About This Book

 

 

 

 

About This Book

The stories in this book were selected especially for five-year-olds. But older children may

enjoy hearing them too. And beginning readers may delight in reading these tales for

themselves.

The stories were selected from a wide range of sources, all of which are now in the public

domain since they were published in the United States prior to 1923. In the course of my

research I found many more tales than could fit in a single volume, so there will soon be

other books, some containing more folk tales, others offering stories appropriate to the

different seasons and holidays, and still others collections of tales on a certain theme.

Lisa Ripperton

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Once on a time there were three Billy-goats, who were to go up to the hill-side to make

themselves fat, and the name of all three was "Gruff."

On the way up was a bridge over a burn they had to cross; and under the bridge lived a

great ugly Troll, with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker.

So first of all came the youngest billy-goat Gruff to cross the bridge.

"Trip, trap! trip, trap!" went the bridge.

"WHO’S THAT tripping over my bridge?" roared the Troll.

"Oh, it is only I, the tiniest billy-goat Gruff; and I’m going up to the hill-side to make myself

fat," said the billy-goat, with such a small voice.

"Now, I’m coming, to gobble you up," said the Troll.

"Oh, no! pray don’t take me. I’m too little, that I am," said the billy-goat; "wait a bit till the

second billy-goat Gruff comes, he’s much bigger."

"Well, be off with you;" said the Troll.

A little while after came the second billy-goat Gruff to cross the bridge.

"TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP!" went the bridge.

"WHO’S THAT tripping over my bridge?" roared the Troll.

"Oh, it’s the second billy-goat Gruff, and I’m going up to the hill-side to make myself fat,"

said the billy-goat, who hadn’t such a small voice.

"Now I’m coming to gobble you up," said the Troll.

"Oh, no! don’t take me, wait a little till the big billy-goat Gruff comes, he’s much bigger."

"Very well! be off with you," said the Troll.

But just then up came the big billy-goat Gruff.

"TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP!" went the bridge, for the billy-goat was so heavy that

the bridge creaked and groaned under him.

"WHO’S THAT tramping over my bridge?" roared the Troll.

"IT’S I! THE BIG BILLY-GOAT GRUFF," said the billy-goat, who had an ugly hoarse voice of

his own.

"Now I’m coming to gobble you up," roared the Troll,

"Well, come along! I’ve got two spears,

And I’ll poke your eyeballs out at your ears;

I’ve got besides two curling-stones,

And I’ll crush you to bits, body and bones."

That was what the big billy-goat said; and so he flew at the Troll, and poked his eyes out

with his horns, and crushed him to bits, body and bones, and tossed him out into the burn,

and after that he went up to the hill-side. There the billy-goats got so fat they were scarce

able to walk home again; and if the fat hasn’t fallen off them, why, they’re still fat; and so.

"Snip, snap, snout

This tale’s told out."

from Popular Tales from the Norse

by George Dasent, 1888

The Travels of a Fox

A fox was digging behind a stump, and he found a bumble-bee. The fox put the bumble-bee in a bag and

he traveled.

The first house he came to he went in, and he said to the mistress of the house:

"May I leave my bag here while I go to Squintum’s?"

"Yes," said the woman.

"Then be careful not to open the bag," said the fox.

But as soon as the fox was out of sight, the woman just took a little peep into the bag and out flew the

bumble-bee, and the rooster caught him and ate him up.

After a while the fox came back. He took up his bag and he saw that the bumble-bee was gone, and he

said to the woman:

"Where is my bumble-bee?"

And the woman said: "I just untied the bag, and the bumble-bee flew out, and the rooster ate him up."

"Very well," said the fox, "I must have the rooster, then."

So he caught the rooster and put him in his bag, and traveled.

And the next house he came to he went in, and said to the mistress of the house:

"May I leave my bag here while I go to Squintum’s?"

"Yes," said the woman.

"Then be careful not to open the bag," said the fox.

But as soon as the fox was out of sight, the woman just took a little peep into the bag, and the rooster

flew out, and the pig caught him and ate him up.

After a while the fox came back, and he took up his bag and he saw that the rooster was not in it, and he

said to the woman: "Where is my rooster?"

And the woman said:

"I just untied the bag, and the rooster flew out, and the pig ate him."

"Very well," said the fox, "I must have the pig, then."

So he caught the pig and put him in his bag, and traveled.

And the next house he came to he went in, and he said to the mistress of the house:

"May I leave my bag here while I go to Squintum’s?"

"Yes," said the woman.

"Then be careful not to open the bag," said the fox.

