Another Time Stories

Also by Donald Bisset

TALKS WITH A TIGER
NEXT TIME STORIES
TIME AND AGAIN STORIES
TIGER WANTS MORE
FATHER TINGTANG'S JOURNEY
THE ADVENTURES OF MANDY DUCK
'OH DEAR' SAID TIGER
THE STORY OF SMOKEY HORSE
THE ADVENTURES OF YAK

YAK AND THE SEA SHELL

YAK AND THE PRINTED CAVE
YAK AND THE ICE CREAM
YAK AND THE BURIED TREASURE
YAK GOES HOME
 DONALD BISSET

ANOTHER TIME
STORIES

METHUEN CHILDREN'S BOOKS

LONDON
 First published l 96 3
Methuen & Co Ltd
Reprinted five times
Reprinted 1979
Copyright © 1963 by Donald Bisset
Printed in Great Britain
by Butler & Tanner Ltd
Frame and London

ISBN o 416 26610 X

 For
MARK
 Contents

I Honk Honk! page 9

2 The Wind and the Cows 15
3 Bumpety! Bumpety! Bump! 21
4 The Lost Birthday 27

5 The Dragon and the Magician 32

6 Bun Crumbs 37

7 Big Dot and Little Dot 42

8 Daisy's Journey 47
9 Going Down! 52
IO Three Cheers 55
II Ginger Biscuits 59
12 The Boy who Growled at Tigers 64

13 The Milkman's Horse 68

14 Eros and the Nightingale 73

 Honk Honk!

0 NCE UPON a time there was a goose

whose name was William, but his mother, Mother
Goose, always called him Willie.

'Now, go for a waddle, Willie,' she would say,

'and honk to the other geese.'
Willie was very fond of honking!
'Honk honk!
'Honk honk!
9
 'Honk honk!
'Honk honk!'
he went as he waddled along.
One day, when he was going for a waddle, he
met a cat. It was a lovely black cat with two white
paws in front. Willie was pleased.

'Honk honk!' he said to the cat. 'Honk honk!'

'Mieow!' said the cat.
Willie was surprised. 'What does "mieow I"
mean?' He thought that cats said, 'Honk honk I'
just like geese.
He waddled a bit further and nibbled at the
grass. It was a lovely day. The sun was shining and
all the birds were singing.
IO
 'Honk honk!' said Willie.
'Bow wow!' barked a dog that was trotting along
the road.
'Neigh!' said the milkman's horse. And 'Gee
up!' said the milkman.

II
 Poor Willie couldn't understand a thing.
Just then a farmer passed by. 'Hallo, goose!' he

L,�1',
said.
l·{" "-...
. ·-
,,. .,i -.

. If \

'Honk honk!' said Willie.

Then some children p assed . And one little boy
came up to him and said 'Boo!'
Willie was upset. He felt quite down in the beak.
'I know I'm a goose,' he thought. 'But they
needn't say "Boo!" to me like that.'
Presently he saw a goldfish swimming in a pond,
but however loudly he honked to it the goldfish
just swam round and round and took no notice of
him.
He waddled a bit fu rthe r and met some cows.
12
 'Moo!' they said. 'Mooooo! Mooo !'
Then he met some hens.
'Cluck cluck cluck,' they said, 'cluck cluck
cluck!' And the cock said 'Cockadoodledooo!'
'Oh, I wish someone would say "Honk honk!"
to me,' thought Willie. 'I feel so lonely!'
'Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !' said a bee who was
passmg.
Some pigeons cooed and ducks quacked and the
crows in the treetops cawed. But no one at all,
no one said 'Honk honk!' to him.
Poor Willie began to cry and tears ran down his
beak and fell with a splash at his pretty pink feet.

'Honk honk!' sobbed Willie.

Then, from a long way away, he heard
13
 'Honk honk! Honk honk! Honk honk!'
What a beautiful sound!
He looked up and there, coming down the road,
was a little blue motor car.

'Honk honk!' it went. 'Ho nk honk!'

' HONK HONK!' said Willie, 'HONK HONK!'
'HONK HONK!' went the car as it passed.
Willie gazed after it.
He was a happy goose.
'Honk honk!' went the car disappearing round
the comer.
'Honk honk!' said Willie.

