akorn - Mighty Old Tales Retold

Godfather's Picture Book - Part I

Godfather could tell stories, so many of them and such long ones, and he could cut out paper figures and draw pictures. When it was nearly Christmas he would bring out a scrapbook with clean white pages, and on these he pasted pictures cut out of books and newspapers; and if there weren't enough for the story he was going to tell, he drew them himself.

The Dryad- Part II

The houses were so high and close. The sun shone only upon one wall; that was covered with posters and placards, and people crowded and thronged around it. Carriages rushed by, light ones and heavy ones. Busses, filled to overflowing, rattled by like moving houses. Carts and carriages squabbled over the right of way.

The Dryad - Part I

We're going to Paris to see the exposition!
Now we're there! It was a speedy journey, done completely without witchcraft -- we went by steam, in a ship and on a railroad. Our time is indeed a time of fairy tales.

The Goblin and the Woman

You know the Goblin, but do you know the Woman -- the Gardener's wife? She was very well read and knew poems by heart; and she could write them, too, easily, except that the rhymes -- "clinchings," as she called them -- gave her a little trouble.

Vano and Glano

Near the coast of Zealand, off Holsteinborg castle, there once lay two wooded islands, Vano and Glano, on which were villages, churches, and farms.

The Little Green Ones

A rose tree drooped in the window. Not so long ago it was green and blooming, but now it looked sickly -- something was wrong with it.

The Toad

The well was deep, and therefore the rope was long; the wheel went around with difficulty when the water-filled bucket had to be pulled up over the side of the well.

Aunty

You ought to have known Aunty; she was so lovely. And yet, to be more specific, she wasn't lovely in the usual sense of the word, but she was sweet and charming and funny in her own way -- just the type to gossip about when one is in the mood to gossip and be facetious over someone.

The Porter's Son

The General's family lived on the first floor, and the Porter's family lived in the cellar. There was a vast distance between them -- the whole first floor, as well as all the grades of society; but both families lived under the same roof, and their windows looked out in the same street and the same garden.

Kept Secret But Not Forgotten

There was once an old mansion with a moat and drawbridge. The drawbridge was more often up than down; not all visitors are good or welcome.