Chapter 18

1. Ina village, there lived a couple, Konrad and Kristine. As the years had passed, Konrad had become more ill-tempered. One day, when Konrad returned after a heavy day ofwork, the wife became even more annoyed. Because when Konrad entered, he brought in all the dirtas well. But then she had a brilliant idea. She suggested that they interchange their jobs, as Konrad seemed unhappy with his job. The next morning Kristine took the sickle and went straight to work skipping her breakfast. After tending to their son, Konrad went into the kitchen. After studying the cupboards and the icebox, he realized they had no butter. So the churn was brought out and started churning cream. But soon he got tired. While Konrad was trying to get some ale, he heard some footsteps over his head. At once, he ran to catch the intruder. But he soon found that it was their pig, who was merrily making his way towardsthe churn. The churn had been toppled and the cream poured out. Although Konrad was upset, the pig grunted merrily. Konrad had to catch the pig, so he chased it. All the while forgetting the ale and knob he had turned. By the time he had caught the little pig, the ale had spilled all over the floor.

2. Long ago there was a donkey who stayed near the village. Everybody used to think that he was weak and useless. Once, he was roaming all around the forest. Suddenly, he found a lion's hide. Just then, he had an amazing idea. Hethought to fool the other animals and people by wearing the lion's hide. So, he took the lion's skin and covered himself with it. Hestarted to walk around in the forest wearing the lion's hide so that he could look like an actual lion. All the animals who saw him got scared and started running away from him. This assured him that his plan was working. Then he paida visit to the village where he lived. All the villagers were scared of him. The donkey was enjoying all this and he roamed around freely without any fear. He was very happy because now he didn't need to be scared of anybody. However, one day, as the wind blew strongly, the lion's hide that he was wearing flew off. The donkey's biggest secret was out. "This is a donkey! And we thought it was a lion," said the angry villagers. They chased the donkey out of their village but he surely had the last laugh.

3. Once upon a time, there lived a cunning fox in a big forest. The fox was very proud of his intelligence. One day, he was very hungry and wandering in search of food. He was so hungry that it could not even walk. Suddenly, he sawa rooster up on the roofofthe house. air. He thought of eating After seeing the rooster, the fox started drooling and building castles in the the rooster. The fox made a plan to bring the rooster onto the ground and then it would eat him up. The fox pretended to be the rooster's friend "Oh my friend rooster! I am seeing you after a very long time. You seem to have lost some weight and have become very weak. Come down and let me count your pulse and see what is wrong ," said the cunning fox. "You are my dear fox! I am feeling very exhausted and weak. I can't even come down from the rooftop," replied the clever rooster. The fox realized that the rooster was too clever for him. The rooster started laughing. The fox was embarrassed and ran as fast as he could.

4. There lived a horse ina bigjungle. He was very proud of himself. He sawa snail. Seeing how slowly the snail moved, the horse started teasing him. "Hey snail Shall we have a race?" the horse asked. The snail was very angry with the horse. "Okay! Let's do it! We will race on Sunday," said the snail. The snail went home and called all the snails to discuss about this issue. He told everyone about the race. They made a plan to outsmart the horse. Since all the snails looked alike, they decided to confuse the snail with their intelligence. When Sunday came, they left home very early. They started hiding in places in little distance from each other all the way from the starting point to the finishing line. The race started. The horse ran a little and then looked down. Hesaw the snail ahead of him. The horse increased his pace but the snail was still ahead. The horse started running harder and faster. However hard the horse tried, the snail was still ahead of him. The poor horse finally gave up after trying really hard. "Okay! I lose!" said the humble horse. The snail laughed out loudly.

5. There was a little girl who bareheaded and with nothing on her feet, walk alone along the dark street. As she left home, she had worn slippers, which were the last thing her mother gave to her before she had died. That night was New Year's Eve and it was terribly cold and snowy. However, they were too large so she had lost them when she crossed the street. So, she had to walk barefoot, her feet turned red first and then blue because of the coldness. Her old apron was full of patches. During the entire day, she had not sold anything, and no one had given hera penny. The poor girl, so cold and hungry. All the windows were lit up and there was a wonderful smell of roast goose. When her kind grandmother was alive, her family celebrated the New Year's Eve at home happily together. Her family had run out of money so she had been forced to leave her lovely house. She now lived in a dark slum and had to listen to her father scolding every day. She sat down in a corner. She drew her little feet up close to her but it became colder and her little hands were almost numb. She could not go home as she had not sold any matches or received any money, her dad would have beaten her. She dared to take one from the bundle of matches, and then she burned it. She stretched out her feet warm them but the flame went out, and then the fireplace disappeared too!

6. The lion announced that he was very sick and asked the animals to come and see him one last time. So the Goat went into the lion's cave, and stayed there visiting for a long time. Then Sheep went in. Before she came out, the Calf also went into the cave to visit the lion. But soon the lion seemed to be feeling better and came to the front of his cave. The lion saw the Fox, who kad been waiting outside for some time. "Why do you not come to pay your respects to me?" said the lion to the Fox. "Please excuse me," said the Fox, "but I noticed all of the animals that have already come in to visit you. I see many koof-marks going in, but I see none coming out. Until the animals that kave entered your cave come out again I prefer to remain in the open air."

7. One day, A lamb was eating sweet grass | away from her flock of sheep. She didn't notice a wolf walking nearer to her. When | she saw the wolf, she started pleading, | "Please, don't eat me. My stomach is full | of grass. You can wait a while to make my | meat taste much better. The grass in my | stomach will be digested quickly if you let | me dance." The wolf agreed. IWhile the lamb was dancing, she had a | new idea. She said, "I can dance faster if I you take my bell and ring it so hard." | The wolf took the bell and started to ring I so hard. The shepherd heard the sound I and ran quickly to save the lamb's life.

8. Morris the little monkey woke up when the On wa high up in the sky. Another lovely day. Perfect for playing hide and sneak. Off he went to find his friends. First he came across Henry the hippopotamus. "Let's play hide and sneak!" he called out from the top of a tree. "Not today Morris," boomed Henry. "There's only three more days till the big fishing competition. I've got to clean my boat and check for leaks. You should be doing the same, don't you think?" "Nah, I'll do it tomorrow." Just then, who should come along but Lucas the lion. "There's no way you'd get me anywhere near the water, even in a boat," he shivered. "Come on Morris, I'll play." So they played hide and sneak until the sun went down. The next day was sunny again, perfect for racing games. Morris came across Rose the rhino first. "Let's race Rose," he chattered excitedly. "Not today thanks Morris. It's only two more days until the big fishing competition. I have to fix my motor and get my gear together. I don't want to forget anything! Shouldn't you be getting ready?"