14
 The Wind and the
Cows

ONCE UPON a time there were some

cows under a shady tree in a field. They were
eating grass and clover, and the soft South Wind

15
blew gently across their field and kept them nice
and warm.

'What a nice wind!' said the cows, as they ate

their grass. 'Let's give it a present. I wonder what
it would like.'
'I know!' said a little red cow. 'Let's buy it a fur
coat to keep it warm from that horrid cold
NORTH WIND.'

16
 'Oh, no!' said the others. 'That won't do at all.'
'I know what we'll do,' said a black-and-white

cow. 'We'll ask the weathercock on top of the

17
church to point the wrong way when it hears the
North Wind coming. Then the North Wind will
turn round and go back to the North Pole again,
and won't bother our dear South Wind.'
'Oh, that is a good idea!' said all the cows. So
they said to the weathercock 'Dear Cockadoodle­
doo, when you hear the North Wind coming will
you point to the south instead of the north so that
that horrid North Wind goes away?'
'Well, I will, just this once,' said the Cocka­
doodledoo.
That evening the cows were sitting in their field
when the South Wind stopped blowing and a chill
breeze from the north blew across the field.
It was the North Wind coming to make them all

18
cold. It had come from the North Pole across ice­
bergs and frozen sea and was very cold.
'Ho! HO I' roared the North Wind. 'I'll freeze
you up.'
But the weathercock was ready for him. He
waited until the North Wind was busy showing off
to a small clump of trees, by making them shiver
and shake.
Then, very slowly, he started to turn himself
round. It was not easy to do, because by now the.
North Wind was blowing very hard indeed, but
after a few minutes he was not pointing North
at all.
Then the North Wind noticed that the weather­
cock was pointing South.
'Golly!' it said, 'I'm the North Wind, not
the South Wind. I must be going the wrong
way.' And it turned and blew the other way and
was back at the North Pole again before it could
say 'Jack Frost!'
'
'That s funny,' it said. 'I don't seem to know
whether I'm coming or going today. I think I'll
have a little sleep!' So the North Wind got into
bed and went to sleep.
Back home, the cows ate their clover and grass.
19
Soon the South Wind came again and blew gently
through the meadows and across their field.
 Bumpety! Bumpety!
Bump!

O NCE UPO N a time there was a bump who

lived in the road and it was very happy because
every time a bus came along it went 'Bump' and
all the people inside said, 'Oh, what a Bu MP !'

' I
. ,,,

And the conductor said, 'My, that is a big

bump!'
'I do like being a bump!' said the Bump.
Just then a little boy on a bicycle came along.
'Herc we go again!' said the Bump. But the
21
boy steered round it and didn't go bump at all.

The Bump was very sad.

'Never mind!' said the road. 'Here comes
another bus.'
The bus came along and Bu MP ED and the
driver said 'OH, what a bump!'
'

-�
,�
I r

22
 And the conductor said 'My, that is a big
bump!'
And all the people said 'What a BUMP!'
The Bump felt quite happy again.
One day, in the spring, some road menders
came along and put up some red flags to warn the
traffic; then they got out their spades and pick­
axes and repaired the road and put some tar on it.

"6'
·_ �-.
, '

-
---

'Now,' said the foreman, 'it won't go bump any

more.'
The men picked up their pickaxes and spades
and red flags and went away. Then a bus came
23
along and it didn't bump; and some more buses
came and they didn't go bump either.
'I wonder where it's gone?' said one side of the
road to the other. 'It was such a nice bump.'
Just then a little girl came along on her scooter
and didn't look where she was going and fell off
with a great big bump.
'Oh, there it is!' said the road. 'The little girl's
got it.'
'I hope I don't hurt,' thought the Bump.
It did hurt a bit!
But the little girl's mother put some ointment on
it to make it go away.

24
 The Bump didn't want to go away but it had to
and it felt quite sad and went and sat in the toy
cupboard by an old tennis ball.

'Nobody really seems to like bumps,' it said. 'I

wish I could be something really useful like a
bounce.'
'Well, come and stay with me and be a bounce,'
said the ball.
'All right, I'll try!' said the Bump.
So it tried very hard, and, that afternoon, when
the little girl went to play with her ball it bounced
higher than it ever had before.
Higher than the top of her head. Higher than
the top of Mummy's head. Higher even than the
lamp post.

