akorn - Mighty Old Tales Retold

How Jack Went To Seek His Fortune

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack, and one morning he started to go and seek his fortune.

The Old Woman and Her Pig

An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. "What," she said, "shall I do with this sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig."

Tom Tit Tot

Once upon a time there was a woman, and she baked five pies. And when they came out of the oven, they were so overbaked that the crusts were too hard to eat. 

Hans Christian Andersen - Fairy Tales - Introduction

Hans Christian Andersen, let’s call him Hans, is best known today for his fairy tales. In his own time he was better known for other writings such as poetry, short stories, novels, autobiography, and his travelogues, at least to begin with -- he traveled all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and even to America. He spent a lot of time as a house guest to well off benefactors and even stayed so long with Charles Dickens at his home in Kent, that the Dickens family had to ask Hans to leave. But that’s another story.

Urbanus

In a cloister there lived a young man named Urbanus, who was pious and studious.

The Poor Woman and the Little Canary Bird

There was a miserably poor woman. She was very sad, for she had nothing to eat, and her husband was dead and had to be buried, but she was so poor that she could not afford to buy a coffin.

Folks Say --

Folks often say one thing and mean another. 

The Penman

There once was a man who held an office that required good penmanship.

Croak!

All the birds of the forest were sitting on the branches of the trees, which had quite enough leaves; and yet the birds were unanimous in their desire for more leaves -- the "leaves" of a journal; a new, good journal was what they longed for -- a critical newspaper such as humans have so many of, so many that half of them would be sufficient.

The Flea and the Professor

There was an aeronaut, and things went badly for him. His balloon burst, hurled him out, and went all to pieces. Just two minutes before, the aeronaut sent his boy down by parachute -- wasn't the boy lucky!