Snow and child

Children's Children's home in the snow and looked out the window. Imagine the glass was installed. Like all the other kids wanted to go to the park.Children's Children's home in the snow and looked out the window. Imagine the glass was installed. Like all the other kids wanted to go to the park. Children swing as you would be happy. Would turn in Ferris wheel. Other children would mix with the sound volume.All the children would mix with the sound of birds. And would be very happy. Would be enough to just go to the park. She did not want anything else.To be happy at the end of the two chains would be enough for a small piece of wood at him. "Ah! could now be in the park. "he said.He touched the glass with his hands. Coldness of the glass to his tiny heart. Happily as the barrier between the glass abruptly. Out that a white cloth. How they had covered the whole place. On the other hand was a small little white particles in the sky.How many were on. As if they were playing among themselves. One ran screaming from left to right. Just like kids. Bit more uptight and timid happiness like. Somebody, "is no longer enough to go home now" to say, would take away all of them.Seeing the child looked out the window, slipped his mind ... the joy of small white particles in the surrounding grief. Pulled from glass in hand.To postpone their dreams of spring, go to the park. Because of the snow that had learned the names of these small white particles found in the spring when it was. Heating the inside of his tiny heart, joyous dance of the snowflakes.In a sprightly forward in the school yard playing ball with the snow came the sounds of children in your ear, what was beautiful. Kids do the coal-eyed, carrot-nosed snowman when you see the smiling face, even with added snowflakes.Was happy to park it went, wanted to scream in joy. Want to be heard before the one in the world with all the snow. "We love the snow! I love you all! "He shouted.And more rapid growth and profits, while daydreaming of playing with them, his mother heard the boy who called him. Aircraft if the aircraft down with joy how snowflakes into the arms of the earth, the child was lying just went like snowflakes on her mother's lap.

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Marmalade

Marmalade is a baked bean cat. I bet you've never met a baked bean cat before. If you have, it was probably Marmalade, because as far as I know, he's the only one in the whole wide World.
     As you can probably guess, a baked bean cat is a very fussy cat. All baked bean cats ever eat is ... baked beans. Baked beans for breakfast, baked beans for lunch, baked beans for supper and baked beans for brunch - in fact, I don't think that Marmalade the baked bean cat has even tasted anything else except for baked beans - ever! Sometimes, when Marmalade is feeling peckish and wants a snack, he will sit by the sunny window, reading his newspaper (The Daily Purr, and yes, cats can read - it's a common myth that they don't). And, as well as all this, Marmalade is probably the laziest cat in the World too. He's so lazy that sometimes, he won't even get out of bed!
     I have a tale to tell you about Marmalade. It's not a very nice one, so if you are at all squeamish, then you had better not read any further.
     Ah! You are reading on! I take it that this means you are a very brave person - don't say I didn't warn you!
     Marmalade lives in a very grand house. It's all very proper in there - purrfect for a baked bean cat. There is baked bean wallpaper in every room in the house which goes very nicely with the carpet which has a lovely baked bean pattern on it. The lamp in his sitting room is the shape of a baked bean, and the table is too. His lovely, comfortable, soft and squidgy favourite chair is also the shape of a baked bean ... the biggest baked bean in the World, in fact. In Marmalade's bedroom he has baked beans on his quilt and his bed is the shape of a huge, massive, enormous ... baked bean can. No matter where you go in Marmalade's house - there are baked beans everywhere.

     One morning, at the end of autumn, Marmalade groggily got out of bed, yawned the biggest, loudest, widest yawn, put on his warm baked beans slippers and dragged himself towards the window. He drew back his baked bean curtains and smiled contentedly as he saw a light sprinkling of snow had landed in his garden overnight. "Good," he grumbled to himself "at least I won't have to cut the grass for a while". Marmalade mooched downstairs, still yawning and walked through to the kitchen. Guess what Marmalade was going to have for breakfast? Yes, baked beans of course!
     Marmalade opened up his cupboard to get himself some baked beans and ... there were NO baked beans left! "Rats!" Marmalade muttered under his breath. "I'll have to go out in that horrible, freezing, icy weather and get some more baked beans. Double rats!"
     Lucky for Marmalade, in his garden was a tree. This tree was a very special tree because on its long, thick, strong branches grew something very special. Can you guess? Baked beans of course! More beans than you could ever possibly imagine. There were enough baked beans for Marmalade to feed for a month. When the baked beans got picked, the tree would just grow some more.
     So, reluctantly, Marmalade put on his boots, scarf, hat and a very warm coat. He went outside and trudged slowly through the snow to his baked bean tree, or to where his baked bean tree normally stood. Marmalade stood and stared, for instead of the lovely big strong baked bean tree, was a hole. No tree and no baked beans. Marmalade rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but when he looked again, the tree still wasn't there.
     "Well! Where is my tree? I must have baked beans, and I won't go to the shops to get them. I want my baked beans and I want them now" he shouted and stomped around the garden like a little human boy.