25
She was pleased and so was the Bump.
'I do like being a bounce!' it said.
 The Lost Birthday

O NC E UPO N a time there was a big father

elephant who lived at Whipsnade Zoo with a
mother elephant and their little elephant, whose
name was Yalmar.
Father elephant was very, very big. Mother
elephant was quite big. And even Ya1mar wasn't
VERY little. Elephants aren't I

27
 One day they saw the father elephant standing
on his head.

'Whatever are you doing?' said the mother

elephant.
'I'm trying to remember something,' said the
father elephant.
'What are you trying to remember?'
'If I knew that,' said the father elephant, 'I
wouldn't be trying to remember it, my dear,
would I!' And he walked off.
'Now, run along, Yalmar,' said the mother
elephant, 'and see if you can find what your father's
forgotten.'
Yalmar ambled off by himself. After a while he
climbed a little hill by a bamboo wood and sat
28
down and watched the clouds chasing each other
across the sky.

Presently he heard the sound of crying. He

couldn't see anything but the crying seemed to
come from quite near. So he said, 'Please don't
cry. I'll help you.'
The crying stopped.
'Who are you?' said Yalmar. 'I can't see you.'
'I'm a lost birthday,' said a voice, 'and I don't
know who I belong to.'
'Oh dear!' said Yalmar. 'That is sad. And is
there a birthday cake, too?'
29
 'Of course I There's always birthday cake on
birthdays,' said the lost birthday. 'This one's got
six candles. Someone's six today.'
'How nice to be six!' thought Yalmar. 'That's a

very nice age. Almost as nice as being seven. Five

is nice, too, and so is four. And as for eight, well,
when you're eight you're nearly half-way to being
grown up. Still, f think I'd like being six best.
I'm terribly sorry, though, that I can't help you.
I don't know who's forgotten a birthday.'
Ya1mar started off home. When he got there his
father had stopped standing on his head and was
eating some hay.
'I remembered!' he said. 'I knew it was yesterday
or tomorrow or perhaps today. And it isl'
'It is what?' asked Yalmar.
'Your birthday!' said his mother, coming in.
'You're six today.'
Ya1mar roas excited. He trundled off as quickly
as he could to the little hill by the bamboo wood.
'Hallo!' he called out. 'You're my birthday.
I'm six today.'
'Hooray!' said the birthday. 'Hooray hooray
hooray!'
That afternoon, at tea-time, Yal.mar had a

30
birthday cake with six candles and he curled his
trunk round and blew all the candles out at
once.
'It is fun!' he thought. 'I like being six.'
 The Dragon and the
Magician

Q N CE UPON a time there was a mountain

with a hot, burning fire inside it. In the middle
of the mountain there lived a magician whose name
was Fuji-San.
He liked living there. 'It is lovely and warm
here!' he said, as he put the kettle on and made a
cup of tea.
People for miles around could see the steam
from his kettle coming out from a hole in the
mountain top. 'Just look!' they said. 'Fuji-San is
making tea.'
Well, one day Fuji-San was sitting on top of his
mountain, looking down at the valley below, when
he saw a little dragon coming towards him.
'Why, that's Andrew!' he said 'I expect he's
.

32
coming to tea.' Andrew was a dragon who lived
with his granny in a cave at the bottom of the
hill.
Now Andrew's granny was a very nice dragon,
and the thing she liked better than anything else
was a cup of tea. But she was too old to climb the
mountain. So Andrew thought he would go and
ask the magician for a cup of tea for her.
But as he climbed the mountain, the ground
under his feet grew hotter and hotter. It got so
hot that Andrew couldn't climb any farther, so he
went down to the valley again. He got some wood
from a tree and made himself some stilts. He made
33 ATS-c
 each leg, and he fixed them on
four stilts, one for
and started to climb again. And this time he
couldn't feel the hot ground underneath him, so
he soon arrived safely at the top of the mountain.

�
-�.· .

