Seligor's Castle

would like to introduce you to:

Forty More Tales from Stephen Southwold.

They won't all be here at "The Child Treasures" but scattered between, Diddilydeedot's Dreamland,   Dr. Dodiddily and the Dee Dot's and of course I may place one of the longer stories, over at Dodies Dream World.

JUST AFTER ADAM

Not very long after the beginning of the world there was a man who lived all alone in a small hut. He was happy but lonely and so he asked the lion, who was the King of the beasts, to find him an animal friend to come and live with him.

The lion agreed and summoned all the beasts of the world. To do this he roared seven times. Immediately there sounded from all sides the patter, patter, patter of thousands of feet.

The leopard trotted up and sat down before the man and the lion. Then came an elepant, a fox, a rabbit, a bear, an antelope, a rhinoceros, a giraffe, a camel, a dog, a tiger, a panther, a wolf, a cat, a squirrel, and so many others that I cannot remember them all.

And just as the lion was about to tell them all about it , a monkey swung himself down from the trees chattering at the top of ts voice. "Is it a feast ? You can't start without me!"

And on the top of the tree-tops perched all the birds of the earth, wondering what it was all about. And when the lion had told all the animals, they all drew close to the man, who stood up before them straight and tall, and each begged to be taken.

"Take me," said the tiger, "I will kill for you."

"Take me," said the elephant, "I will carry you over the wide world."

"Me," said the giraffe, "I will watch over your sleep."

"No, me," said the giraffe, "I will pluck for you the fruits of the tallest trees."

"Oh do take me," said the squirrel, "and I will crack nuts for you all the day long."

"He sleeps all the winter," said the monkey, wrinkling up his nose. "Take me now, and I will play with you and show you all the tricks of monkeydom."

BY now night had come, and the moon was beginning to rise, and the birds had fallen to sleep.

The man did not know whom to choose, and feeling tired he sat down to think.

He did not know that the hedgehog, who had arrived late, had curled himself up into a ball at his feet. But he very soon did know. Down he sat upon the hedgehog.

 The terrible shout he gave woke  all the birds in the tree-tops, and he jumped so high in the air that they thought he had grown wings and became as they.

And then the dog laughed !

All the other animals, even the king, held their breaths in horror.

The man stared at the laughing dog, and then suddenly he, too, began to laugh. And when their laughter was over mansaid to the lion, "The dog shall come with me."

And ever since then man and dog have lived together.

And dogs, to this very day, still laugh at times.

Tell this story to your dog, and perhaps he will remember it, and then you will see him laugh.   

Do you have a dog, maybe even a cat? I wonder. Seligor has two dogs here in the Castle, hundreds of birds that fly into the Castle Gardens. As well as four Cats and lots of Mice but they all live happily. Why we even have Foxes and Squirrels, Hedgehogs and a pond full of frogs and toads, newts and even, even snakes - including the only British poisonest snake which is called the Adder or Viper. The Grasssnakes like to go in the ponds when it's hot, but they do like a diet of tadpoles and baby frogs. ....