     So, Marmalade decided to go for a walk to see if he could find his tree. He didn't like walking anywhere very much, but if he didn't have a tree, then he wouldn't have baked beans, because he was FAR too lazy to go to the shops for his beans, and besides, they just didn't taste the same if they were store bought. Marmalade was such a snob!
     Marmalade walked down his path, angry that his tree had disappeared like that. He walked to the end of his street where he met Dougbert. Dougbert was a friendly alley cat.
     "Hello, Marmalade. What's the matter? You look angry." Dougbert asked.
     "My baked bean tree is missing. Have you seen it?" Marmalade grunted in reply.
     "No, Marmalade, I haven't. Why has it gone? Have you been watering it properly?" Dougbert replied.
     "I never water my tree. That's far too much work." Marmalade said, and with that he gave a 'humph' and walked off, with his head high in the air, swishing his tail around like he didn't have a care in the World.
     As Marmalade walked around the corner, he came to the grocery shop. Now, they sold baked beans in there, but Marmalade never bought them from here - his own beans from his special tree were far better. Roger, the Tomcat was working in the shop.
     "Hello, Marmalade! Why do you look so sad?" Roger asked.
     "My baked bean tree has gone missing and I don't know why. Have you seen it anywhere?" Marmalade demanded.
     "Well, no, I haven't. Have you been looking after it properly, by weeding it regularly?"
     "Why should I bother weeding around my tree? I'm too busy. That's far too much work." Marmalade said angrily and with that he gave a 'humph' and walked off, with his head high in the air, swishing his tail around like he didn't have a care in the World.

     Marmalade continued walking, always looking for his tree. Soon he came to the bus stop where Terrance the tabby cat was standing waiting for the number 49 bus that goes into town.
     "Hello Marmalade. You don't look very happy. What ever is the matter with you?" Terrance asked very politely.
     "I'm looking for my baked bean tree. It seems to have gone missing and I don't know why. I don't suppose that you have seen it anywhere?" Marmalade asked, getting rather annoyed.
     "No, I haven't." replied Terrance, "Have you been feeding it plant food and fertiliser to keep it strong and healthy?"
     "Bah!" said Marmalade "Why should I bother doing things like that? It's only a tree, and besides, trees are strong enough too look after themselves. I don't have time to do that sort of thing. That's far too much work" and with that he gave a 'humph' and walked off, with his head high in the air, swishing his tail around like he didn't have a care in the World.
     By now Marmalade had almost decided to walk back home when he came to the park. The park was very big and there were lots of exciting things to do there.
     Leaning on the entrance to the gate was Bernard the boss cat. Bernard, as you can probably guess by his name was the boss of all the cats in the neighbourhood. Bernard always knew everything that was going on. Sometimes he even knew things were going to happen before they even happened!
     "Hello, Marmalade. You do look ever so miserable. I hear that you've lost your baked bean tree." Bernard stated matter-of-factly.
     "Yes, Bernard. Not that it is any of your business, but I have. I don't suppose you've seen it anywhere?" Marmalade asked.

     "Actually, I think I have. But before I tell you, I think I should tell you that your baked bean tree isn't very happy."
     "Humph!" Marmalade said. "Trees don't have feelings. Where is it?"
     And with that, Bernard directed Marmalade to the pond, where he thought he had seen a very unhappy looking tree sitting on the park bench.
     Marmalade didn't have to look for long, which was just as well seeing as he is the laziest cat in the Whole Wide World, and frankly, I don't think that he would have bothered looking for more than five minutes. Anyway, the baked bean tree was found by Marmalade sitting on an old park bench. He was hunched over, his head in his hands. He was crying. No, he was sobbing. His tears were huge, fat drops and they were pouring out of the tree's eyes. The tears fell into the pond, and as the minutes ticked by, the pond was getting deeper and deeper due to the fact that the tree simply WOULD NOT STOP CRYING! And can you really blame him?
     "Um, hello tree." Marmalade said, a little awkwardly. "I've been looking for you absolutely everywhere!"
     "Well, you've found me. You can go home now." Replied the tree.
     Marmalade looked around, as if to check that no one else was there. He coughed a light cough; the type grown-ups do when they are trying to get someone's attention. He took a deep, deep breath and began to speak.
     "I ... I ... I need you tree. You have the most wonderful beaked beans in the World. Come back. Please."
     "Ha!" scoffed the tree; "Why on Earth do you think I would ever come back home with you? You are a horrible, mean, nasty, selfish, heartless, thoughtless ... cat. You just want me come home so that you can eat my wonderful baked beans. Well, I can tell you something - I shan't! You never feed me, you never water me, you never weed me, you never talk to me, and I can tell you that being a baked bean tree is a very lonely business - no-one ever wants to talk to you because of our unique ... um ... aroma."

     Marmalade sighed. The tree was right. The other cats had been right. He had neglected it - his precious baked bean tree.
     Anyhow, after much persuasion, Marmalade managed to talk the tree into coming back home. I think the tree didn't want to leave in the first place, but his disappearance certainly had got Marmalade's attention. So off they walked, paw in trunk, back home. Out of the park "Hello Bernard!", past the bus stop "Hello Terrance!" (Still waiting for the never-on-time-number-49), past the grocers "Hello Roger!" (Won't have to eat your baked beans - thank goodness), down the alley "Hello Dougbert" (go find another alley you nosy cat) and finally back home.
     Now, months went by, and the tree was quite happy, living back in Marmalade's garden. And true to his word, Marmalade watered the tree, weeded the tree, fed the tree, and even went out sometimes just to talk to the tree. So, this is where the story ends ... or is it?
     You see, I did warn you that this was not a very pleasant story, so if you want to find out the real ending, then read on, otherwise, stop right here.
     Do you remember that Marmalade was a very lazy cat? Well, he was the World's laziest cat, and as you can well imagine, all this extra effort that he had to put into his tree was truly tiring. It was now the middle of winter and it was such hard work for Marmalade to go out and keep the tree happy. Besides that - it was very cold outside - far too cold for a lazy cat like Marmalade.
     One day, at tea time, Celia, Marmalade's next door neighbour popped around to deliver a parcel that had been left at her house by mistake.
     "Oh great!" Marmalade exclaimed, "Do come in, it's ever so cold outside. Have a cup of tea. I'm glad you came, I'm ever so hungry."