The magician was glad to see him, and gave

him some tea and a piece of cake. When he had
eaten his cake, Andrew told Fuji-San all about his
granny and how much she would like a cup of
tea.
'Well, I could give you a cup of tea to take to
her,' said Fuji-San. 'But it would be cold by the
time you got back to your cave.'
So instead he gave Andrew a kettle, some tea,
a nice green tea-pot and some tea-cups.
'Here you are!' he said. 'Now you can make
your own tea whenever you like.'
34
 'Oh, thank you very much!' said Andrew.
'Granny will be pleased.'
He was just turning to go away when he remem­
bered they had no way of boiling the water to
make tea.
'Why don't you take some fire with you from
inside the mountain?' asked the magician.
'I couldn't carry it,' said Andrew. 'Not with the
tea-cups and the tea-pot and the kettle.'
The magician thought for a moment, then he
said, 'Well, I will work some magic. Now shut
your eyes, breathe in and count ten.'
Andrew did as he was told.
'Now breathe out,' said the magician.
Andrew breathed out as hard as he could and
lots of fire came out of his mouth. At first it made
him cough a bit. He was pleased, though.
'Now I'm a real dragon,' he said. 'A real fire­
breathing dragon. Thank you, Fuji-San.'
After he had said good-bye, he went down to his
cave and filled the kettle with water. Then he
breathed fire on it and had it boiling in no time.
And he made tea and took his granny a cup.
'Thank you, Andrew,' she said. 'I do love a cup
of tea!'

35
 And from that day to this, when dragons have
finished breathing fire in story books they go
home, put the kettle on, and make a nice cup of
tea for their grannies.

-- �
•
� @)�
 Bun Crumbs

O NCE UPON a time there were a hundred

pigeons in Trafalgar Square all eating their dinner,
which was bird-seed.
Then some more pigeons flew in.
'What's for dinner today?' they asked.
'Bird-seed! Yum yum yum.I'
Then some more pigeons came. 'Hooray!' they
said. 'Bird-seed for dinner.'
Then another pigeon flew along, whose name
was Arthur.
'Bird-seed!' he said. 'Again !-Oh no I !'
He flew up and perched on Nelson's column.
'It's just too bad, my Lord,' he said to Lord
Nelson. 'Every day it's bird-seed. Horrid, horrid
bird-seed.'
'Well, what do you like?' asked Lord Nelson.
37
 'I like bun crumbs,' said Arthur. 'Lovely bun
crumbs!'

Lord Nelson put his telescope to his eye and

looked down Whitehall.
'Look,' he said, 'there's a little boy coming along
eating a bun. See, over there by the Horse Guards.'
Arthur flew down and followed the boy until
he'd eaten his bun but he never gave Arthur a
single tiny bit.
 Poor Arthur burst into tears. A policeman who
was passing was rather surprised.
'Fancy that!' he said. 'I've never seen a pigeon
crying before.'
Arthur felt quite upset and flew back to Nelson's
Column.
'Too bad!' said Lord Nelson. 'What did the
policeman say to you?'
'He said he'd never seen a pigeon crying before.'
'Hm !' said Lord Nelson.
'I can't cry for buns!' said Arthur.
'Oh no!' said Lord Nelson. 'That would never

39
do. Still, I've got a plan. If you look in the lower
pocket of my coat you'll find a threepenny bit. A
workman left it there for luck when they were
building my-er, Nelson's Column. Now, you . . . '
and he whispered to Arthur.
'That's a good idea!' said Arthur. 'Thank you,
my Lord.'
He took the threepenny piece and flew down to
the baker's shop at the comer of the Strand and
bought a bun with it. Then he perched on the
window sill outside the shop and started eating his
bun. And the people passing saw him and said,
'I say, that pigeon is enjoying his bun. I expect
they're very good.' And lots of them went into the
shop and bought a bag of buns for tea.
The baker was very pleased.
'You can come here every day at tea-time,' he
said, 'and I'll give you a bun. You're a very good
advertisement. And here's an extra one for today.'
Arthur picked it up in his beak and flew back to
Lord Nelson.
'Do have a bit, my Lord,' he said and gave Lord
Nelson half.
'Thankee!' said Lord Nelson.
'I say, my Lord,' said Arthur. 'Look at all those
40
pigeons eating bird-seed for tea. I like buns much
better.'
'So do I!' said Lord Nelson.
 Big Dot and Little Dot

0 N CE UPON a time there was a pencil, and

it liked drawing lines and shapes and shady bits

and scribbles. But one day it said to itself, 'I know,

I'll draw some dots.'
• •

So it drew a big dot and a little dot.

42
 'You can be the mother dot,' it said to the big
dot. 'And you can be the baby,' it said to the little
dot.
For a while the dots were very happy. 'We like
being dots!' they said. 'It's much more fun than
being a straight line or a scribble.'

