Showing results by author "Bill Gordh" in All Categories

Caterpillar is small but has a big voice. When Rabbit goes out and leaves her door open, Caterpillar decides to play a trick on rabbit. It crawls inside rabbit's house and slams the door. When rabbit returns, she gets scared because she sees scratchy marks on the ground and her door is closed. She asks who's in her house.

Nasruddin made a bet with some friends that he could stand all night long outside, in the middle of the square, with no clothes on. They all said it was too cold. They all decided that if he could make it through the night with no heat, they would make him dinner, and if he failed he would cook them dinner. He went into the square. As it got later it got colder. Colder and colder and colder. Nasruddin was about to give up and go inside to get warm when he saw a candle in a window across the square.

Twin brothers were the best of friends. When they grew up they became partners and grew corn. They shared the work and what they sold. One evening in the threshing ground, after they had worked all afternoon, they decided to spend the night there to make sure no thieves stole the results of their hard work. In the middle of the night, one of the brothers woke up. He looked at his sleeping brother and began thinking about him with his wife and children.

A traveler met another traveler walking through an African jungle. The sun was going down, and they knew that soon some of the beasts would be out hunting for food. They stopped in the next village and asked the chief if they could stay for the night. The chief welcomed them but told them that if either of them snored, they should probably go to the next village, because his people hated snoring so much, if someone snored they would sharpen their knives and kill the snorer.

A king with a son and a king with a daughter decided it would be great if their children married. The prince loved the idea, but the princess made a demand. She wanted three rings - one from the stars, one from the moon, and one from the sun. Otherwise she was not interested. No one knew what to do. The prince's father offered half his kingdom for a solution. The wise ones offered nothing of use. The prince was in despair.

Little Ant was a hard worker and saved her money. With her savings she bought a new dress, shoes, and a beautiful hat, and she took a walk. A dog saw her and asked her if she would marry him. She asked him how he would talk after they were married. He got excited and started howling. She told him, "No - too scary." She walked on. A cat saw her and asked to marry her.

The stars used to sing and dance in the nighttime sky. Coyote brags that he sings with the stars. The other animals laugh. Then he asks them if they ever hear him howling at night. They say yes, and he announces that that is him singing with the stars. He has their attention now and he doesn't want to lose it, so he adds some more to his story.

An old woman who mended nets for the fishermen was out of work for the winter and had run out of food. She begged for flour to make some bread. Finally, a wealthy neighbor let her sweep the flour from the floor of his store room. It was enough to bake three loaves! Just as she removed the three loaves from her oven, there was a knock on the door.

A young man married, and at the wedding dinner at the bride's house, the bride excused herself to go in the cellar and draw some wine. While she was there, she noticed that an ax was stuck in one of the rafters. She thought that if one day she had a son and named him Bastianelo, and they were visiting her parents, and they asked him to get some wine, and he came down, and the ax fell and struck him in the head, then her son might be killed, and she began to cry while the wine poured out of the keg.

The chief sends his three sons out to find something special. He declares that the one that returns with the most valuable thing will become the new chief. They set out together. At a crossroads, they split up. They agree to meet back at the crossroads in a month. The first finds a mirror that you can look into and see anyone you wish to.

An old farmer was out in the woods chopping wood for his family when his ax slipped from his hands and went flying into the river. The farmer was so upset, he cried out to the river. The river spirit heard him and up out of the river rose a silver ax. "Is this your ax?" asked the River Spirit. The framer would have loved the ax, but he was an honest man and he said, "No."

Little Half Chick was just that - a half-chick! But he was tired of the farm and thought he deserved a better life. He decided to go and visit the king in Madrid. He hopped along. Along the way, he hopped over a bridge.

A farmer met a fairy and asked her to marry. She finally agreed but said he must never get angry or call her a bad fairy. He said of course he would not do that. They married, and everything went wonderfully. They had three children. One day he was in the upper pastures and saw a storm approaching. The fairy wife knew it was coming and so gathered her fairy clan, and they cut the green wheat and put it in the barn with an alder tree branch between each sheaf.

There were two brothers who fished every day. They were not having much luck. One brother carved a squid from wood. It really looked like a squid, and when he threw it into the water it became a real squid. Happy to be alive, the squid helped the boy by chasing herring close to shore, and the boy could catch them easily. The other brother wanted to have more luck too.

Spider wants scrambled eggs for breakfast but doesn't want to cook them. He pretends to have a stomach ache. He begs his wife to go to the doctor. She goes. Spider takes a shortcut and gets to the Doctor's house. Spider knows the doctor is not home. Spider goes in and pretends to be the Doctor. When the wife gets there, Spider tells her through the door to feed Spider scrambled eggs. She goes back home. Spider rushes back home and gets back into bed.

An old man put the teakettle on the stove and went out to sit on his porch. When the water began to boil, the pot began to transform. It became a tanuki (sort of like a badger) and began racing around his house, causing all kinds of noise and trouble. The old man realized it was a magical kettle, as the tanuki became the kettle again when the old man came inside. He made a box and, before it could change again, put the teakettle into the box.

Manka was a clever girl. Her father was a shepherd and did a job for a neighbor. The neighbor had promised him a calf for pay, but when the job was done the wealthy farmer refused to give him the young cow. They wound up in court.

Crow was always causing trouble wherever he went, doing tricks and being mean. One of his tricks was to call a stranger who he wanted something from "Brother-in-law" so that they would treat him like family and give him food. He would always make up how some great ancestor had married into the other animal's clan.

A father and son went to camp out in the forest and do some hunting. They found a place to set up camp. Before going to sleep, the father told the boy some stories including one about the monster that lived in the forest. The boy fell asleep and his father went to do some night hunting. The boy woke up, was scared and went looking for his father. His father had heard an animal up in the trees and climbed a tree to hunt. The boy heard his father in the tree and called to him. The father was startled and thought it was the forest monster.

Bush Cat lies down under a tree to nap. Monkey comes along and decides to play a trick. Monkey ties Bush Cat's tail to the tree. Later Bush Cat wakes up and can't get away. Bush Cat asks Snail to untie its tail. Snail agrees once Bush Cat promises not to eat Snail. Once Bush Cat is free, Bush Cat wants to catch Monkey and decides on a trick. Bush Cat asks Snail to tell all the animals that Bush Cat is dead under the tree. This way when the animals come to dance around and sing in honor of their friend, Bush Cat can jump up and catch Monkey.