Once upon a time down in the bog there lived a little frog who was different from all the others. This little frog had three hind legs, and his name was Tri-Boy. All the other little frogs had two hind legs. Tri-Boy was kidded unmercifully because he was different. The other little frogs at times talked down to Tri-Boy. They would not let him play any of the games that little frogs usually play. 
One day all of the little frogs were going on a picnic, and their mamas had packed them a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and lemonade. This time they reluctantly included Tri-Boy in the picnic. He was so happy, and he ran and told his mama and daddy that he was going on the picnic and to hurry and pack his lunch. The picnic was to be held near Farmer Brown's animal farm. All of the little frogs wanted to hike over to the farm, have lunch, and look at all of Farmer Brown's animals--the mules, the pigs, the chickens, the cows, and the goats.
The little frogs didn't know it, but Farmer Brown had dug a deep pit along the path that leads from the bog to his farm. The pit was there to catch foxes and other predators who wanted to get his chickens, and the pit was covered over with sticks and leaves so that it would not be seen. As the little frogs happily danced and jumped down the path, singing songs, and hooting and hollering, they suddenly all fell in the pit and were trapped. They were very upset and were afraid that Farmer Brown would come along and find them in the pit and be very mad at them. He had very little patience with any animals outside his farm. And his wife had a wonderful recipe for Southern fried frog legs.
All of the boy frogs tried to jump high and out of the pit so that they could go and get help. They all fell back in the pit, though, unable to reach the top. Finally, Tri-Boy said, "I think I can do it," and the other frogs laughed--they didn't think that Tri-Boy could do anything that they couldn't do. But little were they thinking that Tri-Boy had three hind legs while they only had two.
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His third leg gave him the ability to jump with a super force. Tri-Boy exhaled, took five deep frog breaths, and jumped as high as he could and jumped up and out of the pit! All of the frogs in the pit were surprised that Tri-Boy could accomplish this amazing feat and began to cheer. Then they asked each other, "What will Tri-Boy do now?" But Tri-Boy was already running to find a long stick, which he brought back and dropped down in the pit. He hollered down and told all of the frogs to climb up the stick and out of the pit. The little frogs, one by one, crawled up the stick, and when they all reached the top, they gave three cheers for Tri-Boy. "Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!"
The little girl frogs were especially thankful to him for saving them from Farmer Brown. Then they all carefully hopped on down the path. They stopped and had their picnic lunch. Tri-Boy was offered any extra treats that the others had. They finally reached the animal farm and enjoyed watching and naming all of the animals. From that time on, Tri-Boy was looked up to by the others and always included in the little frogs' activities.
THE END
Devamını Oku
There were once a man and a woman who had long, in vain, wished for a child. At length it appeared that God was about to grant their desire.
These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world.
One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion, and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it. She quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.
Her husband was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?'
'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.'
The man, who loved her, thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.'
At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her - so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before.
If he was to have any rest, her husband knew he must once more descend into the garden. Therefore, in the gloom of evening, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.
'How can you dare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!'
'Ah,' answered he, 'let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.'
The enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: 'If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.'
The man in his terror consented to everything.
When the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.'
Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress, she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.
After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it.
Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.'
Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her.
'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.'
Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up.
At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does'; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his.
She said: 'I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.'
They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son - he is with me in a moment.'
'Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. 'What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!'
In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.
On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king's son came and cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.'
she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.
'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.'
The king's son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.
He wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.
