Tales for tots through to age 7; your child probably loves a bedtime story - I know my grandchildren do. The stories have been written especially for the younger child. If you like them why not add this page to your favourites. I will try to add one new story each month.
New to This Page; Your favourite nursery rhymes.
Older children, girls and boys, check out the other pages on this site
‘What was that dear?’ asked mum, who had been so busy reading her magazine that she hadn’t heard Katie’s question.
‘Teddy and I were wondering if we could go on a picnic.’
Katie had never been on a picnic before, in fact she didn’t even know what a picnic was until Teddy One Ear had told her all about the ones that he and his teddy bear friends used to have in the woods.
‘Certainly we can, but it’s too late today, so we will go tomorrow. Why don’t I ring Aunty Mary and see if she and Lucy want to come?’
‘Ooo, Yes please mum, that would be great,’ cried Katie and she began to dance around the room clapping her hands with joy. Aunty Mary was mums sister and Lucy her daughter was Katie’s cousin and her very bestest friend in the whole world along with Teddy. ‘And mum, ask Lucy to bring Belinda.’
Belinda bunny was Lucy’s favourite cuddly toy and even though she was a little on the quiet side, Teddy said he liked her very much.
The next morning after breakfast Katie helped mum to make the sandwiches for the picnic, while Teddy sat on a chair and watched. They made ham salad ones for mum and aunty Mary and cheese spread ones for Katie, and Lucy. After wrapping the sandwiches in some kitchen foil, Katie’s mum placed them in the picnic basket along with fairy cakes, hard-boiled eggs, a flask of tea for the mums and a bottle of juice for the children.
After placing the picnic basket in the boot of the car, they called around to pick up Lucy and Aunty Mary and then they drove to the park. It was a bright sunny day and they ate their picnic sitting on the grass near to the boating lake. The picnic was lovely and after they had eaten, they cleared up, put the rubbish in the litterbin and walked over to feed the ducks. There were lots of ducks, some were big, some were smaller and some were cute little baby ducklings. Mum and Aunty Mary threw pieces of bread to the larger ducks, but Katie and Lucy broke their bread into tiny pieces and threw them to the cute little baby ducklings.
When they had used up all the bread they walked around the lake to the play area and while Katie, Lucy, Belinda and Teddy played on the banana slide, seesaw and all the other things, mum and aunty Mary sat on a bench to watch.
After about an hour mum called, ‘Come on girls we’ll get an ice cream and then got to see the rabbits.’
‘Teddy says can we have just two more turns on the seesaw, mum,’ said Katie.
‘OK, but I thought you wanted to see the rabbits,’
‘We do, we do, but Belinda would like two more turns too and then we’ll come,’ said Lucy.
After the two turns, the girls, pleaded for one more go and then another, but when they asked for the third time, mum and aunty Mary both laughed and mum said, ‘Certainly, but if you want an ice cream you will have to come now or he will have none left.’
‘We’re coming,’ cried the girls.
When they reached the ice cream van aunty Mary said, ‘Tell the man what you want girls.’
‘I would like an ice cream cornet with raspberry sauce on, please,’ said Katie.
‘Me too,’ cried Lucy.
‘And we’ll have an ice cream cornet with a chocolate flake, each,’ said Aunty Mary.
They began to eat their ice creams as they walked to where the rabbits were, which was at the other side of the park, and had finish them by the time they arrived.
To Katie and Lucy pets corner looked like someone had placed a giant birdcage on the ground. It was round and it was high and while the upper part was filled with beautiful bird, the bottom was filled with rabbits and guinea pigs. Lots and lots of them, of all shapes and sizes; there were black ones, white ones and ones that were black and white, and seven little brown and white baby bunnies that hopped around their brown and white mummy. Katie and Lucy loved the little bunnies and would have stayed watching them all night, but mum said it was time to go to the maze.
Katie and Lucy had never heard of a maze, ‘What is a maze?’ They asked.
‘Well,’ said mum. ‘It is like one of those puzzles in your puzzle book, you know the one’s where you have to find your way through to the other side. Only in a real maze you can’t see where you are going because the paths have high hedges on each side.’
‘But Mum if we can’t see where we are going won’t we get lost?’ asked Katie.
‘No, when Aunty Mary and I were girls, we used play in a maze just like this one and we never ever got lost. So shall we go in?’
Lucy smiled and nodded her head, Katie said ‘Yes,’ and they all went into the maze. With Aunty Mary leading the way they soon reached the middle of the maze. Now all they had to do was find their way to the other side and that was when things went wrong. They had been walking for ten minutes when Katie asked, ‘Mum, are we lost?’
‘No dear, why do you ask?’
‘Because Teddy says we passed this opening five minutes ago.’
‘Well, Teddy must be wrong, because we are not lost.’
‘Mum,’ Katie said ten minutes later, ‘Teddy says we’ve passed that opening again.’
‘Teddy must be mistaken; all the openings look the same.’
Ten minutes later mum begun to look worried, ‘I think Teddy is right, I think we are lost.’
‘It’s alright Mum Teddy says he’ll show us the way if you lift us onto your shoulders.’
Mum lifted Katie onto her shoulders and Katie held Teddy high in the air so he could see which way to go and by following his directions they soon reached the other side of the maze.
That night when Katie and Teddy were in bed, mum got busy on her sewing machine and the next morning Teddy had a new red jacket, with a badge on the pocket that said, “Guide”.
‘Mum, what does “Guide” mean?’ asked Katie.
‘It means someone who can show you the way, so that you don’t get lost,’ said mum.
Katie jumped out of bed, ran over to the window and opened the curtains. The inside of the glass was covered with a beautiful silvery pattern. ‘Teddy one ear, come and look, the window is covered with stars.’
Teddy One Ear – he had been called that ever since horrid Barney the cat had chewed off one of his ears – didn’t move; he just sat in the middle of the bed with the covers pulled up to his chin, smiled his lopsided smile and looked back at her with his bright button eyes.
‘Come on lazy bones,’ said Katie as she pulled back the covers and picked him up. ‘Don’t be a silly Teddy; it’s not that cold. I’ve only got my Jim-jams on and you’ve got all that lovely warm fur.’
Katie took Teddy to the window and held him up so he could see the glass. ‘Yes I know, it looks all sparkly… like stars.’
They stood for a while looking at the beautiful icy pattern on the glass, then Teddy whispered Katie's ear and she said, ‘What’s it like outside? I don’t know?… Why don’t you rub some of the ice away with your paw and then you will see.'
Teddy didn’t make a move, so Katie placed his paw on the window and rubbed away a small circle of ice and they looked through. Everything was covered in white, the trees, the garden, and best of all so was the big hill in Mr Thompson’s field.‘Ooh! Look at all the snow!’ cried Katie.
Teddy didn’t reply.
‘Oh! You’re so huffy, just because I rubbed your paw on the window…What? Oh alright, give me your paw and I’ll rub it for you.’
Katie sat Teddy on the bed, took his paw into her two hands and rubbed gently until it felt warm. ‘Is that better?’ she asked. ‘Good…OK, I’ll ask mum.’
Katie went out onto the landing and called downstairs. ‘Mum Teddy wants to know if we can go sledging today.’
‘Why don’t you get ready, have your breakfast and then we’ll see.’
‘But Mum Teddy really, really wants to go sledging today.’
‘Well, tell Teddy to get washed, including behind his ear and clean his teeth.’
After getting dressed Katie picked up Teddy and made her way downstairs.
‘Good morning Katie, good morning Teddy,’ said mum when they reached the kitchen. ‘Sit at the table and I’ll get you some breakfast.’
Katie placed two cushions on one of the chairs, sat Teddy on the cushions, so he was high enough and then sat in another chair.
‘Now, would you like Cocopops or a nice boiled egg for breakfast?’
‘Teddy and I are not hungry this morning, we just want to go sledging.’
‘What did I tell you both before?’
‘Aw! Mum, you said you’d think about it after breakfast, but Teddy say’s couldn’t you think about it now?’
Mum shook her head.
‘Oh, all right then,' said Katie 'Teddy and I would like Cocopops.'
Mum placed two small bowls of Cocopops on the table, one in front of Katie and one in front of Teddy and said, ‘If you eat those all up, I will take you out sledging.’
‘Hooray!’ said Katie, as she picked up her spoon. It didn’t take her long to empty her bowl, but when she looked across the table, Teddy hadn’t eaten any of his. ‘Come on Teddy, eat them up, or mum wont let us go sledging…What? Oh all right… if you can’t. It’s a good job mum only gave us small bowls, I’ll eat yours.’
‘All finished Mum, said Katie.
Mum looked at the two empty bowls and said, ‘Good, now we can go sledging.’
‘Hooray!’
Mum and Katie wrapped up warm, Katie and Teddy sat on the sled and mum pulled them down the path, over the road, across the field and all the way up the hill. On reaching the top mum sat on the sled behind Katie and they flew down faster than the wind, Wheeee! All day they went up and down the hill, until finally mum said, ‘It’s time to go home for tea.’
‘One more time! One more time! Please!' cried Katie.
‘Oh, all right, but this is the last,’ said mum, and she pulled them up to the top and they flew down again. When they reached the bottom Katie said, ‘Just one more go, pretty please?’
‘No, it’s time for tea,' said mum. ‘And just look at Teddy he’s all wet and cold. We’ll go sledging again tomorrow.’
While mum made the tea, Katie put Teddy on the radiator, to get dry and warm.
The next morning was Christmas Eve and Katie came downstairs without Teddy.
‘Where’s Teddy?’ asked mum.
‘He’s in the huff, he said that he got too wet yesterday and he isn’t going sledging today.’
‘Never mind Princess, we’ll go ourselves. Maybe tonight Santa will leave him a nice present to cheer him up and he might come sledging with us tomorrow.’
On Christmas morning Katie and took Teddy downstairs and he sat watching as she opened her presents. There were jigsaws, games, a bike and a pram, she didn’t ask for a doll, because she had Teddy, and she could take him for rides in the pram. When she had finished there were three parcels left and they were all addressed to Teddy One Ear. ‘Ooh! These are yours Teddy. Shall I open them?’
Teddy smiled his little smile and his little button eyes shone.
Katie unwrapped the first parcel; it contained a bright yellow waterproof jacket and a pair of trousers to match. Inside the second was a cherry red hat with a pompom and matching scarf and gloves. And best of all, inside the last parcel was a tiny pair of red Wellington boots.
‘Do you think Teddy likes his presents?’ asked mum.
and one for the little boy that lives down the lane.
Crabby To The Rescue
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reached when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface all seems well, but there has been a great storm during the night and it has dislodged a rock that closes off Craggy Crevasse. While the tide is in, no one notices, least of all the Anemone sisters, Rosemary and Scarlet who live on the rocky wall of the crevasse.
Down in the pool unaware of the danger, Willy Winkle was on his way to meet his friend Walter Whelk; they always met in the mornings, to go for a walk around the walls and to call in to see their friend Hermit Crab.
‘Good morning, Walter,’ Willy called when he reached No 2 Rock Ledge, the home of his friend.
‘Morning, Willy, nice day for our walk.’
Half way around the pool, they tiptoed past the Mussel beds and waved to Mrs Mussel, who had just managed to get all Three hundred of her children down for their mid-morning nap.
After the troubles they’d had in the past with Crabby Crab – he used to bully everyone, until Collin Conger gave him a fright – they avoided Crab Rock.
At Rock Ledge, they stopped for a while to pass the time of day with Stanley and Cynthia Starfish.
‘Good day, Mr Winkle and Mr Whelk,’ said Cynthia, blushing red; she was a little on the shy side and insisted on calling them both Mr, and they had given up trying to get her to call them by their first names.
‘Good day to you, Cynthia,’ called Willy.
‘Morning, Cynthia, you’re looking pretty today,’ said Walter, which only made her go and even brighter shade of red.
‘Morning Willy, morning, Walter, I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ said Stanley.
‘What?’