     "But don't you eat baked beans from your tree, Marmalade?" Celia asked.
     "Oh no, not anymore. You see, this parcel is my weekly delivery of Meatballs. I only ever eat meatballs now. These ones are the finest you can get. They're imported you know? No more baked beans for me! Do sit down next to me in front of my lovely, roaring, freshly cut baked bean log fire."

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The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Old saying.

HAVING had occasion, lately, in the course of some Oriental investigations, to consult the Tellmenow Isitsoornot, a work which (like the Zohar of Simeon Jochaides) is scarcely known at all, even in Europe; and which has never been quoted, to my . knowledge, by any American -- if we except, perhaps, the author of the "Curiosities of American Literature"; -- having had occasion, I say, to turn over some pages of the first -- mentioned very remarkable work, I was not a little astonished to discover that the literary world has hitherto been strangely in error respecting the fate of the viziers daughter, Scheherazade, as that fate is depicted in the "Arabian Nights"; and that the denouncement there given, if not altogether inaccurate, as far as it goes, is at least to blame in not having gone very much farther.

For full information on this interesting topic, I must refer the inquisitive reader to the "Isitsoornot" itself, but in the meantime, I shall be pardoned for giving a summary of what I there discovered.

It will be remembered, that, in the usual version of the tales, a certain monarch having good cause to be jealous of his queen, not only puts her to death, but makes a vow, by his beard and the prophet, to espouse each night the most beautiful maiden in his dominions, and the next morning to deliver her up to the executioner.

Having fulfilled this vow for many years to the letter, and with a religious punctuality and method that conferred great credit upon him as a man of devout feeling and excellent sense, he was interrupted one afternoon (no doubt at his prayers) by a visit from his grand vizier, to whose daughter, it . appears, there had occurred an idea.

Her name was Scheherazade, and her idea was, that she would either redeem the land from the depopulating tax upon its beauty, or perish, after the approved fashion of all heroines, in the attempt.

Accordingly, and although we do not find it to be leap-year (which makes the sacrifice more meritorious), she deputes her father, the grand vizier, to make an offer to the king of her hand. This hand the king eagerly accepts -- (he had intended to take it at all events, and had put off the matter from day . to day, only through fear of the vizier), -- but, in accepting it now, he gives all parties very distinctly to understand, that, grand vizier or no grand vizier, he has not the slightest design of giving up one iota of his vow or of his privileges. When, therefore, the fair Scheherazade insisted upon marrying the king, and did actually marry him despite her fathers excellent advice not to do any thing of the kind -- when she would and did marry him, I say, will I, nill I, it was with her beautiful black eyes as thoroughly open as the nature of the case would allow.

It seems, however, that this politic damsel (who had been reading Machiavelli, beyond doubt), had a very ingenious little plot in her mind. On the night of the wedding, she contrived, upon I forget what specious pretence, to have her sister occupy a couch sufficiently near that of the royal pair to admit of easy conversation from bed to bed; and, a little before cock-crowing, she took care to awaken the good monarch, her husband (who bore her none the worse will because he intended to wring her neck on the morrow), -- she managed to awaken him, I say, (although on account of a capital conscience and an easy digestion, he slept well) by the profound interest of a story (about a rat and a black cat, I think) which she was narrating (all in an undertone, of course) to her . sister. When the day broke, it so happened that this history was not altogether finished, and that Scheherazade, in the nature of things could not finish it just then, since it was high time for her to get up and be bowstrung -- a thing very little more pleasant than hanging, only a trifle more genteel.

The kings curiosity, however, prevailing, I am sorry to say, even over his sound religious principles, induced him for this once to postpone the fulfilment of his vow until next morning, for the purpose and with the hope of hearing that night how it fared in the end with the black cat (a black cat, I think it was) and the rat.

The night having arrived, however, the lady Scheherazade not only put the finishing stroke to the black cat and the rat (the rat was blue) but before she well knew what she was about, found herself deep in the intricacies of a narration, having reference (if I am not altogether mistaken) to a pink horse (with green wings) that went, in a violent manner, by clockwork, and was wound up with an indigo key. With this history the king was even more profoundly interested than with the other -- and, as the day broke before its conclusion (notwithstanding all the queens endeavors to get through with it in time for the bowstringing), there was again no resource but to postpone that ceremony as before, for twenty-four hours. The next night there happened a similar accident with a similar result; and then the next -- and then again the next; so that, in the end, the good monarch, having been unavoidably deprived of all opportunity to keep his vow during a period of no less than one thousand and one nights, either forgets it altogether by the expiration of this time, or gets himself absolved of it in the regular way, or (what is more probable) breaks it outright, as well as the head of his father confessor. At all events, Scheherazade, who, being lineally descended from Eve, fell heir, perhaps, to the whole seven baskets of talk, which the latter lady, we all know, picked up from under the trees in the garden of Eden-Scheherazade, I say, finally triumphed, and the tariff upon beauty was repealed.        





