Another Time Stories by Donald Bisset. P.2

Дата публикации: Aug 01, 2021 1:4:36 PM

The Lost Birthday

Once upon a time there was a big father elephant who hveci at Whipsnade Zoo 1 with a mother elephant and their little elephant, whose name was Yalmar.2

Father elephant was very very big. Mother elephant

was quite big. And even Yalmar wasn’t very little Elephants aren’t!

head"16 ^ S3W the father elePhant standing on his ^Whatever are >'ou doing?” said the mother ele-

eJephant t0 remember sometbing,” said the father

‘‘What are you trying to remember?”

If I knew that,” said the father elephant, “I wouldn’t

be t0 remember it. my dear, would I!” And he

walked off.

nh‘^ovf,' jUn al°ng’ Yaimar,” said the mother- ele-

gotteri ” 3nd SeC lf y°U C3n find What y°Ur father’s for'

YaImar. ambled off by himself. After a while he climbed a little hill by a bamboo wood and sat down and watched the clouds chasing each other across the sky.

Presently he heard the sound of crying. He couldn’t see anything but the crying seemed to come from quite near. So he said, Please don’t cry. I’ll help you ”

The crying stopped.

“Who are you,” said Yalmar, “I can’t see you.”

“I’m a lost birthday,” said a voice, “and I don’t know who I belong to.”1

“Oh dear!” said Yalmar. “That is sad. And is there a birthday cake, too?”

“Of course! There’s always birthday cake on birthdays,”

said the lost birthday. “This one’s got six candles. Some-one s six today.”

“How nice to be six!” thought Yalmar. “That’s a very nice age. Almost as nice as being seven. Five is nice, too, and so is four. And as for eight, well, when you’re eight you re nearly half-way to being grown up.2 Still, I think d , ,bein£ S1X best. I’m terribly sorry, though, that I can t help you. I don’t know who’s forgotten a birthday.” l almar started off home. When he got there his father had stopped standing on his head and was eating some

I remembered! he said. 11 knew it was yesterday or tomorrow or perhaps today. And it is...”

“It is what?" asked Yalmar.

“Your birthday!” said his mother, coming in “You’re six today.”

Yalmar wai; excited. He trundled off as quickly as he could to the little hill by the bamboo wood.

today1”110''” ^ Called °Ut ‘‘You’re my birthday. I’m six

“Hooray!” said the birthday. “Hooray, hooray, boo-ray! >

That afternoon at tea-time, Yalmar had a birthday cake with six candles and he curled his trunk round and blew all the candles out at once.

“It is fun!” he thought. “I like being six.”

The Dragon and the Magician

i Once upon a time there was a mountain with a hot, burning fire inside it. In the middle of the mountain there lived a magician whose name was Fuji-San.'

He liked living there. “It is lovely and warm here!” he said, as he put the kettle on and made a cup of tea.

People ^0r mFcs around could see the steam from his kettle coming out from a hole in the mountain top. “Just look! they said. “Fuji-San is making tea.”

Well, one day Fuji-San was sitting on the top of his mountain, looking down at the valley below, when he saw a little dragon coming towards him.

W hy, that s Andrew! ’ he said. “I expect he’s coming to tea. Andrew was a dragon who lived with his granny in a cave at the bottom of the hill. ' ~

^Andrews granny was a very nice dragon, and the thing she liked better than anything else was a cup of tea. But she was too old to climb the mountain So Andrew thought he would go and ask the magician for a cup of tea for her.

But as he climbed the mountain, the ground under his feet grew hotter and hotter. It got so hot that Andrew couldn t climb any farther, so he went down to the vailev again. He got some wood from a tree and made himseff some stilts. He made four stilts,- one for each leg, and he fixed them on and started to climb again. And this time he couldn’t feel the hot ground underneath him, so he soon arrived safely at the top of the mountain. /

The magician was glad to see him, and gave him some tea and a piece of cake. When he had eaten his cake, Andrew told Fuji-San all about his granny and how much she would like a cup of tea.