‘Tease my sister.’
‘I wasn’t teasing her, she does look very pretty this morning.’
‘I know, but she gets very embarrassed when people say so. ‘
They were interrupted by a low grinding noise; the tide was going out and the suction had moved the rock a little further from the crevasse wall, now the water was beginning to trickle from the pool.
‘Goodness me, what was that?’ cried Cynthia.
They stood in silence, listening, but the sound didn’t come again.
‘I’ve no Idea, but I’ll ask Hermit, he might know, we’ll see you later.’ Willy called, as he and Walter hurried off to see their friend, Hermit.
‘Did you hear that strange noise?’ Walter asked, when they reached their friend’s home in Weedy Grove.
‘I most certainly did,’ replied Hermit, ‘it seemed to come from Craggy Crevasse, I think we should go and investigate.’
The three friends set off at once and on reaching the crevasse, they asked Rosemary and Scarlet if they had heard the noise.
‘Yes, it gave me such a fright that I withdrew in shock,’ said Scarlet.
‘Do either of you know where it came from?’ asked Willy.
‘Yes,’ said Rosemary, waving her tentacles towards the back of the crevasse,‘it came from down there somewhere.’
‘Come on, lads we better take a look,’ said Hermit.
Leaving the Anemones behind they moved further into the crevasse and began to feel a current moving past them. The deeper they went, the stronger the current became and soon they could barely stand.
‘What is it?’ shouted Willy, over the sound of rushing water.
‘There’s a leak and the water is running out of the pool, we better go back, before we get sucked away,’ said Hermit.
But as they turned and tried to go back they found that the current was too strong. All they could do was cling onto the nearest rock and hope that the current eased.
But instead of easing, the current grew stronger and they were sucked away one-by-one; the first to be swept into the gap was Hermit, which was lucky, because being the biggest, he managed to jam his shell against one side and his feet against the other, which left both claws free to grab his friends as they came flying by.
He had saved his friends, but for how long? he wondered. If he tried to move his feet they would all be sucked through the gap and if he tried to pull them out using his claws, he would have to let go of Willy and Walter. What was he going to do? He knew he couldn’t hold on for much longer.
At this point Crabby Crab arrived, ‘’Hang on,’ he said, as he scuttled sideways towards them, ‘When I say, now, let go,’ he said.
Then reaching out with his largest claw, he took a good strong grip on Hermit’s shell and shouted, ‘Now!’
Hermit let go and holding on tight, Crabby scuttled out of the crevasse. Once they were safely in the pool, he placed them gently on the bottom and without another word began to climb the rock wall.
Hermit was amazed, Crabby who had once been the biggest bully in the pool, had just saved them. ‘Wait,’ he called, ‘we want to thank you.’
‘I haven’t time; I have to get that rock back into place before all the water runs out of the pool,’ he said and continued to climb.
He climbed up out of the water and ran across the rocks surrounding the pool. Looking down when he reached the far side, he could see the water running out at one side of the rock, it was running out so fast that it looked like someone had turned on a tap.
Climbing down he squeezed himself into a gap beneath the front of the rock and placing his claws and feet on the ground, began to push upwards and back. At first nothing happened, but he pushed and pushed until finally the rock move back into place and the water stopped running out of the pool.
When he returned back to the pool, everyone cheered and they all agreed that Crabby was a hero, for coming to the rescue.
In his neat little white-painted house at one end of the village of Trimble, Peter the friendly elf switched off his alarm clock and got out of bed. He had set the alarm the night before so that he would get up early. Today was a very special day, it was his birthday and he had invited all his friends around for a birthday party at four o’clock.
After he finished the slice of toast and strawberry jam he was having for breakfast, he set off for the market to buy all the things he needed for the party. It was quite a long way to the market, which was in the town of Dingle about two hours away. He was so excited that as he hurried along the road he began to make a list in his head of all the things he would need.
First of all he would need one of those happy birthday signs to put on the wall, and then he would need balloons, lots of them. What else? I know, paper hats, party streamers and those cardboard trumpets that go ‘Toot’ when you blow them. He needed little cards to put his friend’s names on and lots of real party food. He would be sure to get some sausage rolls, freshly baked bread buns to spread with butter and small pork pies, he just loved pork pies. Then he needed lots of those small sweet buns with hundreds and thousands on the top, ginger bread men, a strawberry trifle and of course a birthday cake, with candles.
But when he reached the market his troubles began. The Pie man had no pies or sausage rolls left, the cake shop had sold all their cakes, the baker had no buns or ginger bread men and someone had bought all of the balloon man’s balloons. The only things he could have gotten were the little cards and the candles. But he was so upset that he didn’t bother. Besides, since he couldn’t get any of the other things, he wouldn’t be having a party anyway.
Head down, with tears in his eyes he walked slowly home. On reaching the edge of the village he slid behind the old oak tree. From there he checked to make sure none of his friends were about. How could he explain to them that there would be no party today? Luckily there was no one in sight, so he as fast as he could, he ran along the street, up the path to his front door and slipped quickly inside. Turning, he bolted the door. He couldn’t face the look of disappointment he would see on his friends’ faces. So he would just have to pretend he wasn’t in when they arrived.
This had been the worst day of his life. Now all he wanted to do was to make himself a nice cup of tea and hide upstairs in his bedroom. He opened the kitchen door and got the surprise of his life. The table was full of food, the room had been decorated with streamers, banners and balloons and all his friends were there singing, ‘Happy Birthday To You’.
Bethany woke up early, turned to teddy one ear and said, ‘It’s Easter Teddy and we need to get ready, because today we are going on an Easter egg hunt.’
Teddy didn’t say anything he simply sat on the cabinet at the side of her bed looking sad. He wasn’t really a sad bear, but he looked a bit sad because Barney the cat had chewed off one of his ears.
‘You wait here,’ said Bethany, ‘while I go and get washed.’
Teddy just looked at her with his little button eyes. Bethany sighed, sometimes she wasn’t sure if Teddy was listening or not, because he was never very talkative.
Soon the sounds of water running and splashing could be heard coming from the bathroom as Bethany cleaned her teeth and got washed and dried. Then the bedroom door opened and she was back. ‘See that didn’t take long, did it?’ she said.
Removing her pyjamas she put on her new yellow Easter dress with the cute little bunnies printed on it and gave a twirl, ‘What do think of my new dress Teddy?’
Teddy didn’t reply, but Bethany could tell he liked it. Who wouldn’t? Everyone loves cute little Easter bunnies. Bethany finished getting ready, picked up Teddy and said ‘Come on Teddy, time for breakfast.’
‘Hi Mum, what’s for breakfast?’ Bethany asked as she entered the kitchen.
‘Good morning, Princess, good morning, Teddy One Ear, if you both sit at the table I will bring you some soft boiled eggs.’
Bethany sat Teddy on the chair next to her; she had to put two cushions on the chair first so that he was high enough to see over the table and sat down herself.
‘ There you are, one for you and one for you,’ said mum as she placed a boiled egg and a plate of bread soldiers in front of each of them. ‘Now do either of you want me to cut the top off your egg?’
‘Yes please, Mum you can do mine, but Teddy said he’s not ready for his yet.’
Mum cut the top off Bethany’s egg and Teddy watched as Bethany dipped her bread soldiers into the soft yellow yoke and began to eat. When she had eaten all the yoke she picked up her spoon and ate all the white. When she had finished she looked a Teddy’s egg and said, ‘Mum, Teddy doesn’t want his egg can I have it?’
‘Certainly dear, as long as it’s OK with Teddy.’
When Bethany had finished the second egg, mum said, ‘Help me to wash up then it will be time to go to the vicarage for the Easter egg hunt.’
After they had washed up Bethany put on her coat and saying ‘Let’s go,’ she picked Teddy up and taking hold of mum’s hand set off for the vicarage.
Every Easter Mr Wilson the vicar held an Easter egg hunt in the vicarage garden to raise funds for repairs to the church roof, which cost a lot of money. It cost £1 for each child to enter the hunt and every year all of the children manage to find an egg.
Bethany’s mum bought two tickets, one for Bethany and one for Teddy. Each ticket had a different clue on it so that the children didn’t all go looking for the same egg.
‘OK,’ said mum. ‘We’ll search for your egg first, Bethany and them we’ll look for Teddy’s.’
Mum read out the clue on Bethany’s ticket, ‘Apples are sweet, you’ll find the clue beneath the seat.’
‘That’s easy,’ cried Bethany. ‘The next clue must under that seat by the apple tree.’
They ran across and sure enough the clue was under the seat.
‘What next, Mum?’
‘Count the stepping stones, one, two, three, then the next clue you will see.’
‘This one is harder, Mum,’ Bethany cried.
‘Look around the garden, it’s not as hard as you think,’ said mum.
Bethany looked all around the garden, oh where oh can the stepping-stones be, she sang to herself and then she spotted them. They were round and marched in a row right across to the other side of the lawn. She ran across and jumped on the first, ‘One.’ Then the second, ‘Two,’ and the third, ‘Three,’ and there tucked down the side of the stone was a piece of paper. It was the third clue and mum read it out. ‘They are round and green and big as your head. If you want your egg you better ask Ted.’
‘Do they mean my Ted?’ asked Bethany.
‘I don’t know, darling, why don’t you ask him,’ said mum.
Bethany took Teddy from under her arm, held him up and asked, ‘Do you know where the egg is Teddy?’
She stared into his small button eyes for a while and then smiled, ‘Teddy says the egg is hidden under the first two cabbages in the row, Mum.’
They hurried to the cabbage patch, lifted the leaves of the first two cabbages and were surprised to find, not one, but two eggs sitting there.
‘You’ve found your egg Bethany,’ said mum, ‘but whose is this other one, with the note attached?’
Mum opened the note and read it out loud, ‘Look at Teddy’s ticket,’ was all it said.
Mum unfolded Teddy’s ticket and read out the clue. ‘No need to search anywhere but here, this egg belongs to Teddy One Ear.’
Later as they walked home carrying their eggs they met a small boy who was crying, ‘What ever is the matter?’ asked Bethany mum.
The boy sniffed and said, ‘I was going to the Easter egg hunt but I’ve dropped my £1 down the drain.’
He looked so sad that Bethany handed him her egg, ‘Here you can have mine,’ she said.
‘Thank you,’ said the boy, ‘But I couldn’t take your egg.’
‘Of course you can,’ said Bethany. ‘Teddy will share his with me.’
That was very kind of Bethany and of course when they got home, Bethany had to eat the whole of the egg by herself, because Teddy One Ear wasn’t hungry.
It was a lovely day and Peter the friendly elf fancied some fish for his tea. Picking up his fishing rod, he left his neat little white painted house at one end of the village of Trimble and went to call on his friend Pod, ‘Hi, Pod,’ said Peter. ‘It’s such a nice day I thought I would go fishing. Would you like to come?’
Pod was busy hoeing his garden, but at the mention of fishing
his ears pricked up and he said, ‘Ooo! I do like fish for my tea. If you wait until I put my hoe away and get my fishing rod, I will certainly come with you.’
‘OK,’ said Peter, and he sat on the little wooden bench in Pod’s front garden, relaxing in the warm sunshine while he waited.
Ten minutes later Pod came out of his cottage with his fishing rod over his shoulder and a basket in his hand.
‘What’s in the basket, Pod?' Peter asked.
‘Well it is such a sunny day,’ said Pod, ‘that I thought we could have a picnic on the river bank while we fish.’
Peter smiled. What a kind and clever friend Pod was, I never even thought of taking a picnic. ‘Great,’ he said, ‘Let’s go.’
The river Nid lay outside the village. It was small as rivers go, not much more that a large stream really and the best fishing was on the far side.
Peter and Pod crossed the stone bridge and followed the path along the riverbank. It took them fifteen minutes to reach the best spot, only to find that Kronk was already sitting there fishing.
Kronk who lived in a grubby old house at the opposite end of the village to Peter, was the meanest and most unfriendly old gnome, you could ever meet.
