English

A rich woman sat up late carding wool while her children and servants slept. A knock came at the door and a voice said: “Open! Open!” “Who’s there?” said the woman of the house. “I am the witch of the one horn,” came the answer. Against her better judgement, the mistress felt compelled to get up and open the door. A woman entered - but Mary! What a strange woman she was, for a horn grew out of her forehead! She sat down in silence by the fire and began to card thread with violent haste. Eventually she said: “Where are the others?

Once upon a time there was an old man, an old woman, and a little boy. One morning the old woman made some gingerbread in the shape of a man. She added icing for his hair and clothes, and little blobs of dough for his nose and eyes. When she put him in the oven to bake, she said to the little boy, "You watch the gingerbread man while your grandfather and I go out to work in the garden." So the old man and the old woman went out and began to dig potatoes, and left the little boy to tend the oven. And he started to day dream, and didn’t watch it all of the time.

ANANSI AND THE MOSS-COVERED ROCK NARRATOR: Once upon a time, Anansi the Spider was walking along through the forest when he spotted something. It was a strange moss-covered rock. ANANSI: That’s odd. What a strange moss-covered rock! NARRATOR: And BOOM! Everything went black, and Anansi fell over, fast asleep. An hour later, he woke up, and he felt dizzy. ANANSI: Huh? What happened? I was walking along until I spotted something. Then I stopped and said, “What a strange moss-covered rock!” NARRATOR: BOOM! Anansi fell over again and fell asleep.

This story is called The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse by Aesop. This is a LibraryCall recording. A Town Mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country. For lunch, the Country Mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns, with a dash of cold water to drink. The Town Mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that. By her manner, she made it quite clear that she ate the simple food only to be polite. After the meal, the cousins had a long talk, or rather, the Town Mouse talked all about her glamorous life in the city while the Country Mouse listened.

THE TALE OF TOM KITTEN BY BEATRIX POTTER Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust. But one day their mother—Mrs.

A certain man had a donkey, which had carried the corn sacks to the mill loyally for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work. His master began to wonder if it was worth his while by keeping this old donkey much longer. The donkey, seeing that no good wind was blowing, ran away and set out on the road to Bremen. “There,” he thought, “I can surely be a town musician.” When he had walked some distance, he found a dog lying on the road, gasping like one who had run until he was tired.

We bring you this sad but, we hope, beautiful story in verse. Orpheus the musician married Eurydice the shepherdess. When she was killed by a snake, he travelled down to the underworld and was granted one chance to fetch her back to life. Bertie has freely adapted this ancient tale into his own poem. Yes, we did warn you, it is sad. Adaptation by Bertie. Read by Richard.