Now, this conclusion (which is that of the story as we have it upon record) is, no doubt, excessively proper and pleasant -- but alas! like a great many pleasant things, is more pleasant than true, and I am indebted altogether to the "Isitsoornot" for the means of correcting the error. "Le mieux," says a French proverb, "est lennemi du bien," and, in mentioning that Scheherazade had inherited the seven baskets of talk, I should have added that she put them out at compound interest until they amounted to seventy-seven.

"My dear sister," said she, on the thousand-and-second night, (I quote the language of the "Isitsoornot" at this point, verbatim) "my dear sister," said she, "now that all this little difficulty about the bowstring has blown over, and that this odious tax is so happily repealed, I feel that I have been guilty of great indiscretion in withholding from you and the king (who I am sorry to say, snores -- a thing no gentleman would do) the full conclusion of Sinbad the sailor. This person went through numerous other and more interesting adventures than those which I related; but the truth is, I felt sleepy on the particular night of their narration, and so was seduced into cutting them short -- a grievous piece of misconduct, for which I only trust that Allah will forgive me. But even yet it is not too late to remedy my great neglect -- and as soon as I have given the king a pinch or two in order to wake him up so far that he may stop making that horrible noise, I will forthwith entertain you (and him if he pleases) with the sequel of this very remarkable story.





        Hereupon the sister of Scheherazade, as I have it from . the "Isitsoornot," expressed no very particular intensity of gratification; but the king, having been sufficiently pinched, at length ceased snoring, and finally said, "hum!" and then "hoo!" when the queen, understanding these words (which are no doubt Arabic) to signify that he was all attention, and would do his best not to snore any more -- the queen, I say, having arranged these matters to her satisfaction, re-entered thus, at once, into the history of Sinbad the sailor:

"At length, in my old age, [these are the words of Sinbad himself, as retailed by Scheherazade] -- at length, in my old age, and after enjoying many years of tranquillity at home, I became once more possessed of a desire of visiting foreign countries; and one day, without acquainting any of my family with my design, I packed up some bundles of such merchandise as was most precious and least . bulky, and, engaged a porter to carry them, went with him down to the sea-shore, to await the arrival of any chance vessel that might convey me out of the kingdom into some region which I had not as yet explored.

"Having deposited the packages upon the sands, we sat down beneath some trees, and looked out into the ocean in the hope of perceiving a ship, but during several hours we saw none whatever. At length I fancied that I could hear a singular buzzing or humming sound; and the porter, after listening awhile, declared that he also could distinguish it. Presently it grew louder, and then still louder, so that we could have no doubt that the object which caused it was approaching us. At length, on the edge of the horizon, we discovered a black speck, which rapidly increased in size until we made it out to be a vast monster, swimming with a great part of its body above the surface of the sea. It came toward us with inconceivable swiftness, throwing up huge waves of foam around its breast, and illuminating all that part of the sea through which it passed, with a long . line of fire that extended far off into the distance.

"As the thing drew near we saw it very distinctly. Its length was equal to that of three of the loftiest trees that grow, and it was as wide as the great hall of audience in your palace, O most sublime and munificent of the Caliphs. Its body, which was unlike that of ordinary fishes, was as solid as a rock, and of a jetty blackness throughout all that portion of it which floated above the water, with the exception of a narrow blood-red streak that completely begirdled it. The belly, which floated beneath the surface, and of which we could get only a glimpse now and then as the monster rose and fell with the billows, was entirely covered with metallic scales, of a color like that of the moon in misty weather. The back was flat and nearly white, and from it there extended upwards of six spines, about half the length of the whole body.

"The horrible creature had no mouth that we could perceive, but, as if to make up for this deficiency, it was provided with at least four score of eyes, that protruded from their sockets like those of the green dragon-fly, and were arranged all around the body in two rows, one above the other, and parallel to the blood-red streak, which seemed to answer the purpose of an eyebrow. Two or three of these dreadful eyes were much larger than the others, and had the appearance of solid gold.

"Although this beast approached us, as I have before said, with the greatest rapidity, it must have been moved altogether by necromancy- for it had neither fins like a fish nor web-feet like a duck, nor wings like the seashell which is blown along in the manner of a vessel; nor yet did it writhe itself forward as do the eels. Its head and its tail were shaped precisely alike, only, not far from the latter, were two small holes that served for nostrils, and through which the monster puffed out its thick breath with prodigious violence, and with a shrieking, disagreeable noise.

"Our terror at beholding this hideous thing was very great, but it was even surpassed by our astonishment, when upon getting a nearer look, we perceived upon the creatures back a vast number of animals about the size and shape of men, and altogether much resembling them, except that they wore no garments (as men do), being supplied (by nature, no doubt) with an ugly uncomfortable covering, a good deal like cloth, but fitting so tight to the skin, as to render the poor wretches laughably awkward, and put them apparently to severe pain. On the very tips of their heads were certain square-looking boxes, which, at first sight, I thought might have been intended to answer as turbans, but I soon discovered that they were excessively heavy and solid, and I therefore concluded they were . contrivances designed, by their great weight, to keep the heads of the animals steady and safe upon their shoulders. Around the necks of the creatures were fastened black collars, (badges of servitude, no doubt,) such as we keep on our dogs, only much wider and infinitely stiffer, so that it was quite impossible for these poor victims to move their heads in any direction without moving the body at the same time; and thus they were doomed to perpetual contemplation of their noses -- a view puggish and snubby in a wonderful, if not positively in an awful degree.