Excuse me, Mr Kronk, said Peter, ‘There is plenty room on the riverbank, so would it be OK, if Pod and I sat here to fish?’
‘No it wouldn’t. Now clear off,’ growled Kronk
‘But that’s not fair, said Peter.
‘And you don’t own the riverbank,’ cried Pod.
‘No I don’t,’ said Kronk with a nasty grin, ‘but I’m bigger than you both and if you don’t clear off, I’ll throw you in the water.’
There was nothing they could do. He was bigger and meaner than them, so they walked just a little further on, to another spot that Peter knew. It wasn’t as good as the first spot, but Peter had caught a fish there once. After casting their lines into the water they propped their rods on sticks and waited, and waited. All morning they waited. But they didn’t even get one fish.
Still it was a nice sunny day and they enjoyed their picnic.
After lunch, they tried for another hour, but when there were still no fish, they decided to pack up and go home. It was while they were putting the plates back into the basket that Peter spotted
something shining in the grass. He bent down and picked it up, it was a small, shiny, gold coin. He showed it to Pod and they hunted around on their hands and knees, looking for more but there were none. ‘Never mind, said Pod, ‘thanks to Kronk we didn’t catch any fish, but we might be able to use the coin to buy some cakes on the way home.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Peter, ‘we’ll be lucky if we get one cake between us. I’ve got a better idea.’
On their way home, they were talking loudly as they passed Kronk, who was still fishing even though his basket was already full of fish.
‘That was lucky, finding all that gold,’ said Peter.
‘Yes,’ said Pod, ‘we’d better hurry home and get a barrow to carry it all in.’
Kronk who was listening, chuckled to himself. Did they think he was stupid? Whoever heard of gold lying on the riverbank?
Just then he saw something fall from Peters pocket.
He waited until they were out of sight and then went over to see what it was and got a big surprise.
It was a small shiny gold coin. His eyes shone with greed,
he tipped all his fish onto the grass and ran off to fill his pockets and the fishing basket with gold, before Peter and Pod could get back with the barrow.
As soon as he had gone Peter and Pod came out from where they had been hiding, collected all the fish and went home to have fish for their tea.
Mean old Kronk didn’t find any gold and when he got back, he didn’t find any fish either.
I think that serves him right for being greedy, don’t you?’
In The village of Trimble, at the end of the street, in dirty old house, lived a grumpy gnome called Kronk. He was mean, miserly, and the unfriendliest old gnome you ever did see.
At the other end of the village, lived an elf called Peter. He was, unlike Kronk, one the friendliest elves you could ever meet and he lived in a neat little, white painted, house.
One day as Peter was passing by, he noticed that the apple tree in the field at the end of the lane was full of fruit. Now the tree really belonged to everyone in the village, but miserly old Kronk had claimed it for himself, built a fence around it and padlocked the gate. Peter sighed, he really would like an apple pie and he knew the other villager would like one too.
So on his way back home he opened Kronk’s gate walked up the path and knocked on the door. A few moments later the door opened and Kronk growled, ‘What do, you want?’
‘Excuse me, Mr Kronk I noticed your tree was full of apples, and I wondered if you might let me have one or two.’
‘No, go away, elf, I’ll be picking them all tomorrow and taking them to the market,’ said Kronk.
It wasn’t fair, thought Peter, as he walked home, those apples really belonged to everyone, I’ll have to think of a way to get some for the whole village.
Early next morning when Kronk was picking the apples and placing them in a sack, Peter turned up and offered to help.
‘You can help if you want, but I’m not giving you any apples,’ said Kronk.
Oh, he is greedy, thought Peter, but he smiled and said, ‘That’s alright, I’ll still help you.’
They had only picked three-quarters the apples and Kronk’s sack was full, so Peter went to get him a bigger one from home.
When he arrived back, Kronk inspected the sack carefully in case Peter was trying to trick him. When he found nothing wrong he poured the other apple in and threw away the old sack. Later when there were no more apples on the tree and the big sack was full, Peter helped lift it on Kronk’s back and as he did so, he cut a slit in the bottom.
Peter waited until Kronk set off for the market, then taking the other sack; he followed behind, picking up the apples as they fell out one by one. Once the sack was full he went around the village sharing them out.
Imagine Kronk’s surprise when he got to the market and there were only a few apples in the sack, and imagine the even bigger surprise he got, when he came back to find the village filled with the aroma of freshly baked apple pies.
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reached when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface, on one of the rocky walls, Willy Winkle and Walter Whelk are taking a stroll over to see their friend Hermit Crab. As they pass Craggy Crevasse, Walter calls out to the Anemone sisters, ‘Good morning Rosemary, good morning Scarlet, I hope you’re feeling well today?’
‘Yes, I am,’ replied Scarlet. ‘But after the fright that horrid Crabby gave us, Rosemary is very nervous and pulls in her tentacles at the least thing.’
‘Why? What did he do?’ asked Willy.
‘He came up here and told us Craggy Crevasse belonged to him and we’d have to pay rent to stay here,’ cried Rosemary, nervously.
‘He can’t do that, can he?’ asked Scarlet. ‘We’ve always lived here.
‘I’ve never heard the likes of it, I didn’t think anyone owned the pool,’ said Walter.
‘Never mind,’ said Willy. ‘We’re on our way to see Hermit he knows all about the pool.’
Hermit Crab was the oldest of all the creatures in the pool, he knew everything there was to know about it and when they told him about Crabby he was upset.
‘This is very bad, yesterday he told Stanley Starfish to leave the rock shelf and the day before, he told Mrs Mussel that she and all the babies would have pay him if they wanted to stay in the mussel beds.’
‘He can’t do that, can he?’ asked Walter.
‘The trouble is Crabby’s grown so big that he thinks he owns the pool,’ said Willy.
‘Yes and he needs to be taught a lesson,’ said Hermit. ‘And I know someone who will teach him it.’
That afternoon Hermit slipped over to the next rock pool and had a word with Collin Conger and when the tide came in Collin swam over and hid in Craggy crevasse.
Meanwhile, Hermit, Willy, and Walter made their way to crab rock to speak to Crabby.
‘Listen here, Crabby,’ said Hermit. ‘You just can’t go around bullying everyone.’
‘Yeah, picking on poor Rosemary and Scarlet,’ said Willy.
‘And poor Mrs Mussel too.’ chipped in Walter.
‘No, you listen to me, I’m the biggest in the pool, that means I can do what I like and none of you are big enough to stop me. I fact I am going to Craggy Crevasse now, and if you friends the Anemones don’t pay me rent, I’m going to pull them out of there,’ said Crabby and he set off sideways, across the pool.
Since they weren’t big enough to stop him, all they could do was follow behind and hope for the best.
Reaching the Crevasse, Crabby growled, ‘Come out and pay the rent, don’t make me come in there looking for you.’
All was silent; there was no reply from inside the crevasse.
‘OK,’ you’re in trouble now,’ he shouted and rushed in with his claws raised.
Inside he saw Rosemary and Scarlet hiding in the corner, but as he opened his biggest claw and reached out to grab them, there was a swirl in the water, and a grinning Collin Conger appeared.
One look at that mouth full of needle sharp teeth and Crabby got such a fright that he shot across the pool and disappeared under Crab Rock. He stayed there for three days and when he finally came out he never tried to bully anyone again. And just to make sure, Hermit invited Collin to tea, at least once every week.
In the village of Trimble, at the end of the street opposite the village green, stands a dirty old house. Inside, Kronk the meanest gnome in the land, rubbed a hole in the ice that had formed on the inside of his window and peered out. The permanent scowl on face deepened making him look meaner and even more unfriendly than normal.
Outside the winter snow had arrived and the folks in the village were out enjoying themselves. Sledges whizzed down fairy hill, snowball fights were going on everywhere and several of the elves were busy building snowmen on the village green. Kronk growled, the one thing that he hated more than snow was seeing people having fun. He really was the meanest, most miserly and unfriendly gnome you ever did see.
On the green right opposite Kronk’s front window, Peter the elf and his friend Pod were hard at work building a snowman. They had been at it all morning and were determined that it would be their best snowman ever. Later when they had finished they stood back to admire their handy work. The snowman was very tall, as high as they could reach on tiptoes and his body was round and plump. He had a large round head, with black pebble eyes, a carrot nose and a smiling mouth made with a lot of smaller stones. ‘He’s great, but he needs something else to finish him off,’ said Peter.
‘I’ve got my granddad’s old fishing hat, the one with the lovely green feathers,’ said Pod.
‘Great, and I’ve got an old yellow and red scarf to go round his neck,’ said Peter.
‘We could put a row of stones down his front to look like buttons on a coat, said Pod.
‘OK,’ said Peter. ‘You get the hat and come around to my house. I’ll get the scarf and I’ll heat us a nice warming bowl of soup.’
Peter who was a very good cook had made a big pan of vegetable soup yesterday and when he got home all he had to do was to pop the pan on the stove and let it heat up. Pod who was really good at growing things in his garden had given the vegetables to Peter and as always, the two friends would share the soup between them.
‘Good, I’m cold now that we’ve stopped building the snowman and I’m really hungry too.’
‘Me too, let’s go,’ said Peter.
At home Peter placed the pan of soup on the stove, put a new log on the fire and took down the scarf from the hook behind the front door. Ten minutes later there was a knock and Pod popped his head around the door. ‘Sorry I took so long but I had a job finding the hat. I thought it was in the cupboard and then I remembered I’d put it on the scarecrow in the back garden.
Peter smiled; his friend was sometimes a little forgetful. ‘Never mind, you’ve got it now, take your coat off and go and sit by the fire, I’ll bring you some soup.’
Pod sat down in one of the two chairs in front of the fire, Peter poured out two bowls of soup, handed one to Pod and picking up the other bowl sat in the chair next to his friend. There was silence, apart from the odd slurp, as they ate their soup and when they were finished they were warm inside as well as out.
Peter was a tidy little elf and after lunch he washed the bowls and spoons and put them back in the cupboard. ‘There, that’s done, now we can go and finish off the snowman.’
Once back at the green they dressed the snowman in the hat with the lovely green feather and wrapped the long yellow and red scarf around his neck. The hat was a little on the small side, because Pod’s granddad, was an elf and elves are ever so small. But apart from that, Peter and Pod both agreed that the snowman looked very grand indeed. In fact they were so please that they did a little dance and as the danced they made up a little song.
Snowman, snowman cuddly and fat
We really love your feathered hat,
Feathered hat, feathered hat,
We really love your feather hat,
It suits you oh so well.
Snowman, snowman big and strong
We really love your scarf so long
It’s so long; it’s so long,
We really love your scarf so long,
It will keep you warm.
That night when Peter and Pod were fast asleep in bed, a dark shadowy figure crept up to the snowman and with a growl swiped the green feather hat from its head. After jumping on the hat the figure unwound the scarf, pulled out the snowman’s nose, knocked his head flying and kicked the rest of him into bits.
The next morning when they went down to the green and found their snowman destroyed, Peter and Pod were very sad. In fact Peter was so upset that he had to have a sit down on a nearby stump of a tree. ‘Who would do such as spiteful thing?’ cried Pod.
Peter who was facing Kronk’s house saw the curtains at the window twitch and suddenly had an idea who it could be. ‘Kronk is spying on us from behind his curtains I bet he is the one that did it.’
‘What are we going to do?’ asked pod.
Peter sat on the stump thinking hard. After a minute or so, he said, ‘We’ll build the snowman again, but this time …’ he stopped and then whispered the rest of the plan in Pod’s ear so that no one could hear.
Pod laughed. ‘When are we going to do it?’
‘Tomorrow morning, we’ll start while it is still dark, so that Kronk can’t see what we are doing.’
The following morning when Kronk looked out of his window he was surprised to see Peter and Pod building another snowman. They must have started very early, because they already had most of the body built. Kronk watched them for most of the day and the more they built the more he scowled and growled beneath his breath.
