The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese

This story is called The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese, a story from the Netherlands by William Elliot Griffis. This is a LibraryCall adaptation and recording. Klaas was a Dutch boy who lived on a farm where cows were plentiful. His appetite was always good and his mother declared his stomach had no bottom. His hair was of a color half-way between a carrot and a sweet potato and it was as thick as reeds in a swamp. He wore a pair of wooden shoes that made an awful rattle when he ran fast to catch a rabbit, or scuffed slowly to school over the brick road of his village. Klaas had rye bread, cheese slices, and fresh milk for breakfast. At dinner time, he was given cheese, bread, and a plate heaped with boiled potatoes that he dipped in a bowl of hot melted butter. There was always plenty to eat at his house. There were stacks of rye bread thicker than a man's arm and enough cheeses piled up in the pantry to feed a small army. But Klaas always wanted more cheese. In other ways, he was a good boy, obedient at home, always ready to work on the cow-farm, and diligent in school. But at the table he whined for more and more and more cheese. One summer evening, Klaas went to bed in a bad mood. He had teased each of his three sisters to give him her serving of cheese, and this, added to his own slice, made his stomach feel as heavy as lead. A gentle breeze was blowing through his bedroom window, so Klaas climbed up on a stool to sniff the sweet piny air. He thought he saw lights dancing under the tree. One beam seemed to approach his window, then it passed to and fro in front of him. It seemed to whisper in his ear, as it moved by. As the strange beams of light moved together, Klaas thought they bore the shape of a person. Then he thought he heard the whisper say: "There's plenty of cheese. Come with us." Could he be asleep? He rubbed his eyes and cocked his ears. Again, the light spoke to him: "Come with us." Klaas had heard older people tell of spirits in the wood who whispered and warned travellers. Could that be what he was hearing now? The cold light circled round and round the red tile roof and rose so high in the sky that the boy could hardly see it. But the voice grew louder: "There's plenty of cheese. Come with us." The temptation was too strong. Klaas couldn’t help but follow the strange lights that promised him cheese. He put on his thick woolen pants and wooden shoes, snuck outside, and sped towards the light moving into the pine woods. What an odd sight! At first Klaas thought it was a circle of large fireflies. But then he saw clearly that there were dozens of lovely fairies, small as dolls, but lively as crickets. They were full of light, as if they were lamps with wings. Hand in hand, they flitted and danced around a ring of grass, as if they were having great fun. Klaas was still adjusting to this surprise when all of a sudden he felt himself surrounded by the fairies. One of them, the most striking of all, whispered in his ear: "Come, you must dance with us." Then a dozen of the bright creatures murmured in chorus: "Plenty of cheese here. Plenty of cheese here. Come with us!" Klaas suddenly felt as light as a feather. With both hands clasped in those of the fairies, he began to dance with glee. He danced and danced all night, until the sky in the east began to turn gray and then rosy. Then he tumbled down and fell asleep with his head in the center of the fairy ring. Klaas felt very happy, and he had no sense of being tired. In fact, he thought his fairy friends were now bringing him cheese. With a golden knife, the fairies cut hunks of cheese for Klaas to eat. How delicious it tasted! He thought now he could, and would, eat all the cheese he had longed for his whole life. There was no mother to scold him and no father to shake his finger at him. It would be perfect! But eventually, he wanted to stop eating and rest a while. His jaws were tired and his full stomach felt like it was loaded with cannon-balls. But the fairies would not let him stop, for Dutch fairies never get tired. Flying out of the sky--from the north, south, east and west--they came, bringing cheese. They dropped cheeses down around him, until the piles threatened to bury him. There were red balls from Edam (“e-damm”), pink and yellow spheres from Gouda, and gray loaf-shaped cheeses from Leyden. And then, terribly, the larger fairies began to roll along huge, round cheeses from Friesland! Any one of these was as big as the wheel of a cart. The fairies trundled the heavy discs along, shouting hilariously like children at play. Farm cheese, factory cheese, Swiss cheese and, worst of all, Blue cheese--which Klaas couldn’t bear, because it smelled disgusting. Klaas stood with a thick slice of cheddar in one hand and a big hunk of mozzarella in the other. But the boy who thought he would never grow tired of cheese, couldn’t eat another bite. Still, the fairies still urged him to eat more. Soon the cakes and balls of cheese were heaped so high around him that they began to totter. Klaas thought the wall of cheese would surely come toppling down at any moment. He screamed, but the fairies, not being human, thought he was making a strange type of music with his voice. Then, the heavy mass of cheese began to fall on top of him. He flinched, knowing he would be crushed as flat as a slice of Swiss. But... he wasn't! Waking up and rubbing his eyes, Klaas saw the red sun rising behind the pine trees. Birds were singing and the village clock chimed the hour. He felt his clothes. They were wet with dew. He sat up and looked around. There were no fairies, but in his mouth was a bunch of grass which he had been chewing hungrily. At dinner that night, when Klaas’ mother asked him if he wanted more cheese, she was shocked to hear him say with a grey face, “No thank you.” This story was The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese, a story from the Netherlands by William Elliot Griffis. This has been a LibraryCall adaptation and recording.