"When the monster had nearly reached the shore where we stood, it suddenly pushed out one of its eyes to a great extent, and emitted from it a terrible flash of fire, accompanied by a dense cloud of smoke, and a noise that I can compare to nothing but thunder. . As the smoke cleared away, we saw one of the odd man-animals standing near the head of the large beast with a trumpet in his hand, through which (putting it to his mouth) he presently addressed us in loud, harsh, and disagreeable accents, that, perhaps, we should have mistaken for language, had they not come altogether through the nose.

"Being thus evidently spoken to, I was at a loss how to reply, as I could in no manner understand what was said; and in this difficulty I turned to the porter, who was near swooning through affright, and demanded . of him his opinion as to what species of monster it was, what it wanted, and what kind of creatures those were that so swarmed upon its back. To this the porter replied, as well as he could for trepidation, that he had once before heard of this sea-beast; that . it was a cruel demon, with bowels of sulphur and blood of fire, created by evil genii as the means of inflicting misery upon mankind; that the things upon its back were vermin, such as sometimes infest cats and dogs, only a little larger and more savage; and that these . vermin had their uses, however evil -- for, through the torture they caused the beast by their nibbling and stingings, it was goaded into that degree of wrath which was requisite to make it roar and commit ill, and so fulfil the vengeful and malicious designs of the wicked genii.

"This account determined me to take to my heels, and, without once even looking behind me, I ran at full speed up into the hills, while the porter ran equally fast, although nearly in an opposite direction, so that, by these means, he finally made his escape with my bundles, of which I have no doubt he took excellent care -- although this is a point I cannot determine, as I do not remember that I ever beheld him again.

"For myself, I was so hotly pursued by a swarm of the men-vermin (who had come to the shore in boats) that I was very soon overtaken, bound hand and foot, and conveyed to the beast, which immediately swam out again into the middle of the sea.

"I now bitterly repented my folly in quitting a comfortable home to peril my life in such adventures as this; but regret being useless, I made the best of my condition, and exerted myself to secure the goodwill of the man-animal that owned the trumpet, and who appeared to exercise authority over his fellows. I succeeded so well in this endeavor that, in a few days, the creature bestowed upon me various tokens of his favor, and in the end even went to the trouble of teaching me the rudiments of what it was vain enough to denominate its language; so that, at length, I was enabled to converse with it readily, and came to make it comprehend the ardent desire I had of seeing the world.

"Washish squashish squeak, Sinbad, hey-diddle diddle, grunt unt grumble, hiss, fiss, whiss, said he to me, one day after dinner- but I beg a thousand pardons, I had forgotten that your majesty is not conversant with the dialect of the Cock-neighs (so . the man-animals were called; I presume because their language formed the connecting link between that of the horse and that of the rooster). With your permission, I will translate. Washish squashish, and so forth: -- that is to say, I am happy to find, my dear Sinbad, that you are really a very excellent fellow; we are now about doing a thing which is called circumnavigating the globe; and since you are so desirous of seeing the world, I will strain a point and give you a free passage upon back of the beast."

When the Lady Scheherazade had proceeded thus far, relates the "Isitsoornot," the king turned over from his left side to his right, and said:

"It is, in fact, very surprising, my dear queen, that you omitted, hitherto, these latter adventures of Sinbad. Do you know I think them exceedingly entertaining and strange?"

The king having thus expressed himself, we are told, the fair Scheherazade resumed her history in the following words:

"Sinbad went on in this manner with his narrative to the caliph- I thanked the man-animal for its kindness, and soon found myself very much at home on the beast, which swam at a prodigious rate through the ocean; although the surface of the latter is, in that part of the world, by no means flat, but round like a pomegranate, so that we went -- so to say -- either up hill or down hill all the time.

"That I think, was very singular," interrupted the king.

"Nevertheless, it is quite true," replied Scheherazade.

"I have my doubts," rejoined the king; "but, pray, be so good as to go on with the story."

"I will," said the queen. "The beast, continued Sinbad to the caliph, swam, as I have related, up hill and down hill until, at length, we arrived at an island, many hundreds of miles in circumference, but which, nevertheless, had been built in the middle of the sea by a colony of little things like caterpillars"

"Hum!" said the king.

"Leaving this island, said Sinbad -- (for Scheherazade, it must be understood, took no notice of her husbands ill-mannered ejaculation) leaving this island, we came to another where the forests were of solid stone, and so hard that they shivered to pieces the finest-tempered axes with which we endeavoured to cut . them down."

"Hum!" said the king, again; but Scheherazade, paying him no attention, continued in the language of Sinbad.

"Passing beyond this last island, we reached a country where there was a cave that ran to the distance of thirty or forty miles within the bowels of the earth, and that contained a greater number of far more spacious and more magnificent palaces than are to be found in all Damascus and Bagdad. From the roofs of these palaces there hung myriads of gems, liked diamonds, but larger than men; and in among the streets of towers and pyramids and temples, there flowed immense rivers as black as ebony, and swarming with fish that had no eyes."