Peter and Pod went home when they were finished. But they sneaked back just before it got dark and hid in the bushes at the edge of the green. They didn’t have to wait long; as soon as it was dark a shadowy figure crept up to the snowman, knocked off his head and then began to kick at the snowman’s body. Soon a lot of the body had fallen, but the middle refused to move. The figure moved back and took a running kick at the middle and began to hop about on foot shouting, ‘Ouch! Ooya! Ouch! Ouch! Oh my foot! Oh my toe! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Soon everyone in the village came out to see what was going on and in the light from Peter’s torch, there was Kronk hopping around on one foot. ‘What has happened?’ they asked.
‘Kronk sneaked out after dark and kicked down our snowman,’ said Peter.
‘But why is he hopping about like that?’ they wanted to know.
‘Because when he kicked down our first snowman, we built our second one over the old tree stump,’ said Peter.
Everyone laughed, said it was his own fault and went back indoors, leaving Kronk to hop his way home on one leg.
Peter, Pod and the rest of the elves built lots more snowmen that winter and Kronk never touched one of them. In fact he didn’t leave the house again until spring came around and when he did he walked with a limp.
At eight o’clock on Saturday morning Peter the elf left his neat, little white painted house in the village of Trimble and set out on the two-hour walk to the town of Dingle. Saturday was market day in Dingle and most of the folks from the smaller villages would go into town for their weekly shop. The market always became very crowded in the afternoon, so Peter liked to set off early and do his shopping in the morning when it wasn’t so busy.
It was a beautiful morning; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and Peter whistled along with them. It was such a lovely day and he enjoyed the walk so much that he seemed to reach the market in no time at all. Part of the market had stalls selling vegetables, but he didn’t bother going there; he grew his own potatoes and got all his vegetables from his friend Pod. Instead he went to the stalls at the other end and bought a few things that he needed. A new pan because his was worn out, a packet of needles, some thread, some blue buttons to match the two that he’d lost from his coat and some odds and ends that he needed for the house.
Having got what he needed from the market. Peter decided to treat himself to some toffee from Mrs Treacle’s toffee shop. Mrs Treacle made the sweetest, chewiest toffees in the world and when he reached the shop he went in and bought a bag of her best butter toffees. On the way home he unwrapped a toffee and put it in his mouth to suck. But it was so creamy and delicious that he began to chew and it was gone in no time at all, so he had another and another. ‘Oh dear,’ said Peter to himself. ‘This is no good, I’ll have to take my time or I’ll have them all eaten before I get home and I wanted to share them with Pod.’
He placed the packet of toffees in his pocket and fastened the button. ‘There, they are in my pocket and they can stay there, I won’t have another one until I reach the village,’ he told himself. Halfway home he wanted to stop and have another toffee and he was tempted to open his pocket and just have the one. But he was very good and didn’t stop to take out the packet of toffees until reached the first house in the village. He opened up the packet and before he could take one out the whole packet was snatched from his hand. ‘What have we here?’ asked Kronk who had leaned over his garden gate and grabbed the packet out of Peter’s hand.
‘They’re Mrs Treacle’s best butter toffees, and they are mine so just you give them back right now,’ cried Peter.
No, I don’t think I will, at least not until I’ve tried one,’ said Kronk.
‘You just give them back to me, or I’ll, I’ll …’ spluttered peter.
‘Or you’ll what? Asked Kronk. ‘I’m bigger than you and if you don’t keep quiet, I’ll not give you them back at all.’
There was not a lot Peter could do, Kronk really was the meanest and most unfriendly gnome you ever did meet. Kronk took out a toffee unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth. ‘Mmm, that is good,’ he said. ‘In fact it is so good that I am going to keep the whole packet.’
You can’t do that they’re mine,’ cried Peter. But he was too late. Kronk had already run into the house and slammed the door.
Peter was very upset, Kronk was a bully and he couldn’t be allowed to get away with it. He would have to be taught a lesson and Peter had just thought of a way to do it. Instead of going straight home Peter went around to his friend Pod’s house and told him what had happened.
‘He can’t do that,’ said Pod
‘He can and he has. But I’ve thought of a way to teach him a lesson.’ said Peter and he asked Pod to meet him just outside the village the next day at twelve o’clock.
The next morning bright and early Peter went into town called at one of the shops, bought a small packet of special powder and then went around to Mrs Treacle’s. He told her that Kronk had stolen his toffees and asked if she could make him some toffees with the powder mixed in.
When he got back, Pod was waiting for him at the edge of the village.
‘Right,’ said Peter. ‘I’ll hide in the bushes opposite Kronk’s house and you take this packet of toffees, stop outside his gate and open the packet, but what every you do, do not eat any of them yourself.’
Kronk who was busy watering his garden smiled when he saw Peter’s friend Pod coming along the road towards him and his smile widened when he saw what was in Pod’s hand.
When Pod reached Kronk’s gate he didn’t even have time to open the packet before it was snatched from his hand, ‘Hey!’ he cried. ‘Give me my toffees back!’
‘Not until I’ve eaten a few,’ replied Kronk, he was so greedy that he unwrapped three toffees at once and popped them in his mouth. ‘Mmm, these are delicious. I think I’ll have some mo…’ suddenly he stopped speaking, his face turned red and a little puff of steam came out of his ears. Grabbing up the watering can he drank great gulps of water. Which seemed to work, but then his red face turned pink, then green and his tummy began to rumble. The rumbling went on for a little while, then his face turned red again, he began to burp and every time he burped a puff of steam came out of his ears and a small blue flame shot out of his mouth.
Peter came out of hiding and Pod, who was staring in fascination at the flames coming out of Kronk’s mouth asked, ‘What did you put in the toffees?’
‘Just a couple of pinches of powdered dragons breath, it only works for a little while, but while does it is quite frightening and it tastes horrible too,’ said Peter.
‘I don’t think he’ll be stealing any more toffees for a while,’ said Pod.
‘No,’ said Peter. ‘Let’s go home, I’ve got a nice packet of butter toffees in my pocket.’
So off they went, leaving Kronk to gulp water and blow blue flames every time he burped.
It was Monday morning very early and Bethany and Teddy One Ear were wide-awake. Mum had promised to take them to the seaside on a train. They had never been on a train before and they were very excited.
‘Mum, Mum,’ called Bethany. ‘Teddy One Ear wants to know if it is time to get up yet?’
‘Tell Teddy it is only five o’clock and he has to go back to sleep.’
‘But Mum, he says he can’t, he’s too excited.’
‘Well just you tell him that if he doesn’t go back to sleep, there will be no trip to the seaside today.’
‘See I told you it was too early,’ Bethany said. ‘Let’s try and go back to sleep.’
Teddy One Ear didn’t say anything; he just lay on the pillow next to her and stared at the ceiling with his little button eyes.
‘It’s no good going in the huff, it’s not my fault you woke up so early,’ said Bethany. ‘You had better at least try to go to sleep, or else mum with get mad.’
Bethany pulled the covers right up to their chins and they both stared up at the ceiling they lay like that for ages and ages and still they couldn’t get back to sleep. ‘No, I can’t tell you what time it is Teddy, I haven’t got a watch.’
‘Tell you what, let’s play I spy. I’ll go first. I spy with my little eye something beginning with D.’
Teddy guessed Door, Duvet, and Dragon.
‘Dragon? Where is there a Dragon? Asked Bethany. ‘Oh, clever Teddy, it’s on the front of my fairytale book, good guess but it’s not Dragon.’
Then Teddy guessed Drawer and Bethany said, ‘That’s right Teddy, it’s your go now.’
Teddy spied with his little eye something beginning with C. Bethany guessed Carpet, Cushions, and Curtains. Teddy shook his head. Bethany spent ages looking around and then said that she gave up.
‘I can’t see anything else beginning with C… Car, don’t be silly Teddy there is no car. Yes, I know there is one in the garage, but that doesn’t count, it has to be in the bedroom.’
‘No, it is not silly teddy, that is the rules of the game.’
‘What? You don’t want to play, you want to get up, Oh all right, I’ll ask.’
‘Mum, Teddy wants to know if it is time to get up yet.’ Bethany called.
‘It’s still very early, but you might as well, since it doesn’t look as if you are going back to sleep again,’ said mum.
‘Hooray!’ cried Bethany.
‘Get washed and ready before you come downstairs, there are clean clothes on your bedroom chair, and Bethany,’ said mum.
‘Yes Mum.’
‘Don’t forget to clean you teeth.’
‘OK, Mum.’
After Bethany had washed and cleaned her teeth, she sat Teddy on the toilet seat, wagged her finger at him and said, ‘Now, while I go and get ready, I want you to get washed and make sure you wash behind your ears and clean your teeth.’
Bethany got dressed, brushed he hair and collected Teddy from the bathroom and together they went downstairs for breakfast.
‘When are we going to the seaside?’ asked Bethany.
‘A little later, eat your breakfast, I’ve poured you and Teddy One Ear a nice bowl of Coco Pops,’ said mum.’
‘But we are not hungry Mum, we are too excited,’ said Bethany.
‘I’ll tell you what, if you eat up all your breakfast, you can help me make some sandwiches and by then it will be time to go to the station and get the train to the seaside.’
Suddenly Bethany found that she was quite hungry and she ate up all her cereal, ‘I’ve finished can I help you make the sandwiches now?’
Mum smiled, ‘I’m not sure you can, Teddy One Ear hasn’t ate any of his cereal.’
‘But Mum he can’t, he has a poorly tummy and he will be sick everywhere if he eats his cereal.’
‘Oh, dear we can’t have that, tell him to sit there quietly, while you help me make the sandwiches.’
After telling Teddy to stay where he was Bethany jumped down from the chair and dragged it over to the bench, so that she could stand on it while she helped mum. They made some ham sandwiches and some marmalade sandwiches – Teddy One Ear loved marmalade sandwiches – and wrapped them in silvery foil to keep them fresh.
Mum packed the sandwiches in a bag together with a bottle of blackcurrant juice and flask of tea. The blackcurrant was for Bethany and Teddy and the tea was for mum.
Leaving the house they walked down to the railway station. Mum put some money in a machine and out came two tickets. Mum said Teddy didn’t need one, as he would be sitting on Bethany's knee. After collecting the tickets they walked out onto the platform to wait for the train. Bethany was so excited, this was such an adventure that she could hardly stand still and kept hopping from one foot to the other. ‘Mum, Teddy wants to know when the train will come.’
Mum laughed, ‘It will be here soon, tell Teddy to look that way and he’ll see the train coming shortly.’
Bethany held Teddy up so that he could see better and they waited. They didn’t have long to wait before the train came into view. It was a long way away and it looked very small, but as it came closer it seemed to grow bigger and by the time it pulled into the station it was every big and very, very, long indeed. The train came to a halt, the doors opened with a swish and lots of people got off. As soon as the people were off, mum took Bethany’s hand and helped her on board. Bethany ran straight to a seat by the window and sat Teddy on her knee so that he could look out.
Soon they left the town behind and travelled through the countryside passing green fields full of sheep and cows. Finally the train stopped at a station called Sandysea and mum said it was time to get off. Leaving the station they walked down a steep hill until they reached sea front.
‘Look Teddy, look at all that golden sand and all that water,’ said Bethany, as she held Teddy up so that he could see. Teddy didn’t say anything, but she could see from the way that his eyes sparkled that he liked it very much. Mum hired a deckchair; they found a nice clear patch of sand to put it up on and while mum sat in the sun Bethany and Teddy played in the sand. It was very sunny so mum and Bethany put on their sun cream. Bethany wanted to put some on Teddy. But mum said all the sand would stick to him and besides bears have thick fur so that the sun doesn’t burn them.