"Well, I could give you a cup of tea to take to her,” said Fuji-San. “But it would be cold by the time you got back to your cave.”

So instead he gave Andrew a kettle, some tea, a nice green tea-pot, and some teacups.

Here you are! ’ he said. “Now you can make your own tea whenever you like.”

W,n"°e'piea"ed."0U ^ m“ch!" s<"'d A"tlre"'-

W bered

couldn t carry it, said Andrew. “Not with the tea cups and the tea-pot and the kettle.” 1 tea"

“wJn16 jmaglflan fought for a moment, then he said

breathe in and count ten.” y yes’

Andrew did as he was told “Now breathe out,” said the magician.

Andrew breathed out as hard as he could and lots of

bit. HemLTpleased Egh At ^ “ made him cough a

^ Thanlc "A

and fiHedhtheaif+1ld g?°d'bYe> he Went down to b's cave and filled the kettle with water. Then he breathed fire on

it and had it boiling in no time.1 And he made tea and took his granny a cup.

“Thank you, Andrew,” she said. “I do love a cup of

tea!

And from that day to this, when dragons have finished breathing fire in story-books they go home, put the kettle on, and make a nice cup of tea for their grannies

Bun Crumbs

Once upon a time there were a hundred pigeons in

Trafalgar Square all eating their dinner, which was bird-seed.

Then some more pigeons flew in.

“What’s for dinner today?” they asked “Bird-seed! Yum, yum, yum!”

«r, T!1en l0?10 more pigeons came. “Hooray!” they said. Bird-seed for dinner.” y •

Arthur0 Pig6°n ^ al°ng> Wh°Se na®e was

1 Bird-seed!” he said.

“Again! — Oh, no!!”

He flew up and perched on Nelson’s Column.

“It’s just too bad, my Lord,” he said to Lord Nelson. “Every day it’s bird-seed.

Horrid bird-seed.”

“Well, what do you like?” asked Lord Nelson.

“I like bun crumbs,” said Arthur. “Lovely bun crumbs!”

Lord Nelson put his telescope to his eye and looked down Whitehall.

Look, he_ said, “there's a little boy coming along eating a bun. See, over there by the Horse Guards

Arthur flew down and followed the boy until he’d eaten his bun but he never gave Arthur a single tiny bit.

Poor Arthur burst into tears. A policeman who was passing was rather surprised.

ino- before ”ba*' 2 be Sa’d' * *'ve never seen a pigeon cry-Column UFset and f|ew back to Nelson’s

“Too bad!” said Lord Nelson. “What did the police-man say to you? F

,‘!oe faid hfdr ne,Ve,r, seen a P'geon crying before.”

Hm! said Lord Nelson.

“I can’t cry for buns!” said Arthur.

c,.,‘‘0b- no!” said Lord Nelson. “That would never do.3

Still, I ve got a plan. If you look in the lower pocket of

my cont youll find a threepenny bit.4 A workman left

it there for luck when they were building my—er

ArthijHS ^°^urnn* ^ow> you...” and he whispered to

Lor7’lat S 3 g°0d idea!” Said Arthur- “Thank you, my

He took the threepenny piece and flew down to the baker’s shop at the corner of the Strand 1 and bought a bun with it. Then he perched on the window-sill outside the shop and started eating his bun. And the people passing saw him and said,

*T say, that pigeon is enjoying his bun. I expect they’re very good.” And lots of them went into the shop and bought a bag of buns for tea.

The baker was very pleased.

„ ‘‘Y?,T can come here every day at tea-time,” he said, and 1 II give you a bun. You’re a very good advertisement. And here’s an extra one for today.”

Arthur picked it up in his beak and flew back to Lord Nelson.

‘ Do have a bit, my Lord,” he said and gave Lord Nelson half.

“Thankee!”2 said Lord Nelson.

I say, my Lord, said Arthur. “Look at all those pigeons eMing bird-seed for tea. I like buns much better.”

So do I! said Lord Nelson.