"Hum!" said the king. "We then swam into a region of the sea where we found a lofty mountain, down whose sides there streamed torrents of melted metal, some of . which were twelve miles wide and sixty miles long ; while from an abyss on the summit, issued so vast a quantity of ashes that the sun was entirely blotted out from the heavens, and it became darker than the darkest midnight; so that when we were even at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles from the mountain, it was impossible to see the whitest object, however close we held it to our eyes."

"Hum!" said the king.

"After quitting this coast, the beast continued his voyage until we met with a land in which the nature of things seemed reversed -- for we here saw a great lake, at the bottom of which, more than a hundred feet beneath the surface of the water, there flourished in full leaf a forest of tall and luxuriant trees."

"Hoo!" said the king.

"Some hundred miles farther on brought us to a climate where the atmosphere was so dense as to sustain iron or steel, just as our own does feather."

"Fiddle de dee," said the king.        




"Proceeding still in the same direction, we presently arrived at the most magnificent region in the whole world. Through it there meandered a glorious river for several thousands of miles. This river was of unspeakable depth, and of a transparency richer than that of amber. It was from three to six miles in width; and its banks which arose on either . side to twelve hundred feet in perpendicular height, were crowned with ever-blossoming trees and perpetual sweet-scented flowers, that made the whole territory one gorgeous garden; but the name of this luxuriant land was the Kingdom of Horror, and to enter it was inevitable death"

"Humph!" said the king.

"We left this kingdom in great haste, and, after some days, came to another, where we were astonished to perceive myriads of monstrous animals with horns resembling scythes upon their heads. These hideous beasts dig for themselves vast caverns in the soil, of a funnel shape, and line the sides . of them with, rocks, so disposed one upon the other that they fall instantly, when trodden upon by other animals, thus precipitating them into the monsters dens, where their blood is immediately sucked, and their carcasses afterwards hurled contemptuously out to an immense distance from "the caverns of death.""

"Pooh!" said the king.        




"Continuing our progress, we perceived a district with vegetables that grew not upon any soil but in the air. There were others that sprang from the substance of other vegetables; others that derived their substance from the bodies of living animals; and then again, there were others that glowed all over with intense fire; others that moved from place to place at pleasure, and what was still more wonderful, we discovered flowers that lived and breathed and moved their limbs at will and had, moreover, the detestable passion of mankind for enslaving other creatures, and confining them in horrid and solitary prisons until the fulfillment of appointed tasks."

"Pshaw!" said the king.

"Quitting this land, we soon arrived at another in which the bees and the birds are mathematicians of such genius and erudition, that they give . daily instructions in the science of geometry to the wise men of the empire. The king of the place having offered a reward for the solution of two very difficult problems, they were solved upon the spot -- the one by the bees, and the other by the birds; but . the king keeping their solution a secret, it was only after the most profound researches and labor, and the writing of an infinity of big books, during a long series of years, that the men-mathematicians at length arrived at the identical solutions which had been given upon the spot by the bees and by the birds."

"Oh my!" said the king.

"We had scarcely lost sight of this empire when we found ourselves close upon another, from whose shores there flew over our heads a flock of fowls a mile in breadth, and two hundred and forty miles long; so that, although they flew a mile during every minute, it required no less than four hours for the whole flock to pass over us -- in which there were several millions of millions of fowl."

"Oh fy!" said the king.

"No sooner had we got rid . of these birds, which occasioned us great annoyance, than we were terrified by the appearance of a fowl of another kind, and infinitely larger than even the rocs which I met in my former voyages; for it was bigger than the biggest of the domes on your seraglio, oh, most Munificent of Caliphs. This terrible fowl had no head that we could perceive, but was fashioned entirely of belly, which was of a prodigious fatness and roundness, of a soft-looking substance, smooth, shining and striped with various colors. In its talons, the monster was bearing away to his eyrie in the heavens, a house from which it had knocked off the roof, and in the interior of which we distinctly saw human beings, who, beyond doubt, were in a state of frightful despair at the horrible fate which awaited them. We shouted with all our might, in the hope of . frightening the bird into letting go of its prey, but it merely gave a snort or puff, as if of rage and then let fall upon our heads a heavy sack which proved to be filled with sand!"

"Stuff!" said the king.

"It was just after this adventure that we encountered a continent of immense extent and prodigious solidity, but which, nevertheless, was supported entirely upon the back of a sky-blue cow that had no fewer than four hundred horns."

"That, now, I believe," said the king, "because I have read something of the kind before, in a book."

"We passed immediately beneath this continent, (swimming in between the legs of the cow, and, after some hours, found ourselves in a wonderful country indeed, which, I was informed by the man-animal, was his own native land, inhabited by things of his own species. This elevated the man-animal very much in my esteem, and in fact, I now began to feel ashamed of the contemptuous familiarity with which I had treated him; for I found that the man-animals in general were a nation of the most powerful magicians, who lived with worms in their brain, which, no doubt, served to stimulate them by their painful writhings and wrigglings to the most miraculous efforts of imagination!"

"Nonsense!" said the king.

"Among the magicians, were domesticated several animals of very singular kinds; for example, there was a huge horse whose bones were iron and whose blood was boiling water. In place of corn, he had black stones for his usual food; and yet, in spite of so hard a diet, he was so strong and swift that he would drag a load more weighty than the grandest temple in this city, at a rate surpassing that of . the flight of most birds."