They played, rounders and cricket, and pass the ball, and then had their sandwiches. Mum gave Teddy a marmalade sandwich, but he was too excited to eat so Bethany ate it for him. Afterwards mum moved her deckchair further down the beach so that Bethany and Teddy could build sand castles with the damp sand. Later they all went for a paddle in the water which lovely and cool. Bethany carried Teddy so that he didn’t get wet but he wiggled about so much that she dropped him and he went splash into the water. Oh dear, Teddy wasn’t happy, he couldn’t swim, but Bethany rescued him and carried up to where they had left their things. After rubbing him down with one of the towels she laid him in the sun to dry.
When Teddy was dry Bethany picked him up and said, ‘Time to go home Teddy.’
Mum handed back the deckchair and they walked back up to the railway station. It was very tiring walking up hill after spending all day running around on the beach and just before she fell asleep on the train, Bethany mumbled, ‘Teddy One Ear says, thank you, and despite falling in the water, he has had a lovely day at the seaside.’
Peter the friendly elf closed the front door of his neat little white painted house in the village of Trimble. Picking up the basket containing his home made honey biscuits he set off for Pod’s house. He didn’t have far to go, his friend Pod only lived a few doors away.
Today it was the day of the village summer show and everyone would be going. The village green would be set up with roundabouts and stalls with candyfloss, ice cream and much more. But the most important part of the day was the afternoon when the winners of each show were presented with their prizes beneath the old oak tree. There were shows for everything you could think of, from cakes and biscuits to sheep and cows and there were judges to pick the winners of each show. Peter was putting his honey biscuits into the cake and biscuit show, while Pod had entered Henrietta his white speckled hen into the best hen show.
Peter walked up the path to Pod’s house and knocked on the door. When there was no reply he knocked again, strange, he thought, Pod is always ready and waiting when I call, he hates being late for anything. He must be having trouble, getting Henrietta into her basket. I better go around the back and give him a hand.
When he reached the back of the house he was surprise to find the garden in a mess. There were feathers all over the place and Pod was busy fixing the door to the hen run. ‘What a mess,’ he said. ‘What’s happened? Has a fox gotten into the run?’
‘No,’ said Pod. ‘Someone has broken the lock off and stolen Henrietta.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, look, you can see where they have used a lever to break the lock.’
‘I didn’t mean that. What I meant was that when whoever it was broke the lock, maybe Henrietta escaped and wandered off.’
‘I don’t think so, I’ve spent the last two hours rounding up the hens and they are all here except Henrietta.’
‘But who would mean enough and stupid enough to steal the only white speckled hen in the village? Everyone knows it belongs to you.’
‘I’ve no idea…’ said Pod, stopping in mid sentence and turning to Peter.
Peter looked at his friend and they both said, ‘Kronk,’ at the same time.
Kronk lived at the other end of the village and he was the meanest and most unfriendly old gnome you could meet.
‘I’ll go down there and demand Henrietta back straight away,’ said Pod angrily.
‘No you can’t you haven’t any proof and beside you know what he’s like, he won’t let you into his garden and he’ll just say he hasn’t got her.’
‘What can I do then?’ wailed Pod.
Peter hated to see his friend so upset, so he had a little think and came up with a plan.
Ten minutes later Pod was outside Kronk’s front gate. ‘Good morning, Mr Kronk, nice day for the show,’ he said.
Kronk who was sitting on his front step, looked up. ‘What do you want?’He asked grumpily.
While Pod was keeping Kronk talking, Peter had gone around the back of the house and was peering over the fence. Kronk’s hens were in the garden pecking away at the ground but the only speckled hen he could see was brown, not white. Circling back around he waved; Pod finished talking to Kronk and walked away.When he reached Peter he said, ‘Did you see Henrietta?’
‘No,’ said Peter. ‘All of Kronk’s hens were in the garden and the only speckled hen was brown.’
‘Oh dear, what am I going to do now?’ Pod cried.
‘Come on, I’ll help you search for her.’
They searched everywhere but there was no sign of Henrietta and in the end they had to give up the search. Pod was so upset that he wanted to go home. But Peter who was nervous about putting his biscuits in the show, asked him to come along too. Being a good friend Pod agreed. So they hurried down to the green and they were only just in time to enter the biscuits before the judging began. Peter was very nervous as the judges tried out his biscuits. He needn’t have worried, from the look on their faces it seemed as if they liked them. But he would have wait until they gave out the prizes later in the afternoon to see if he had won anything.
Next they went to see the judging of the flower show, the vegetable show, the pig, sheep and cattle shows. But Pod didn’t want go to the hen show so they had a ride on the roundabout and ate some candyfloss instead. Soon it was time for the prize giving so they joined the crowd in front of the old oak tree. Mr Mong the mayor called for silence and announced the winners of the various shows. Pod was please to hear that his friend had won first prize with his honey biscuits, but not so pleased when he heard that Kronk had won first prize with the brown speckled hen.
The crowd cheered and when everyone had settle down the mayor cleared his throat and spoke again, ‘Could Peter elf come and collect his Prize.’
Peter was a little embarrassed, but he collected his prize, a large silver cup. He returned to show it to Pod. But pod was busy staring at Kronk who had the brown speckled hen under his arm and was waiting at the end of the queue to receive his prize. ‘That’s Henrietta, I’d know her anywhere’ he said. ‘Kronk must have dyed her brown?’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, you watch the show and leave this to me,’ said Peter.
Peter ran home collected what he needed and hurried around to the back of the old oak tree.
As he watched the prize giving Pod kept looking around wondering where his friend had gone, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Eventually Kronk stepped up to the table beneath the old oak tree to receive the prize for best hen and a strange thing happened. It began to rain. But only on Kronk, and as the water poured down the brown speckled hen began to turn white as the dye washed off. Realising he had been caught out Kronk dropped Henrietta and ran away. Pod walked over, picked her up, collected the prize for best hen and looked up. There on the branch above sat a grinning Peter holding a watering can in his hand.
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reach when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface, the pool is normally a cool and pleasant place to live. Today however all is not well, there is a thunderstorm raging and as the tide comes sweeping in, giant waves pour into the pool. The water swirls and spins and Crabby Crab, who has been caught out in the open is swept around and around. One minute he is upside down, the next the right way up and his claws are aching, with trying to grab onto anything to stop him bouncing off the rocks.
Suddenly he is thrown up to the surface, where he manages grab onto a lump of driftwood and is carried out of the pool and in towards the shore. He hangs on with both of his pincers as the piece of wood is hurled from one wave to the next. Up and down, back and forwards he goes and the nearer to the shore he gets the worse it becomes. As the water become shallow the waves break, throwing the wood forward and pounding it down onto the sandy bottom, only to pick it up and do it over and over again. All Crabby can do is to hang on tightly, until he is thrown ashore many hours later. The driftwood ends up in a great heap of seaweed on the shore and he was so tired by then that he crawled deep inside and fell asleep.
When Crabby woke up it was the middle of the night, the storm was over and the tide was on its way out again. Shakily he crawled out from under the seaweed and scuttled sideway down to the waters edge. He needed to get back to his home pool, but he wasn’t sure which way to go. He could feel soft sand beneath his legs but he needed to feel rocks. He stood still for moment unsure what to do and then scuttled off, following the waters edge to the left. On and on he travelled for a long, long time. Then just when he was about to give up and go the other way, the sand was gone and he could feel rock beneath his legs.
He had found the rocks, now all he had to do was to find the pool. He followed the tide as it went out and within minutes, splash! He had fallen into a pool. It was very dark at the bottom of the pool, but then the moon came out from behind a cloud and he took a look around. It wasn’t his pool so he scrabbled out and continued his search. All night he climbed into and out of pools and was chased by other bigger crabs for invading their territory. In the last one he’d even had to fight off a large, hungry, Moray eel that had been left behind by the tide.
He was wondering if he would ever get home, when he spotted a jumble of rocks ahead. If he climbed to the top of them, maybe he would be able to see where his own pool was. It was hard climbing the slippery rocks and it took him so long that it was daylight before he reached the top. He crouched down for a moment until he got his breath back and then scrabbled over to the edge and looked down. There were three more pools in front of him and while he had never seen his pool from above, he knew that it was the one right at the edge of the sea.
Climbing down the side of rocks, he set off sideways towards the pool and was only halfway there when a large seagull spotted him and came diving down to the attack. Quickly he scuttled into a crack in the nearest rock. There was only just enough room for him to squeeze inside and after the seagull had landed it poked its beak into the opening trying to peck him. He fought it off with his strong hard pincers and eventually the seagull gave a loud angry squawk and flew away. Crabby waited until he was sure it was gone, then ran across to his pool, slipped under the water and crawled into his cave in Crabby Rock. Once inside, he lay down, went to sleep, and dreamed of telling his friends about his long and dangerous journey.
In his neat little white painted house, at one end of the village of Trimble, Peter the friendly elf was looking through his cupboards. He had run out of his favourite honey biscuits and he was checking to see if he had all of the ingredients to make some more. To make sure he had them all he had written them down on a list andwas crossing them out as he found them.
Peter’s List
Flour
Salt
Butter
Honey
And, oh dear, the most important one was missing, honey, and the one thing you cannot do without when making Honey Biscuits, is honey.
Slipping on his little blue Jacket he hurried next door to his friend Pod’s house, but Pod didn’t have any honey either. Next he tried nearly every house in the village, but no one had any honey. Now there was only one house to try and that was Kronk’s house.
Kronk was the meanest and most unfriendly old gnome you could meet, but Peter thought he would ask anyway. Kronk was busy putting a new lock on the gate to the apple tree – the apple tree really belong to the whole village, but Kronk had built a fence around it, put a lock on the gate and now kept all the apples for himself.
‘Good day, Mr Kronk,’ said Peter, ‘I was wondering if you might have a little honey to spare.’
Kronk gave Peter a mean look and said, ‘Honey? Do you really think that if I had any honey I would give it to you? If I had any honey, which I do not, I would keep it all for myself.’
Oh, thought Peter, he really is the meanest old gnome ever, but all he said was, ‘Thank you, Mr Kronk,’ and walked away.
Peter got up early the next morning, he was going to Dingle market for some honey and it was a long way. It way a lovely morning the birds were singing and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. On the way to the market Peter was carrying an empty basket and he skipped all the way there. But on the way back there was a heavy pot of honey in his basket and he was getting very tired. The day was hot, he was sweating and his little legs were aching by the time he reached the old oak tree at the edge of the village.
It was no good he just had to sit down and have a rest, placing the basket next to him; he sat with his back against the tree and before he knew it had nodded off. As soon as he was asleep Kronk who had been watching him from behind his hedge, crept out, grabbed the honey and scurried back into his garden. After looking around he decided to hide the pot of honey under an upturned flowerpot, ‘Hee, Hee,’ he cackled. ‘No one will find it there.’
Half an hour later Peter woke up, went to pick up his basket and found that his honey had been stolen. Who would have done such a thing, he looked around but there was no one about. Sadly, with his head bowed, he began to make his way home; there would be no honey biscuits today.
He was so sad that he was half way home before he realise someone was shouting his name. Turning he saw that it was his friend Pod. Peter wasn’t in the mood for talking but he couldn’t just walk away, so he waited for Pod to catch up.
‘I’m sorry Pod,’ Peter said when his friend reached him, ‘I’m not in the mood to talk, someone stole my honey when I was asleep.’
‘I know, said Pod. ‘I was on top of fairy hill and I saw who took it. It was that horrible gnome Kronk and he has hidden it under a flowerpot in his garden. Lets’ go and get it back.’
‘No, that won’t work,’ said Peter. ‘He’ll just laugh at us, besides he won’t let us in his garden. But I think I know how to get the honey back.’
Peter explained his plan to Pod then they went around talking to the villagers. The next morning when Kronk was in his garden, three of the villagers ran past carrying sacks, ‘What is going on?’ he called.’ But the villagers kept on running and soon disappeared over the hill. Shortly afterwards some more villagers ran past and the same thing happened. A little later he saw Pod running towards him, so he stepped out into the road with his arms outstretched and Pod had to stop, ‘What is going on?’ he demanded.
‘Nothing,’ said Pod.
