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Seligor's Castle, fun for all the children of the world. Blogs
Mon, 25 May 2009
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Hello again, a little late but here is Chapter Three of The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe
CHAPTER
THREE
Then she went into the shoe house, and
there I must say things were very topsy-turvy, for
all the clothes that had been put to
soak, and the
table and chairs and stools and bread from the
cupboard had been floating about in the water, and
when the water had poured out of the house it had
left things scattered about on the floor anyhow.
The table and chairs were overturned, one loaf of
soppy bread was in the fire-place, and the other
was at the foot of the staiirs. Only the broth that
the Old Woman had cooked for supper was in it's
place because it had been put on the top shelf of
the cupboard where the water had not
reached. All the children had
followed their mother into the house, and stood
near the door looking at all the mess the flood had
left, and at all the wet soppy things lying about
on the floor. It didn't look like a home one little
bit where everything was so neat and tidy, as a
rule. "You see
what you have done, children," said theOld Woman,
"And all this because you were lazy and did not do
as you were told. Now, first you must put things
straight and bring some dry wood to light the fire,
while Zed and I unharness the donkey. And then I
shall give you some broth for supper, but there is
no bread to eat with it because it is all soppy and
wet. And then I shall just whip you and send you to
bed, and I hope you'll never be so naughty
again." The
children set about tidying, and then fetched some
wood for the fire, but although the Old Woman made
a big fire everything was very damp and cold.
Then she gave them some broth without any bread and
whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed, just
as the song said. But of course she didn't whip
Zed, because he hadn't been
naughty. The next
day she opened all the windows so as to let in
plenty of sun and air, and by evening the house was
dry and cosy again. And now
you would think that the children mended their ways
and worked properly, and did what their mother told
them without grumbling. Not a bit of it! That is to
say they worked well for three or four days, and
then they began to get lazy and idle again and to
grumble over their work, and by the time next
market day came round they were as bad as
ever. The Old Woman felt
very worried on the morning of market day. "I
really don't know what to do with all you
children," she said "I must go to market to sell my
peas and beans and lettuce and spring onions, but
you always get into some trouble or other while I'm
away, for you never will do as I tell
you. We promise not to play
with fire and and we promise not to get water from
the stream into the house, so no harm will happen
Mother," the children said.
"Well," said the Old Woman, I hope it will be
alright, anyways there is a lot of work to
do , so if you stay busy all the time perhaps I
shall find that no harm has happened while I have
been away. Zed , you must take the goats and geese
out to pasture, because you
look after them well and do not let them stray. You
others must mend all the clothes and dig the whole
patch of garden which is by the stream where the
cabbages were. There is bread and brawn in the
cupboard for your dinner. Good-bye, be good
children and work well. I shall be home by
sunset,
The
Old Woman went off to market, and Zed put some
bread and brawn into his pocket and took the
goats and
geese out to the pature. The other children watched
their mother till she went round the bend of the
road, and then ssat down by the stream and began
wondering what they should do next
Ann was
the first to speak. "What a horrid lot of work
Mother gave us to do while she is at the
market. "All that digging! just
fancy!" said Benjy. "All that
mending too!" said Charlotte. "It will take all
day," said Dan.
"And there'll be no time at all left for playing,"
said Eliza.
"I hate digging," said Harry, "and I don't see why
we should do it." "And I do hate
mending," Said Ida, and I don't see why we should
do that either." "And I can't see
why we have to work at all," said
Jim. "Well I for one shan't
work," said Kate. "And I shan't work
for another," said Laurence. "The rest of you can
if you like." "Indeed I
shan't," said Maggie. I wish we might never have
any work to do." "So do I," said
Ned. And they all said much the
same. "Is that what you
really wish?" asked a croaky voice at there feet,
and looking down they saw the big green frog
sitting on a stone in the stream.
"Of course it is." Said the children. "Who wants to
dig and mend and weed and wash up plates and
saucepans? And who wants to chop wood and sweep the
floor and water the garden? Why it would be much
nicer if we never had any work to do all our
lives." "Well, if thats what you
really think, I will see what can be done" said the
frog. "But are you quite sure that that is what you
want?" The children nudged each
other and whispered: "He's a fairy frog, and he is
going to do our work for us." And then they said
aloud: "Of course, that's what we want. We hate
work, all of us except Zed. He's so stupid that he
enjoys it. You can let him work as much as he like,
but none of us want to." "In that
case, it shall be as you wish," said the
frog. "Get up all of you and stand in a
row." The children scrambled to
their feet and stood in a row laughing and
whispering together: " Hooray! we will
never have to work any more. Good old frog! He's
going to do all our jobs for
us." "Am I
though?" said the frog, and he dipped his head into
the stream and
sucked up some of the water, and squirted it over
the children as they
stood in a row, so that a few drops fell on each
one of them. But no
sooner did the drops of water touch them than
they all turned into
poplar trees. Yes, there they were, twenty two
poplar trees standing in
a row at the edge of the stream.
"Now you have your wish," said the frog, and he
jumped into the deep water and swam up the
stream.
Posted 18:44
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