"Twattle!" said the king.

"I saw, also, among these people a hen without feathers, but bigger than a camel; instead of flesh and bone she had iron and brick; her blood, like that of the horse, (to whom, in fact, she was nearly related,) was boiling water; and like him she ate nothing but wood or black stones. This hen brought forth very frequently, a hundred chickens in the day; and, after birth, they took up their residence for several weeks within the stomach of their mother."

"Fa! lal!" said the king.

"One of this nation of mighty conjurors created a man out of brass and wood, and leather, and endowed him with such ingenuity that he would have beaten at chess, all the race of mankind with the exception of the great Caliph, Haroun Alraschid. Another of these magi constructed (of like material) a creature that put to shame even the genius of him who made it; for so great were its reasoning powers that, in a second, it performed calculations of so vast an extent that they would have required the united labor of fifty thousand fleshy men for a year. (*23} But a still more wonderful conjuror fashioned for himself a mighty thing that was neither man nor beast, but which had brains of lead, intermixed with a black matter like pitch, and fingers that it employed with such incredible speed and dexterity that it would have had . no trouble in writing out twenty thousand copies of the Koran in an hour, and this with so exquisite a precision, that in all the copies there should not be found one to vary from another by the breadth of the finest hair. This thing was of prodigious strength, so that it erected or overthrew the mightiest empires at a breath; but its powers were exercised equally for evil and for good."

"Ridiculous!" said the king.

"Among this nation of necromancers there was also one who had in his veins the blood of the salamanders; for he made no scruple of sitting down to smoke his chibouc in a red-hot oven until his dinner was thoroughly roasted upon its floor. Another had the faculty of converting the common metals into gold, without even looking at them during the process. Another had such a delicacy of touch that he . made a wire so fine as to be invisible. Another had such quickness of perception that he counted all the separate motions of an elastic body, while it was springing backward and forward at the rate of nine hundred millions of times in a second."

"Absurd!" said the king.

"Another of these magicians, by means of a fluid that nobody ever yet saw, could make the corpses of his friends brandish their arms, kick out their legs, fight, or even get up and dance at his will. Another had cultivated his voice to so great an extent that he could have made himself heard from one end of the world to the other. Another had so long an arm that he could sit down in Damascus and indite a letter at Bagdad -- or indeed at any distance whatsoever. Another commanded the lightning to come down to him out of the heavens, and it came at his call; and served him for a plaything when it came. Another took two loud sounds and out of them made a silence. Another constructed a deep darkness out of two brilliant lights. Another made ice in a red-hot furnace. Another directed the sun to paint his portrait, and the sun did. Another took this luminary with the moon and the planets, and having first weighed them with scrupulous accuracy, probed into their depths and found out the solidity of the substance of which they were made. But the whole nation is, . indeed, of so surprising a necromantic ability, that not even their infants, nor their commonest cats and dogs have any difficulty in seeing objects that do not exist at all, or that for twenty millions of years before the birth of the nation itself had been blotted out from the face of creation."

Analogous experiments in respect to sound produce analogous results.

"Preposterous!" said the king.

"The wives and daughters of these incomparably great and wise magi," continued Scheherazade, without being in any manner disturbed by these frequent and most ungentlemanly interruptions on the part of her husband -- " he wives and daughters of these eminent conjurers are every thing that is accomplished and refined; and would be every thing that is interesting and beautiful, but for an unhappy fatality that besets them, and from which not even the miraculous powers of their husbands and fathers has, hitherto, been adequate to save. Some fatalities come in certain shapes, and some in others -- but this of which I speak has come in the shape of a crotchet."

"A what?" said the king.

"A crotchet" said Scheherazade. "One of the evil genii, who are perpetually upon . the watch to inflict ill, has put it into the heads of these accomplished ladies that the thing which we describe as personal beauty consists altogether in the protuberance of the region which lies not very far below the small of the back. Perfection of loveliness, they say, is in the direct ratio of the extent of this lump. Having been long possessed of this idea, and bolsters being cheap in that country, the days have long gone by since it was possible to distinguish a woman from a dromedary-"

"Stop!" said the king -- "I can stand that, and I won . You have already given me a dreadful headache with your lies. The day, too, I perceive, is beginning to break. How long have we been married? -- my conscience is getting to be troublesome again. And then that dromedary touch -- do you take me for a fool? Upon the whole, you might as well get up and be throttled."

These words, as I learn from the "Isitsoornot," both grieved and astonished Scheherazade; but, as she knew the king to be a man of scrupulous integrity, and quite unlikely to forfeit his word, she submitted to her fate with a good grace. She derived, however, great consolation, (during the tightening of the bowstring,) from the reflection that much of the history remained still untold, and that the petulance of her brute of a husband had reaped for him a most righteous reward, in depriving him of many inconceivable adventures.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

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The dogs and the lion

In the village called Aropur…

By the side of Bigga pond lived two most clever dogs called Chattu and Mattu.Once they strayed into the nearby forest where lived the big Lion.

Lion was hungry and tired looking for easy prays. The moment he saw them he prepared himself to eat the dogs. Said the lion-“now I shall pray upon you and have my much awaited lunch.”

Chattu the cleverer of them gathering all his courage and said -“ dear lion please eat me first and let my brother Mattu go home.”

Countered Mattu “ dear lion Chattu is still young and can never satisfy your hunger, eat me and let my brother Chattu go home.”