‘Then why have you got that sack?’ asked Kronk.
‘Because the farmer at green meadow, over by Dingle, has a field of potatoes he can’t pick and if you take your own sack, he’ll let you fill it for free.’
At the mention of the word free, greedy old Kronk ran back into his garden, grabbed a sack and went racing up the road. As soon as he disappeared over the hill Peter came out from behind the oak tree and took his honey from under the flowerpot.
‘Come on Pod,’ he said. ‘Let’s go home and bake some Honey Biscuits.’
It took Kronk two hours to get to Dingle, only to find no farmer at green meadow and no free potatoes. Then it took him two hours to get back and wasn’t he surprised when he topped the hill to find all of the villagers sitting under the oak tree, having a picnic with lots of Honey Biscuits to eat.
Barney the cat was fed up, he was sick of his bed in the washroom. Katie had got it for him when he was a tiny kitten and it had little flowers and bows around the sides.
Ugh, he thought, it is so babyish, and I am no longer a little cutesy kitten, I am a big strong cat, a great hunter of mice and I refuse to sleep in that baby bed anymore. I will go find my own bed, a bed fit for a grown up cat like me.
He walked down the path into the back garden and looked around. Now where would be a good place to sleep? He could climb into the garage through the little window at the back. But if someone shut the window he would either be trapped inside or locked out. No, he decided the garage was no good; he wanted to be able to come and go when he wanted.
The greenhouse look promising, there was a small pane of glass missing in the door so there would be on problem getting in and out. He jumped inside and a voice said, ‘Oy! What der yer think yer doing in here?’
It was Rodney and Barney had forgotten that he lived in the greenhouse. Rodney was a very big rat with yellow teeth and Barney knew he could never sleep in the same place as Rodney. Cats and Rats just do not get on together, so Barney jumped back through the hole where the glass was missing and went to look elsewhere.
He decided to go and see Harry Hedgehog. Harry lived under the hedge in the corner of the garden with his mum and dad and he was a very good friend. Maybe he could stay with Harry. When Barney reached the corner he called out, ‘Hello, are you there? Harry.’
For a moment nothing happened, then a pile of dry leaves in the corner began to move and first a small snout, followed by a pair of eyes appeared. ‘Hello, Barney, what are you doing at this end of the garden?’ asked Harry.
‘I’m looking for a new place to sleep and I wondered if I could stay in your house?’ asked Barney.
‘You’re welcome to stay with us, but we haven’t a house.’
‘Where do you sleep then?’
‘Under that pile of leaves.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Barney. ‘I’m sorry Harry, but I don’t think I would like to sleep under a pile of leaves.’
‘Why don’t you go and make a bed in the shed,’ said Harry. ‘You could get in through the hole in the back, like you did last time you ran away.’
‘I can’t, Katie’s dad has blocked the hole up.’
‘Why don’t you ask Rosalind Rabbit if you can stay with her?’ asked Harry.
‘Good idea, I’ll go and ask her now,’ said barney.
Slipping under the garden fence, Barney made his way to the hill where the rabbits lived and knocked on the door of burrow number twenty-two. In a moment or two Rosalind opened the door and said, ‘Hello Barney, what are you doing here?’
‘I’m fed up with my old bed,’ said Barney, ‘and I was wondering if I could stay with you.’
‘Sure you can Barney, there’s a spare bed in my brother’s room, come on in.’
Barney began to follow Rosalind into the burrow, but the farther they went the darker it got, until eventually it was so dark that Barney couldn’t see a thing and he said, ‘Can you switch on the lights, I can’t see anything.’
‘Oh you are silly Barney,’ said Rosalind, ‘rabbit burrows don’t have any lights.’
‘What, you live in the dark all the time.’
‘Yes, that’s because our burrow is deep under the ground.’
‘I’m sorry Rosalind,’ said Barney,’ but I couldn’t sleep down there in the dark.’
With that, Barney scrabbled backwards until he was outside in the daylight. Now where am I going to sleep? I’ve tried everywhere and I don’t like any of them. Then just as he was about to give up he remembered the Magpie nest in the old tree. The magpies had built it last year, but this year they had built a new one in a different tree. ‘Ah,’ said barney to no one in particular, ‘that’s just the place for me.’
Ducking back under the fence, he climbed right up to the top of the old tree and jumped into the nest, after scratching about with his paws he curled up was soon asleep. He slept right through the afternoon and awoke when he heard Katie calling him in for his tea. Quickly he climbed down and went in through the cat flap in the backdoor and ate his tea, it was his favourite, chunky tuna. After he had eaten he went through into the lounge and played with Katie and her sister Rosie until it was bedtime. Bedtime for them that is, there was no way that they were going to get him into that bed.
As soon as Katie and Rosie’s mum said, ‘It’s time for bed girls.’ Barney shot through the kitchen, into the washroom and out through the cat flap, into the garden. Quickly he climbed the tree, curled up in his new bed and it was so comfortable that very soon he was fast asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night the wind began to blow. At first it only blew softly and Barney slept on as he was rocked to and fro, but the wind grew stronger and Barney woke up as the branches began to thrash about. He dug his claws in and clung on as he was thrown every which way.
Suddenly the wind blew stronger still, there was a loud crack, as the branch complete with Barney in the nest, snapped from the tree and sailed across the garden to land with a thump on the lawn. Unhurt, but feeling very dizzy, Barney clambered from the nest, tottered to the backdoor and crawled through the cat flap.Inside he staggered over to his warm, safe, comfortable old bed with its flowers and bows, and was soon fast sleep.
Barney the kitten was having a great time playing in the lounge; he’d knocked all the cushions onto the floor, sharpened his claws on the curtains, and tipped a vase of flowers onto the rug.
Now he had run out of games to play, so he decided to go and see what Katie’s mum was doing in the kitchen.
He jumped up onto a chair and watched as she grated some cheese
into a bowl. He gave a little meow to let her know he was there and she turned smiling, ‘Sorry, this is not for you, boy, it’s to go on the pasta tonight.’
Just then the doorbell rang and she went to see who was there. While she was away Barney jumped up onto the bench and sniffed the cheese, then he stuck his head in the bowl and began to eat.
Suddenly there was a loud screech, and he was lifted up into the air, carried to the door and put out into the garden, ‘Out you go, you naughty kitten, you must learn not to eat other peoples cheese.’
Barney tried the cat flap; it was locked, so he walked down the path into the back garden.
‘Hello, where are you off to?’ said Rosalind Rabbit.
‘Katie’s mum has locked me out, just because I ate some cheese, so I’m leaving home.’
‘I’ll come too, my mum shouted at me.’
‘Did you eat some cheese too?’ asked Barney.
‘No, I was digging up a carrot and I kicked dirt on the clean washing,’ said Rosalind.
Halfway down the garden they met Harry Hedgehog,
’ Where are you two going?’ he asked.
‘We’re leaving home,’ said Rosalind.
‘I’ll join you,’ mum got mad at me, because I rolled in the mud and went home with leaves sticking all over me,’ said Harry.
‘Come on then, let’s go,’ said Barney.
Barney was pleased that the others were going with him; he hadn’t really been looking forward to living on his own.
They carried on walking until they were as far as they could get from the house. They had reached the very
bottom of the garden.
‘How about under the garden table? It’s got a cover over it, it’ll be like living in a tent,’ said Harry.
‘It’ll be very draughty,’ said Barney.
‘Well, what about the greenhouse then,’ said Rosalind.
‘No, I saw a big horrible rat in there, once,’ said Barney.
‘There’s the garden shed, but it’s locked,’ said Harry.
‘Yes, but there’s a hole at the back, where we can get in, follow me and I’ll show you,’ said Rosalind.
Barney and Harry followed her to the back of the shed and they squeezed through the hole. ‘Are we really going to live in here?’ asked Rosalind, as she looked around at the clutter of garden tools and Katie’s old toys, ‘It doesn’t look much like home to me.’
‘No but there’s a pile of nice soft sacks in the corner, we can go to sleep there, and in the morning we can tidy up and make the place nice.
It was getting dark so they huddled together wearing a sack like a blanket, and had hardly closed their eyes, when they heard a voice calling.
‘Rosalind, It’s getting dark, come in and get your supper.’
‘Coming, mum,’ cried Rosalind.
‘But your mum shouted at you,’ said Barney.
‘Yes, but only because I was naughty,’ called Rosalind, as she disappeared through the hole.
Two minutes later Harry’s mum began to call.
‘Sorry, Barney I got to go home,’ he said
‘But your mum was angry with you,’ said Barney.
‘Yes I know, but I shouldn’t have made all that mess in the house,’ he said, and he too disappeared through the hole.
Barney’s was feeling very lonely without his friends, so when the back door opened and Katie’s mum called him in for supper,
he raced up the garden and into the house, meowing all the way, to let her know he was sorry for eating the cheese.
_____________________________________________
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Kitten illustration by Katie aged 5, with a little assistance from big sister.
Barney the kitten wanted to go outside and explore, but his mum said it was time for bed and she cuddled him in next to her in their basket. He tried to go to sleep, he really did, but all he could think of was exploring. He waited
until his mum was fast asleep, then wriggling from under her paws; he tiptoed quietly to the cat flap and slipped out into the garden.
It was dark outside, but he wasn’t frightened, he was a big kitten now and he knew his way around the garden. He was halfway down the path when he heard a grunting sound and a rustling at the bottom of the hedge. He the fur on his back rose and he called out in a squeaky voice, ‘Who’s there?’
There was another louder grunt and a hedgehog appeared. ‘It’s only me,’ he said.
Barney was relieved, and he continued to the bottom of the garden, it was darker here away from the lights of the house and he decided to go back. But before he could turn around something jumped on his foot. He hissed, and after jumping backwards, heard a croak, croak, and knew it was only a frog from the pond.
He’d already had two frights and was wondering if it was such a good idea to go exploring in the dark. All around him he could hear strange noises and when a pair of big round eyes came towards him, he ran without stopping, back to the house.
As it flew across the garden the Owl let out a hoot, ‘Tu-wit, tu-whoo,’ and wondered where the kitten was going, in such a hurry.
Inside the house, Barney squirmed his way beneath his mum, until only his nose peeked out and decided he’d only go out in the dark when he was older.
Kitten illustration by Katie aged 5 with a little assistance from big sister
It was a lovely day and Barney kitten had been running after a mouse that had strayed into the garden. The mouse escaped, but all that chasing about had really tired him out, so he curled up and went to sleep.
He was enjoying a wonderful dream when he felt a tickling on the end of his nose. He twitched his whiskers and went on with his dream, but the tickling came again. This time, he opened his eyes and there on the end of his nose was a beautiful red and black butterfly. He swiped at it with his paw and it fluttered into the air and flew away to settle on a flower.
Barney watched it for a while, then crept forward and pounced, but the butterfly simply fluttered up into the air, then landed on another flower. He tried again but the same thing happened, again, and again, until finally the butterfly landed on a branch of a tree at the bottom of the garden.
Barney scrambled up to the branch, but the butterfly had flown to the next one. He followed, going higher and higher, until suddenly the butterfly flew off and there was a loud, ‘Caw,’ as a crow swooped down calling, ‘Get away from my nest you naughty kitten.’
Quickly, with the crow following, Barney scrambled backwards down the tree. Then just as he reach the last branch he slipped and fell straight into the muddy puddle, left over from yesterdays rain. Agh! How he hated water, he dragged himself from the puddle and ran for the house with the crow flying behind calling, ‘Caw, and don’t come near my nest again.’
Cold, wet, and all muddy Barney crawled into his bed, curled up and dreamt of chasing mice, they were much easier to chase than butterflies.
Katie had a cat called Barney and he used to wait until she was watching the television, then he would sneak up on her and pounce with claws extend
‘Mum,’ Katie would cry, ‘Barney’s got his claws tangled in my jumper again,’
Mum would come in, ease out his claws carefully, tell him off, and he would run away in a huff and hide .He really was the huffiest cat you could find.