But as soon as the fox was out of sight, the woman just took a little peep into the bag, and the pig

jumped out, and the ox ate him.

After a while the fox came back. He took up his bag and he saw that the pig was gone, and he said to

the woman:

"Where is my pig?"

And the woman said:

"I just untied the bag, and the pig jumped out, and the ox ate him."

"Very well," said the fox, "I must have the ox, then."

So he caught the ox and put him in his bag, and traveled.

And the next house he came to he went in, and he said to the mistress of the house:

"May I leave my bag here while I go to Squintum’s?"

"Yes," said the woman.

"Then be careful not to open the bag," said the fox.

But as soon as the fox was out of sight, the woman just took a little peep into the bag, and the ox got

out, and the woman’s little boy chased him away off over the fields.

After a while the fox came back. He took up his bag, and he saw that the ox was gone, and he said to

the woman:

"Where is my ox?"

And the woman said:

"I just untied the string, and the ox got out, and my little boy chased him away off over the fields."

"Very well," said the fox, "I must have the little boy, then."

So he caught the little boy and he put him in his bag, and he traveled.

And the next house he came to he went in, and he said to the mistress of the house:

"May I leave my bag here while I go to Squintum’s?"

"Yes," said the woman.

"Then be careful not to open the bag," said the fox.

The woman was making cake, and her children were around her asking for some.

"Oh, mother, give me a piece," said one; and, "Oh, mother, give me a piece," said the others.

And the smell of the cake came to the little boy who was weeping and crying in the bag, and he heard

the children asking for cake and he said: "Oh, mammy, give me a piece."

Then the woman opened the bag and took the little boy out, and she put the house-dog in the bag in the

little boy’s place. And the little boy stopped crying and had some cake with the others.

After a while the fox came back. He took up his bag and he saw that it was tied fast, and he put it over

his back and traveled far into the deep woods. Then he sat down and untied the bag, and if the little boy

had been there in the bag things would have gone badly with him.

But the little boy was safe in the woman’s house, and when the fox untied the bag the house-dog

jumped out and ate him all up.

by Clifton Johnson

in For the Story Teller by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, 1916

Star Money

There was once upon a time a little girl whose father and mother were dead, and she was so poor that

she no longer had a room to live in, or bed to sleep in, and at last she had nothing else but the clothes

she was wearing and a little bit of bread in her hand which some charitable soul had given her. She was,

however, good and pious. And as she was thus forsaken by all the world, she went forth into the open

country, trusting in the good God. Then a poor man met her, who said, "Ah, give me something to eat, I

am so hungry!" She reached him the whole of her piece of bread, and said, "May God bless it to thy use,"

and went onwards. Then came a child who moaned and said, "My head is so cold, give me something to

cover it with." So she took off her hood and gave it to him; and when she had walked a little farther, she

met another child who had no jacket and was frozen with cold. Then she gave it her own; and a little

farther on one begged for a frock, and she gave away that also. At length she got into a forest and it had

already become dark, and there came yet another child, and asked for a little shirt, and the good little girl

thought to herself, "It is a dark night and no one sees thee, thou canst very well give thy little shirt

away," and took it off, and gave away that also. And as she so stood, and had not one single thing left,

suddenly some stars from heaven fell down, and they were nothing else but hard smooth pieces of

money, and although she had just given her shirt away, she had a new one which was of the very finest

linen. Then she gathered together the money into this, and was rich all the days of her life.

from Grimm’s Household Tales,

translated by Margaret Hunt, 1884

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids

There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and loved them with all the love of a

mother for her children. One day she wanted to go into the forest and fetch some food. So she called all

seven to her and said, "Dear children, I have to go into the forest, be on thy guard against the wolf; if he

comes in, he will devour you all.skin, hair, and all. The wretch often disguises himself, but you will know

him at once by his rough voice and his black feet. The kids said, "Dear mother, we will take good care of

ourselves; you may go away without any anxiety." Then the old one bleated, and went on her way with

an easy mind.

It was not long before some one knocked at the house-door and cried, "Open the door, dear children;

your mother is here, and has brought something back with her for each of you." But the little kids knew

that it was the wolf, by the rough voice. "We will not open the door," cried they; "thou art not our

mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but thy voice is rough; thou art the wolf!" Then the wolf went

away to a shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made his voice soft with it.