The lion was hungry and became angry at their words but he was soon calmed by the cooperative attitude of dogs. Said Chattu-“there is way out I and Mattu shall take a round of the pond and one who returns first to you shall become your first pray. Lion agreed and the two dogs left quickly.

Lion waited and waited, hungry as he was he could not wait any longer and started roaring loudly.

An old elephant was passing nearby and hearing the lion came and asked the lion as to why was he so upset. Lion narrated the whole incidence.

The old elephant was smiling, lion became even more upset and asked the elephant “why are you laughing?”

Said the old elephant “dear lion don’t you know that the dogs live across the Bigga pond and that they have returned to their masters.”

The clever dogs fooled lion.

Hanging his head down the lion returned to deep forest and decided to eat once again by hunting and not by begging.

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Ears Mouse The Snow Mouse

Ears Mouse woke up with a shiver, 'Brrrrrrrrrr' he said to himself, 'I am in my nice bed with my big quilt but I am still cold, specially my nose'.  His nose was almost as red as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer's nose.  He had his night cap on his head to keep his ears warm and had also put some extra blankets on top of his quilt, as he had thought that it might be cold that night.  He looked at his clock on his bedside table, it said 8:45 - yet he could not see any light shining through his curtains as it normally did at that time of morning.
Ears Mouse counted 1- 2 - 3 and then jumped out of bed, ran over to his door, grabbed his dressing gown and put it on as quick as he could.  He then went over to his window and opened the curtains.  All he could see through his window was white stuff, like very thick fog.  He decided that he better light his fire to make his house feel a bit warmer.  Using some old newspaper and some twigs, Ears Mouse tried to get a fire going but each time a good flame went up the chimney a big drop of water would come down the chimney and put the fire out.  Ears Mouse thought that he would have to go outside to investigate.  So he go dressed very quickly and put on his warmest coat, his wellies, gloves and scarf.  He opened his front door and walked out into the fog - or at least he tried to.  Ears Mouse bounced back into his house and landed on his bottom on the floor.  It then struck him - it was not fog, it was snow.  He now realised what had happened, 'it must have snowed very heavily last night and has blocked my chimney, door and windows' he thought to himself.
Ears Mouse was very worried now, 'how am I going to get out?' he wondered, 'I do not have much food left in my larder as I was planning to gather some more food today'.  He though that he had better start to dig himself out just in case the snow did not melt for a few days, so he got his shovel from the cupboard in the kitchen and stuck it in the snow in his doorway.  'Hang on', he thought, 'where am I going to put the snow that I dig out'.  He realised that he would have to put it into his house.  After  a while Ears Mouse had snow all around him and felt like he was standing in a freezer.  He was starting to feel very cold indeed.
Outside things looked a little bit better.  Harry Hedgehog had been looking for some nice juicy grubs that morning and had raised the alarm when he saw what had happened to Ears Mouse's house.  During the night the snow had blown along the lane and the strong wind had made a snow drift all over Ears Mouse's house.  Many of Ears Mouse's friends were now discussing what they could do to help get him out of his snow covered house.  There was too much snow for the animals to shift using just spades and shovels.  'We could ask Donald Donkey to stamp on the snow to make it smaller', said Harry Hedgehog.  'No, that would be too dangerous' said Sid Squirrel, 'Ears Mouse may be digging his way out and he could get stamped on'.  'I have an idea', said Molly Mole, 'I could try and make a hole through the snow'.  'Molly, have you ever burrowed through snow before?' asked Freddie Frog.  'No', replied Molly, 'but is should be much the same as burrowing through the earth , just a bit colder.  'I think it's a great idea', said Sid Squirrel, 'does everyone agree?'.  Everyone agreed it was the best plan so far.
Molly prepared herself for her journey through the snow.  Sid Squirrel loaned her his bobble hat which she wore on her nose to help keep it warm.  Harry Hedgehog loaned her his sweater, even though it was full of holes from his spiky spines.
Molly started to dig through the cold snow and luckily it was not too hard.  Meanwhile, back in Ears Mouse's house, it was now very cold and Ears Mouse was starting to look a bit blue.  He had not managed to get very far through the snow before his shovel's handle had broken.  He was now using his hands to dig his way through the snow but it was so cold he could not feel his fingers.  Standing back from the snow, to have a rest, Ears Mouse though he was starting to see things.  He could see a red blob in the snow and it was getting bigger and bigger.  It was the red bobble hat on Molly Mole's nose that was poking through the snow and soon after Ears Mouse could see Molly's head.  'Molly, am I glad to see you?', said Ears Mouse, 'I was just about to freeze if I had to stay in here any longer'.  He gave Molly a hug and then followed Molly back through the hole.
There was a loud round of applause when Molly Mole and Ears Mouse both climbed out of the snow tunnel.  All Ears Mouse's friends gather round and gave him a big hug.  Sid Squirrel put a big warm blanket around Ears Mouse's shoulders and Harry Hedgehog gave him a hot water bottle, being careful not to make a hole in it from his spikes.  They all went back to Harry Hedgehog' place as he had lit a big fire.  Ears Mouse sat beside the fire drinking a lovely mug of vegetable soup and was soon feeling much much warmer. 
Harry Hedgehog's house was so warm that the other animals decided to go outside and build a snowman - well actually a snowmouse like their friend Ears Mouse.

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