

One day, Jack was cleaning his house. Suddenly, he found the bowl of the magic flour. He cooked and ate it. ‘Oh I miss the flour. I wish all the gold turned into flour again!’ he said. Suddenly, all the gold turned into flour. Everybody was happy. 

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Calon Arang

Once, there was a beautiful girl lived in one of the Kingdoms in Bali. Her name was Ratna Manggalli. No young man wanted to marry her. Why? Because her mother was an evil witch. Her name was Calon Arang. The witch cursed the land and the people. She spelled them. The people became sick and the land became dry. No plant could live there. Everybody was hungry. A priest knew it. He asked his son to marry Ratna Manggali. After they got married, the son asked his wife about her mother scret. Ratna Manggali told him that the mother had a witch book. They stole the book, then. Calon Arang was very angry. A battle happened between Calon Arang and the priest. Finally, the priest won the battle. 

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