One morning, as she did every morning, Katie filled his bowl with his favourite cat food and banged on the dish with a spoon to attract his attention. Barney came in took one sniff, turned his nose up and shot out the cat flap.
‘Mum, Barney’s in the huff again, he won’t eat his breakfast and he’s gone outside.’
‘We haven’t got time to look for him, we’ll be late for school, put his dish outside, he’ll eat it when he’s hungry,’ said mum.
Katie put his dish outside and off they went to school.
In the garden Barney lay in the shade, under a bench and watched Katie put out his food. They can’t make me eat it, I won’t do it, he thought, and rested his head on his paws. It was a nice warm morning and it wasn’t long before he fell asleep.
Now in the big tree at the bottom of the garden lived a pair of fat crows and they would eat anything. As soon as they were sure Barney was sound asleep, down they swooped and began to feed. They pecked away happily untile bowl was half empty, and only flew off when Bob, next doors dog came around the corner. Bob padded over to Barney’s bowl, sniffed and two gulps ate the rest, then spent a few minutes licking it clean.
It was mid morning when Barney woke up. He was feeling very hungry, and made his way to the bowl only to find it empty. ‘Who stole my breakfast,’ he screeched.
‘Since you didn’t seem to want it, we ate half,’ said the crows.
‘And I ate the rest,’ said Bob, ‘it was very nice.’
‘Your all horrible,’ cried Barney, his tummy rumbling.
The other all laughed and said, ‘It serves you right, you shouldn’t be so huffy.’
That afternoon when Katie came home from school, Barney followed her everywhere, rubbing up against her legs and meowing.
‘Mum, Barney wants something to eat, shall I feed him?’
‘No, darling he had a great big bowl this morning, he’ll get fat if we feed him to much.’
Barney’s tummy rumbled all night and when Katie fed him the next morning, he purred with delight.
Young Katie, like a lot of other children lived in a town, and apart from cats and dogs, and sometimes a police horse, she only ever saw farm animals on the television. Mind you, she knew what most of them were called and looked like, but had never ever seen any of them for real.
So one spring holiday mum took her to a city farm, it wasn’t a working farm, but it was where you could take children and let them see all kinds of farm animals.
Katie had a wonderful time; she fed the baby lambs and calves with a bottle, threw corn to the hens, held a tiny chick, stroked a donkey and fed apples to the horses. She saw sheep, goats, pigs, cows, and had a ride on a trailer pulled by a tractor.
When they arrived home in the afternoon, mum said, ‘Which animals did you like best, Katie?’
Katie didn’t even have to think about it, ‘The baby lambs and the calves,’ she said straight away. ‘And the little chicks,’ she added, excitedly.
‘What about the other animals,’ Mum asked.
‘ The Horses were great, the donkey was funny, the hens were OK, the goats and pigs were smelly, but I didn’t like the cows.’
‘But why darling, cows are very friendly,’ said mum.
‘No they’re not, they shout at you, and they’re big, and they have horns,’ said Katie.
‘Cows are not as big as horses, they don’t shout, they moo, and they are our friends.’
Despite what mum said, Katie still wasn’t sure about cows.
‘Right,’ said mum, ‘go and wash your hands, then we’ll have a bite to eat.’
After washing her hands Katie sat at the table.
‘Here’s a present from the cows,’ Mum said, as she handed Katie a glass of milk.
Katie looked puzzled, and her mum said, ‘All of our milk is given to us by the cows.’
Mum handed Katie a slice of bread and the butter dish, ‘The butter is another gift to you from the cows, and you know the cheese you put on your pasta, the cows give us that too.’
Katie hadn’t known the cows gave them so much, and she decided that next time she saw any cows she would thank them very much.
Dipsy, Speedy, Swifty, Flash and their Mum and Dad, were Mallard Ducks who lived in the north of England on Willow Lake. Every spring when the snow melted and the air grew warmer, the Mallards and all the other ducks arrived at the lake, built nests and laid their eggs. The lake was their summer home and a place where their ducklings grew into strong healthy young ducks. They needed to be strong and health, because at the end of summer when the air grew cold again, they had to be ready to fly south to a warmer place.
Dipsy, the youngest duck had damaging one of his wings when he was learning to fly and could only travel a short distance before having to land and rest. To help his wing grow stronger, the whole family flew twice around the lake with him each day.
‘Come on, Dipsy, catch up’ called Speedy, as he flashed by on his second lap around the lake.
‘Come on, Dipsy,’ shouted the twins, Swifty and Flash, as they came alongside and then flew by.
‘I’ll never be able make it, Mum,’ Dipsy cried.
‘Of course you will,’ called his mum.
‘Just keep going, Dipsy, Your Mum and I are right behind you,’ Called his Dad.
‘Sorry, Dad, my wings are tired,’ cried Dipsy, as he dropped down to land on the small patch of ice-free water on the frozen lake. The rest of the family circled around and landed next to him.
‘You’re getting better, son,’ said Dad
‘Yeah, it took us longer to catch you today,’ said Swifty
‘Yeah, it took ages and ages,’ said Flash.
Dipsy knew they were being kind, and he had improved a little, but he knew he wasn’t going to be strong enough to fly south.All the other ducks had gone, the family were the only ones left and when the last patch of water froze they would starve, if they didn’t go too.
That night, when the others were asleep, Dipsy slipped out of
the reeds and hid in an old hollow log at the far end of the lake and stayed there until his family gave up looking for him and flew away to the south.
When he was sure they had gone, Dipsy came out hiding place and began to look for something to eat and some water to drink. Brrr, it was cold now and while he found a little grass to nibble on, he was still very hungry and he couldn’t get a drink because the lake had frozen solid.
He’d have to find water, something to eat and somewhere warm to stay, if he wanted to survive until spring. He ran along the ground, took off and flew away from the lake. It wasn’t long before his wings felt tired so he landed and walked to the top of a nearby hill and found a spring bubbling out of the ground. After drinking his fill, he looked around; the hill was in the middle of a field that was surrounded by a grey stonewall. Beyond the field was another and beyond that, lots of fields, each of them surrounded by stonewalls.
The fields nearest to the hill were empty but one in the distance looked as if it contained small white fluffy clouds. It was a bit too far to reach in one go, so he landed halfway, rested for a few minutes and then flew on. What a surprise he got when he landed in the field and found that each cloud had a long face and four legs. Waddling across to the nearest one he said, ‘Are you a cloud?’
The creature, who was busy chewing on a piece of something, looked up and said, ‘No, silly, I’m Baaabera, and I’m a sheep.’
‘ My name’s Dipsy and I’ve never met a sheep before,’ said Dipsy, ‘Can I ask what you are eating?’
‘This is a piece of turnip. In the winter, when we can’t get any grass to eat, the farmer scatters pieces of it in the field for us to eat.’
‘Could I have some?’ asked Dipsy,’ I’m really hungry.’
‘Certainly, help yourself, try that piece over there.’
Dipsy tried, he really did. But it was no good; the turnip was so hard it was like trying to eat a stone.
Saying goodbye to Baaabera he flew to the next field, which was full large black and white animals with horns. Landing near one he said,
‘Hello, I’m Dipsy and I’m awfully hungry.’
‘Moo,’ said the animal. ‘My name’s Molly the cow and the farmer has just brought us some hay to eat, there is may be some ears of corn or wheat amongst it.’
Dipsy followed Molly over to the hay, and pecked around a bit, but it was a waste of time he didn’t find a thing.
So saying goodbye to Molly he flew off again, There was nothing in the next field, but in the one after, a lot of really plump pink animals were
pushing a shoving around a long trough.
As he landed one of the animals came over, ‘Hello, I’m Percival Pig, who are you?’
‘I’m Dipsy Duck, and I’m really hungry.’
‘Sorry, Dipsy, the farmer has just filled our trough, but by the time that greedy lot have finish there won’t be anything left. Why don’t you go and see the ducks in the farmyard? They might help.’
‘What’s a farmyard?’ asked Dipsy.
‘It’s the yard next to the house where the farmer lives and it is where the hens and ducks live,’ said Percival.
Dipsy had never seen a farm before and he thought all duck were wild and lived on the lakes a rivers.
‘Fly over that way,’ said Percival pointing his trotter in the direction of the next field.
Saying goodbye to the helpful pig, Dipsy flew on and sure enough the farmyard lay just beyond the next field. As he landed a group of
brown birds with red combs on their heads, came running
over.
‘You can’t land here, this our yard,’ said one.
‘Yes that’s right,’ said another.
‘No wild ducks allowed, Shoo,’ said a third.
‘But I only came to see if I could get something to eat,’ said Dipsy.
‘We haven’t got any to spare, so go away,’ said yet another.
‘Of course we have. Now shoo yourselves, back into the henhouse,’ said a voice from behind him.
The birds clucked, squawked and made a bit of a fuss, then strutted off to the henhouse. Dipsy turned to find a duck of about the same size as
him, with white feathers standing there.
‘Take no notice of the hens, they think they own the yard but they don’t.’ said the duck.
‘Thank you,’ said Dipsy. ‘My name is Dipsy and I’m really, really hungry.’
‘ I’m called Desmond, follow me and I’ll get something to eat,’
Dipsy followed Desmond into a big barn and over to a big dish of food. After eating until he was quite full, Desmond introduced him to the other ducks and invited him to stay with them.
Dipsy stayed with them right through the winter and even the farmer’s wife who fed them each day didn’t seem mind him being there. He had a great winter with his new friends and even grew tame enough to feed from the farmer’s wife’s hand.
But he was still a wild duck at heart and when the spring came, he thanked his new friends, promised to come back and visit, and saying goodbye, flew down to the lake to wait for his Mum, Dad, and brothers to return.
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reached when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface Willy winkle and Walter Whelk are on their way to join the others on a ledge just outside Craggy Crevasse, ‘Good day girls,’ they call to the Anemone sisters, Rosemary and Scarlet as they pass by. The sisters, wave their tentacles in reply. Rosemary and Scarlet who normally live right inside the crevasse, have moved next to the entrance so they can see Samantha the dancing Seahorse,
Samantha who is a famous ballerina doesn’t live in the pool; she lives in the deeper water out at sea. She has come on holiday to visit her very good friend Cynthia Starfish and she has promised to dance for Cynthia’s friends.
It is busy on the ledge because everyone wants to see the show; Crabby Crab is sitting next to Colin conger, Cynthia and Stanley starfish are there, so is Mrs Mussel who has managed to find a babysitter to look after her 300 little ones, luckily for Willy and Walter, their friends, Hermit the Crab and Sammy the shrimp have kept them a place to sit.
Samantha pirouettes into the centre of the pool and they all clap their hands with delight. She curtsies, begins her dance and they fall silent as she leaps, twirls and spins around crab rock, gracefully she swoops down to the bottom and up to the surface.
Suddenly a shadow falls across the pool and a net slips into the water behind her. All the creatures scream, ‘look out Samantha!’
But Samantha is so wrapped up in her dance that she doesn’t hear them and as she begins her next pirouette the net scoops her up and she disappears.
Down in the pool all the creatures run about in a panic, until Hermit takes charge, ‘Calm down, calm down,’ he calls and eventually they do. ‘Now, Crabby, Sammy and Colin, you stay with me, and the rest of you hide.’
Hermit waits until the others are hidden and then sends Crabby up to see what has happened to Samantha. Crabby scrambles sideways up the rocky wall, peeks over the top and calls back down, ‘It’s a boy and he’s got Samantha in a jar of water.’
‘What is he doing?’
‘He got his finger in the jar and he’s spinning poor Samantha around and around.’
‘Quick, Colin jump out of the water and make a splash, then hide.’
Colin swims down to the bottom and swishing his tail from side to side speeds upwards until he bursts clear out of the water, after flying through the air he makes a big splash as he falls back into the pool.
The boy seeing the silver flash then the splash, places the jar on a rock at the edge of pool, picks up his net and goes to investigate.