Then he came back, knocked at the door of the house, and cried, "Open the door, dear children, your

mother is here and has brought something back with her for each of you." But the wolf had laid his black

paws against the window, and the children saw them and cried, "We will not open the door, our mother

has not black feet like thee: thou art the wolf!" Then the wolf ran to a baker and said, "I have hurt my

feet, rub some dough over them for me." And when the baker had rubbed his feet over, he ran to the

miller and said, "Strew some white meal over my feet for me." The miller thought to himself, "The wolf

wants to deceive some one," and refused; but the wolf said, "If thou wilt not do it, I will devour thee."

Then the miller was afraid, and made his paws white for him. Truly, men are like that.

So now the wretch went for the third time to the house-door, knocked at it and said, "Open the door for

me, children, your dear little mother has come home, and has brought every one of you something back

from the forest with her." The little kids cried, "First show us thy paws that we may know if thou art our

dear little mother." Then he put his paws in through the window, and when the kids saw that they were

white, they believed that all he said was true, and opened the door. But who should come in but the

wolf! They were terrified and wanted to hide themselves. One sprang under the table, the second into

the bed, the third into the stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the cupboard, the sixth under

the washing-bowl, and the seventh into the clock-case. But the wolf found them all, and used no great

ceremony; one after the other he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest in the clock-case was

the only one he did not find. When the wolf had satisfied his appetite he took himself off, laid himself

down under a tree in the green meadow outside, and began to sleep. Soon afterwards the old goat came

home again from the forest. Ah! what a sight she saw there. The house-door stood wide open. The table,

chairs, and benches were thrown down, the washing-bowl lay broken to pieces, and the quilts and pillows

were pulled off the bed. She sought her children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called them

one after another by name, but no one answered. At last, when she came to the youngest, a soft voice

cried, "Dear mother, I am in the clock-case." She took the kid out, and it told her that the wolf had come

and had eaten all the others. Then you may imagine how she wept over her poor children.

At length in her grief she went out, and the youngest kid ran with her. When they came to the meadow,

there lay the wolf by the tree and snored so loud that the branches shook. She looked at him on every

side and saw that something was moving and struggling in his gorged belly. "Ah, heavens," said she, "is

it possible that my poor children whom he has swallowed down for his supper can be still alive?" Then

the kid had to run home and fetch scissors, and a needle and thread, and the goat cut open the

monster’s stomach, and hardly had she made one cut, than one little kid thrust its head out, and when

she had cut farther, all six sprang out one after another, and were all still alive, and had suffered no

injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had swallowed them down whole. What rejoicing there

was! Then they embraced their dear mother, and jumped like a tailor at his wedding. The mother,

however, said, "Now go and look for some big stones, and we will fill the wicked beast’s stomach with

them while he is still asleep." Then the seven kids dragged the stones thither with all speed, and put as

many of them into his stomach as they could get in; and the mother sewed him up again in the greatest

haste, so that he was not aware of anything and never once stirred.

When the wolf at length had had his sleep out, he got on his legs, and as the stones in his stomach made

him very thirsty, he wanted to go to a well to drink. But when he began to walk and to move about, the

stones in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled. Then cried he,

"What rumbles and tumbles

against my poor bones?

I thought ’twas six kids,

but it feels like big stones."

And when he got to the well and stooped over the water and was just about to drink, the heavy stones

made him fall in and there was no help, but he had to drown miserably. When the seven kids saw that,

they came running to the spot and cried aloud, "The wolf is dead! The wolf is dead!" and danced for joy

round about the well with their mother.

from Grimm’s Household Tales,

translated by Margaret Hunt, 1884

The Husband Who Was to Mind

the House

Once on a time there was a man, so surly and cross, he never thought his wife did anything right in the

house. So one evening, in hay-making time, he came home, scolding and swearing and showing his teeth

and making a dust.

"Dear love, don’t be so angry; there’s a good man," said his goody; "to-morrow let’s change our work. I’ll

go out with the mowers and mow, and you shall mind the house at home."

Yes, the husband thought that would do very well. He was quite willing, he said.

So, early next morning, his goody took a scythe over her neck, and went out into the hay-field with the

mowers and began to mow; but the man was to mind the house, and do the work at home.

First of all he wanted to churn the butter; but when he had churned a while, he got thirsty, and went

down to the cellar to tap a barrel of ale. So, just when he had knocked in the bung, and was putting the

tap into the cask, he heard overhead the pig come into the kitchen. Then off he ran up the cellar steps,

with the tap in his hand, as fast as he could, to look after the pig, lest it should upset the churn; but

when he got up, and saw the pig had already knocked the churn over, and stood there, routing and

grunting amongst the cream which was running all over the floor, he got so wild with rage that he quite

forgot the ale-barrel, and ran at the pig, as hard as he could. He caught it, too, just as it ran out of

doors, and gave it such a kick that piggy lay for dead on the spot. Then all at once he remembered he

had the tap in his hand; but when he got down to the cellar, every drop of ale had run out of the cask.

