The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf

Three little pigs decided to go each their own way in search of their fortune.

The first thing each of them did, as soon as they found a suitable place, was to start building a house.

The first little pig was very lazy, so he quickly built himself a house of straw.

But then the big bad wolf came along and with a puff he blew it clean away.

The first little pig could only avoid being eaten by running away to the second little big's house.

This one was a bit wiser and had built his house out of wood and twigs, but when the big bad wolf arrived, he blew it down also with just one puff.

The two little pigs fled as fast as they could to the third little pig's house.

The third little pig was hard working and clever, and he had built his house out of bricks.

Along came the wolf, and though he huffed and puffed he could not blow the house down.

So the angry wolf climbed onto the roof so that he could come down the chimney.

But the three little pigs put a huge pot of water on the fire to boil: and when the wolf came down the chimney, he got so badly burnt that he scampered straight back up and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.

The Pride of Icarus

Daedalus, one of the greatest inventors of ancient times, was asked by the king of Crete to build a maze where he could imprison the Minotaur, a monster half-man and half-bull, so than it could never get out again. The ingenious architect did as he was asked, but some time later he helped Theseus, a famous hero, to kill the minster. As a punishment, the king of Crete ordered Daedalus to be imprisoned himself in the labyrinth, with his young son, Icarus.

'Don't worry,' the father encouraged the boy. 'I know already how we can get out of this prison!,

Daedalus made a huge pair of wings and he stuck them with was onto his son's shoulders. The wings could be moved up and down by moving the arms. Then Daedalus made another pair of wings for himself.

The wings worked wonderfully. The two men took off, and with a few armostrokes they managed to climb high enough to get over the walls of the labyrinth. But then the young boy, out of pride, wanted to fly higher and higher, until the heat from the sun melted the wax and his wings fell off. Then Icarus plunged to the ground and died. Daedalus, full of sadness, carried on flying until he reached safety.

The Eagle and the Crow

A crow saw an eagle drop down from the sky on to a lamb, catch it with its claws, and fly straight back with it to its nest.

The crow thought he would like to do the same.

But the lamb was much too heavy for him, and what was worse, the crow's little claws got caught in the lamb's thick fur, so the bird was trapped there.

The Shepherd saw the crow, caught it and put it in a case.

So the one who thought to imitate an eagle ended up being laughed at by everyone.

The Wolf and the Lamb

A wolf spied a lamb who was drinking out of a stream, and began to look for an excuse to attack it and eat it.

'You are making my part of the stream dirty,' accused the wolf.

'How can that be?' said the lamb.

'You are further upstream than me, and the water flows down, not up.'

'Aren't you the lamb who insulted my father last year?' asked the wolf.

'I wasn't even born last year,' came the reply.

'Enough of all this talk,' snarled the wolf. 'I am not going to miss a chance of eating you just because you are good at excuses.'

The Husband Who looked After the House

A farmer's wife became fed up with being criticised by her husband about how she ran the house, so one day she challenged him. 'Tomorrow I'll go out and work in the fields, and you can take care of the work in the house, if you think you can do it better than me!' The next day the husband did his best to do things right. He began to make the butter, but his efforts soon made him thirsty and he went down to the cellar to drink some win. He opened the barrel, but then he heard the pig come into the house and knock over the butter dish. He rushed back upstairs to stop the animal from causing more trouble, but he forgot to put the cork in the wine barrel again.

He kept getting in to trouble all morning long. At lunchtime, when he put the stew on to boil, he remembered that he had not taken the cow out pasture yet; but there was no time anymore. He decided to take it onto the roof, so it could eat the grass that grew among the tiles. It was very difficult to get the cow onto the roof. In the end he succeeded, and, to make sure that the animal did not fall off, he tied it there with a rope.

Then he remembered the stew over the fire. To get back to the kitchen as fast as possible, so that the stew did not burn, he lowered himself down the chimney. For safety, he tied the other end of the rope to his foot. But the cow fell off the roof just then, and the man was yanked back up the chimney and got stuck there.

When his wife came home from the fields, the first thing she saw was the cow dangling from the rope, so she cut it loose. On the other end the man dropped down.....into the fireplace. When the woman entered the house, she found the floor covered in the butter, the cellar flooded with wine, and her husband upside down with his head in the stew!

She returned to her housework. From then on, of course, he never grumbled at her again.

The Princess and the Pea

One day a young stranger arrived at the palace, claiming she was a princess.

The queen had a room made ready for her, but, to put her to the test, she had a pea put in the bed and over it she put twenty mattresses and twenty feather down covers.

In the morning, when the young girl woke up, she was aching all over and covered in bruises because of that pea. Such a delicate and sensitive skin confirmed her claim to be a princess, and the queen considered her to be a suitable bride for the young prince and heir.

The Apple Tree and the Dandelion

It was spring and the apple tree put out its bright little flowers. They were so lovely that even the princess was much impressed.

She cut off some branches and arranged them in a valuable vase in the palace hallway.

The apple branch was very proud of this tribute to its beauty. Through the windows it could see the flowers in the garden and the meadow, and it pitied them greatly for their insignificance, especially the humble dandelion, because with one puff children could blow away their seeds, leaving them naked and defenceless.

He pitied them because their destiny was no different from his. At the same time, he was proud of his own shapeliness, his beauty, and his rich vase in the hall. It did not occur to him that the sun shone on the poor dandelion just as brightly as it did on him.

One day, however, the princess brought in a dandelion to paint, and put it in the same vase as the flowering apple branch. Beside the delicate beauty of the meadow flower, destined to be blown away by the wind, the white flowers of the apple grew a bit red, with shame.