‘You’re the fastest Sammy, can you keep the boy busy for a while? ‘ asks Hermit.
‘ No problem,’ says Sammy and he darted across the pool. The boy dips his net into the water and Sammy leads him away to the other side of the rock pool.
‘Quickly, Crabby see if you can tip the jar into the pool,’ calls Hermit.
Crabby climbs out of the water and scuttles sideways over to the jar. Reaching up with his claws he pushes and the jar begins to tip, one more push and the jar topples right into the pool and Samantha swims free.
There is a shout from the other side and the sound of running feet as the boy sees his jar fall into the water, but by the time he reaches the spot there is only an empty jar lying on the bottom. He fishes out his jar and hunts right around the pool but there isn’t a single creature to be seen.
Finally the boy gives up and all the creatures come out from where they have hidden, under the rocks and in the crevasse, and Samantha puts on a very special show, to thank them for rescuing her.
Down in jungle lived a snake called Hissing Sid, who was always sneaking around capturing the small animals. He never tried to capture the lions, the elephants or any of the larger animals, because he was scared of them. His favourite trick was to coil himself around a branch above the path and wait there, keeping very still. Sooner or later, some poor animal that didn’t know any better, would come along the path and Sid would drop down, wrap them in his coils, and carry them away.
All of the small animals that lived locally were warned by their mums never to go down the jungle path where Hissing Sid lived and they never did, until the day Michael the Marmoset Monkey forgot.
Michael woke up early one morning and said, ‘Mum can I go and call on my friends?’
‘Not yet, it’s early,’ said his mum.
‘But, Mum my friends will be waiting for me,’
‘No they won’t,’ said mum. ‘Besides, you’re not going anywhere until you’ve had your breakfast.’
Michael moaned and groaned, but settled down when his mum gave him his favourite food for breakfast, a banana. After peeling the skin back he sat on his special branch and ate it all up.
‘Now can I go out and play Mum?’ he asked.
‘You’re not going anywhere, until you’ve had that fur combed,’ said his mum.
‘But, but, Mum…’
‘Never mind, but, but, come over here and let me comb your fur.’
Michael tried to get out of it by saying his didn’t need combing, but his mum wasn’t having any of that and made him sit in front of her while she began to comb him with her fingers.
‘Ow! Ow!’ he cried as she combed out the tats.
‘Sit still, you silly boy, it doesn’t hurt that much, the sooner I get finished the sooner you can go and play.’
Michael sat there wriggling until finally his mum said, ‘There that’s all done and you can go and play now.’
‘Yeah!’ shouted Michael as he scampered off to see his friends.
He went to Melissa’s tree first and then the two of them called for Charley, final the three of them made their way to the last tree to collect Celina.
‘What shall we play today? asked Melissa.
‘I know, I know, said Charley. ‘We can swing through the trees playing tag’
‘OK, Who’s on?’ asked Michael.
‘eeny, meeny, miney, mo, catch an Ant on your toe, if he bites you let him go, eeny, meeny, miney mo, you’re on, Charley,’ said Celina. And they all shot off into the trees, laughing and giggling.
Up and down and around they went shrieking and squealing. Charley tagged Melissa first and off they went again. Next to be tagged was Celina, who tagged Michael, who then chased Charley until he managed to tag him too.
They played tag all morning until the sun became too hot, then they had a nap in the shade of a banana tree. After their nap when the air grew cooler, Michael asked, ‘What shall we play now?’
‘I know! I know,’ said Melissa. ‘Let’s play hide and seek.’
‘Great, who will be on?’
‘eeny, meeny, miney, me, catch a caterpillar on your knee, if he wiggles set him free, eeny, meeny, miney, me, You’re on Celina,’ said Charley.
Celina hid her eyes and began to count, when she reached twenty she shouted, ‘Coming ready or not.’ Then she began to search.
She caught Charley first, then Melissa, but she couldn’t find Michael anywhere. After searching everywhere she could think of, she asked the others to help and even with all three of them looking they couldn’t find him.
‘There is only one place we haven’t looked,’ said Celina.
‘Yes, the jungle path,’ said Charley.
‘But that’s where Hissing Sid lives and we are not allowed to go there,’ cried Melissa.
The three friends stood at the beginning of the jungle path and shouted for Michael.
***
When Celina began counting, Michael had looked around for a good hiding place, but he had hidden in them all before. He needed somewhere new and the only place he’d never been before was down the jungle path. He knew he wasn’t supposed to go there, but if he only went down a short way, there was very little chance of meeting Hissing Sid.
He’d found a great bush that hid him completely. The problem was that it must have been too good, because he had been there for ages and no one had found him at all. Then he heard his friends calling so he stepped out from behind the bush.
He had only just set foot on the path when there was a thump and a loud hiss behind him. Hissing Sid, who had been on a branch above him, had dropped down to wrap him in his coils and had missed. Michael took one look and ran off up the path with an angry Hissing Sid close behind.
Michael had just reached his friends when he tripped and fell. Hissing with glee, Sid pounced and came to sudden stop, as Charley grabbed his tail. Turning back on himself he tried to grab Charley. But Melissa hit him with a coconut and as he turned towards her, Celina poked him with a stick he twisted around again. Then Michael joined in and Hissing Sid was twisting left and right, back and forth, over and under, until finally he’d
had enough and made off, slither, bump, slither, bump with a knot tied in his middle.
Michael got a good telling off from his mum, but he didn’t mind, because she was right and he’d never go down that jungle path again.
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reached when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface at the shallow end of the pool, where the water is warm, can be heard the happy sounds of the little ones laughter.
Today is a very special day, Mrs Mussel’s babies are three today, all three hundred of them and they are having a birthday party.
Willy Winkle and Walter Whelk have made streamers out of seaweed and hung them everywhere. Hermit crab has made balloons out of seaweed called Bladder Wrack and one floats above each small shell. Stanley and Cynthia Starfish have baked a special star shape birthday cake. But by the time they cut in into three hundred pieces the babies only get a crumb each. Mind you they are so tiny that a crumb is more than enough.
Baby mussels live in shells and can’t run about playing games like other baby creatures, all they can do is to sit with their shells open and look about them. Which can be pretty boring.
So on this special day Sammy Shrimp is putting on a show to entertain them. Sammy has dressed up as a clown with a red nose and a pointy hat and is doing silly thing to make them laugh. Things like pretending to fall over a rock, bubble blowing, doing magic tricks and chasing little Squidle squid around and around until he gets squirted in the face with ink. The babies love it and scream for more. This time Squidle chases Sammy and every time he catches up, he swims past and squirts Sammy again and again, until he runs out of ink. Next Sammy juggles six small pebbles at once, but he ‘s not very good at it and when the pebbles fall one by one and land on his head, the babies roar with laughter.
By the time Sammy finishes his act the babies, who are not used to so much excitement, are getting tired. So Hermit tells them the story of how Crabby Crab, with the help of his friends, saved Samantha Seahorse, from the boy with fishing net. As he comes to the end of the story, tired little eyes close and three hundred little shells shut with a plop.
Copyright Bethany Watson aged 7 nearly 8 (typed by her Mum).
"Mum", Sarah shouted. "I've seen a cute puppy on T.V.
"No, I know what you're going to say," replied her mum.
"But."
"But nothing"
Sarah sighed, "It's only a £100." I know I'll ask Dad, she thought.
Mum must have known what she was thinking because she said, "There's no point in asking your dad because he will say no as well."
Soon Sarah forgot about the puppy and decided to ask for a rabbit. "Dad" she said "I've seen a rabbit on T.V., can you get it for me?"
"No!" said Dad. "Anyway I thought it was a puppy you wanted."
"I know I'll have both." Said Sarah.
"Definitely not!" Dad had heard enough.
It's not fair, Sarah thought her best friend who lived on Hardakers Lane seemed to get everything she wanted. Every time she said this to her mum, she would say, "Well, you're not her."
Soon Sarah gave up on the rabbit but carried on with the puppy.
It was the night before her 8th birthday and Sarah was very excited. "I wonder what I should call my puppy," she said to her Mum and Dad when they were tucking her in.
"What puppy? said Dad.
"The one that will be wrapped up waiting for me in the living room in the morning".
"Well, go to sleep and wait and see." Mum said as she kissed her goodnight.
Sarah could not get to sleep she was so excited for the morning. You see Sarah only likes Birthdays when it's her own.
"Wakey, wakey" mum shouted.
Sarah jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. She had some lovely surprises. She got pink fluffy slippers, nice new clothes and a Nintendo DS. She was still waiting to open her puppy and there was only one present left. Sarah took a deep breath as she opened it, hoping that the puppy was inside. Would it be a black one, or brown, or perhaps it would be the patchy one.
She opened the wrapping gently and saw a HAMSTER! "Mum, there's something wrong I wanted a cute puppy that needs rescued."
"I want never gets." Said mum.
"So Sarah never wanted to feed the hamster or clean it out. She did nothing with it.
Mum suggested they called the hamster Hammy. Sarah reluctantly agreed. They went upstairs to tell Dad. He was decorating the staircase.
"Dad," Sarah said, "Mum's named the hamster Hammy." "Great, that's alliteration." He said
Sarah still didn't take any notice of Hammy. She was fed up and too busy thinking about the cute puppy.
Eventually though she decided to stop with all the puppy business and started behaving normally again. She did the things that she had done before like going to her best friends house and spending time with her family. She even started to feed and clean out Hammy, soon she thought he was the best Birthday present ever.
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Alliteration is a new word that Bethany has learnt at school.
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Shield of the Sun
This serial has been reformatted into shorter sections and parts 1 through to 32 can now be read on the stories for dads page.
his ears pricked up and he said, ‘Ooo! I do like fish for my tea. If you wait until I put my hoe away and get my fishing rod, I will certainly come with you.’ 
Kronk who lived in a grubby old house at the opposite end of the village to Peter, was the meanest and most unfriendly old gnome, you could ever meet.
something shining in the grass. He bent down and picked it up, it was a small, shiny, gold coin. He showed it to Pod and they hunted around on their hands and knees, looking for more but there were none. ‘Never mind, said Pod, ‘thanks to Kronk we didn’t catch any fish, but we might be able to use the coin to buy some cakes on the way home.’
Barney the kitten was having a great time playing in the lounge; he’d knocked all the cushions onto the floor, sharpened his claws on the curtains, and tipped a vase of flowers onto the rug.
into a bowl. He gave a little meow to let her know he was there and she turned smiling, ‘Sorry, this is not for you, boy, it’s to go on the pasta tonight.’
‘Hello, where are you off to?’ said Rosalind Rabbit.
until his mum was fast asleep, then wriggling from under her paws; he tiptoed quietly to the cat flap and slipped out into the garden.
‘Mum,’ Katie would cry, ‘Barney’s got his claws tangled in my jumper again,’
‘Here’s a present from the cows,’ Mum said, as she handed Katie a glass of milk. 
the reeds and hid in an old hollow log at the far end of the lake and stayed there until his family gave up looking for him and flew away to the south.
pushing a shoving around a long trough.
At the seaside, in a large rock pool that can only be reached when the tide is fully out, there live many small creatures. Beneath the surface Willy winkle and Walter Whelk are on their way to join the others on a ledge just outside Craggy Crevasse, ‘Good day girls,’ they call to the Anemone sisters, Rosemary and Scarlet as they pass by. The sisters, wave their tentacles in reply. Rosemary and Scarlet who normally live right inside the crevasse, have moved next to the entrance so they can see Samantha the dancing Seahorse, 
Down in jungle lived a snake called Hissing Sid, who was always sneaking around capturing the small animals. He never tried to capture the lions, the elephants or any of the larger animals, because he was scared of them. His favourite trick was to coil himself around a branch above the path and wait there, keeping very still. Sooner or later, some poor animal that didn’t know any better, would come along the path and Sid would drop down, wrap them in his coils, and carry them away.
had enough and made off, slither, bump, slither, bump with a knot tied in his middle.