Then he went into the dairy and found enough cream left to fill the churn again, and so he began to

churn, for butter they must have at dinner. When he had churned a bit, he remembered that their

milking cow was still shut up in the byre, and hadn’t had a bit to eat or a drop to drink all the morning,

though the sun was high. Then all at once he thought ’twas too far to take her down to the meadow, so

he’d just get her up on the house-top.for the house, you must know, was thatched with sods, and a fine

crop of grass was growing there. Now their house lay close up against a steep down, and he thought if

he laid a plank across to the thatch at the back he’d easily get the cow up.

But still he couldn’t leave the churn, for there was his little babe crawling about on the floor, and "if I

leave it," he thought, "the child is safe to upset it." So he took the churn on his back, and went out with

it; but then he thought, he’d better first water the cow before he turned her out on the thatch; so he

took up a bucket to draw water out of the well; but, as he stooped down at the well’s brink, all the cream

ran out of the churn over his shoulders, and so down into the well.

Now it was near dinner-time, and he hadn’t even got the butter yet; so he thought he’d best boil the

porridge, and filled the pot with water, and hung it over the fire. When he had done that, he thought the

cow might perhaps fall off the thatch and break her legs or her neck. So he got up on the house to tie

her up. One end of the rope he made fast to the cow’s neck, and the other he slipped down the chimney

and tied round his own thigh; and he had to make haste, for the water now began to boil in the pot, and

he had still to grind the oatmeal.

So he began to grind away; but while he was hard at it, down fell the cow off the house top after all, and

as she fell, she dragged the man up the chimney by the rope. There he stuck fast; and as for the cow,

she hung, half-way down the wall, swinging between heaven and earth, for she could neither get down

nor up.

And now the goody had waited seven lengths and seven breadths for her husband to come and call them

home to dinner; but never a call they had. At last she thought she’d waited long enough, and went

home. But when she got there and saw the cow hanging in such an ugly place, she ran up and cut the

rope in two with her scythe. But as she did this, down came her husband out of the chimney; and so

when his old dame came inside the kitchen, there she found him standing on his head in the porridgepot.

from Popular Tales from the Norse

by George Dasent, 1888

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                        «Туризм саласы»  

Туризм саласы экономиканы  дамыту көздерінің бірі болып саналады. Қазақстан Республикасында туризмді дамыту үшін барлық қажетті мәдени, тарихи, географиялық және климаттық жағдайлар жеткілікті. Сонымен қатар бұл өз кезегінде транспорттық, инфрақұрылымдық, сауда орындары, денсаулық сақтау қызметтерін жетілдіруді қажет етеді. Осыған байланысты Қазақстан Республикасының Үкіметі ұзақ мерзімді бағдарламасын қабылдады. 1993 жылы егемен Қазақстан Дүниежүзілік туристік ұйымына мүше болып, туризмді дамытудың алғашқы бағдарламасын жасаған болатын. Ал 1997 жылы «1997-2003 жылдары аралығында Ұлы Жібек жолындағы тарихи орталықтарды қайта жаңарту, түркі тілдес мемлекеттердің мәдени мұраларын сақтау және туристік инфрақұрылымдарды құру туралы» мемлекеттік бағдарлама бекітілді.

Қазақстан-2030 дамуының стратегиялық бағдарламасында да бұл саланың аса зор маңызы бар екені атап көрсетілген. Тиімді және бәсекеге қабілетті туристік бизнесті және осы мақсатқа сәйкес имиджді орнықтыру мақсатындағы 2003-2005 жылдарға арналған жоспарланған жоба табысты жүзеге асырылды.

Туризм Индустрия және сауда министрлігіндегі сауда және туризм комитетінің қарауында. Қазіргі уақытта Комитет Ішкі істер министрлігі, Ұлттық Қауіпсіздік комитеті және Сыртқы істер министрлігімен бірлесіп, елімізге келуге қызықғушылық таныстатын адамдар үшін визалық процедураларды жеңілдету жоспарын әзірлеуде.

Ауыл шаруашылығы министрлігімен Ұлттық саябақ бойынша туристік маршруттар келісіліп, экологиялық туризм, ал Білім және Ғылым министрлігімен қажетті кадрларды даярлау үшін қаражаттар қарастырылды. Ұлы Жібек жолы бағытындағы туризмді қалпына келтіру үшін Көлік және коммуникация министрлігі көп шараларды іске асыруда.