'Humph!' said a scribble, nearby. 'You are just

ordinary silly dots. So be quiet and remember
your manners.'
They kept quiet for a while and then the big dot
said, 'I'd like to go and play!'
'Oh, no!' said the little dot. 'I'm the baby.
I can go and play. You're big. You must work and
do serious things.'

43
 'I don't want to!' said the big dot. 'I'm going
out to play.'
'Oh, no you're not!' said the pencil and drew a
circle round the big dot so that it couldn't get out.

It was angry, and thought, 'How can I get out

of the circle? Perhaps if I cried I'd float over the
edge.'
So it tried hard to cry. But it couldn't.
'Anyway, it wouldn't do any good if you did
cry,' said the circle, 'because the blotting paper
would dry all the wet away.
'Perhaps if I was friendly to the circle,' thought
the big dot, 'it would let me out. I could curtsy
and say, "Good morning, Circle, dear! How are
your little arcs today? Is the Inner Circle quite
well? Is North Circular mended yet?"-Oh dear,
no, I don't think that would work.'
Just then the pencil thought, 'I think I'll write
a story!'
So it did. And it said to the little dot, 'Would
you like to be the little dot over an i?'
44
 'Yes, please!' said the little dot.
'All right!' said the pencil. 'You shall be!' and
it made a little 1 and then the dot went on top-i.
' That's fine!' said the pencil and it went on
writing the story and had finished it all except for
the full stop at the end when it broke its point.
It was vexed.

'Don't cry!' said the india-rubber that was near,

'I'll rub out part of the circle, then the dot can

get out and be the full stop at the end of your

story.'
'All right!' said the pencil. 'Thank you very
much, India-rubber.'
So the rubber rubbed out part of the circle and
45
the big dot got out and became the full stop at the
end of the sto ry which the pencil had written.

And that's the end of the story full stop

 Daisy's Journey

O NCE UPON a time there was a lazy ele­

phant whose name was Daisy. Every afternoon
when it wasn't raining she liked to go to sleep
under a big oak tree and dream she had a great
big feather bed to sleep on.

47
 'I wish I had a big feather bed,' she said to the
sparrows who lived in the tree. 'I'd have a lovely
long sleep and then go to Australia to see my
granny.'
'You're much too lazy,' said _the sparrows.
'You'd better go back to sleep, Daisy.'
'Perhaps a mole would dig me a hole at the
bottom of the garden,' thought Daisy. 'I expect
that would lead to Australia.'
So she asked a mole, whose name was Ernest,
if he would dig a hole for her.

< -�-----.a
..,..__ ...._,_ -
- - -1· ,',.,.
.
••

.!·
< " f �;
"�"
;'I,,
.,
• "=:it

·.·-·�
-___/'
-: - -

'You are silly, Daisy!' said Ernest, who was

rather clever. 'I know Australia is the other side
of the world but you'll never get there by digging.
It's much too far. The best way is to jump.'
'Jump?' said Daisy.
'Well,' said Ernest, 'if you could jump very very
high and not come down for twelve hours the
world would have turned half-way round by then
and Australia would be underneath you. Then you
could come down and go and see your granny.'
'Oh,' said Daisy, 'I don't think I could jump as

48
high as that, not even if I got a grasshopper to
teach me.'
'Why not point your trunk at the ground and
blow?' said Ernest. 'Then you would go up like a
rocket.'
'I couldn't blow hard enough,' said Daisy. 'But,
perhaps, if I got on a real rocket and went up in
the air and let go when Australia was underneath,
then I'd get there.'
'No,' said Ernest. 'They wouldn't want an ele­
phant on a rocket. You could try and be your own
rocket, though. I've got a plan so that you'll be able
to blow hard enough. You must drink a whole
bathful of fizzy lemonade. Then you'll fizzle and

r---:r--i-
:t-'-t { ,...,:i_
":-
_
. ..
�I
,_
.. .

'
'' LJ
·J:=�;;:=-1 -! .
.•

..

49 ATS-D
wizzle and sizzle inside so much you'll make a very
good rocket.'
'All right!' said Daisy. And she drank a bathful
of fizzy lemonade and she fizzled and wizzled and
sizzled inside and pointed her trunk at the ground
and then, snatching an umbrella. she whizzed high
,
\

-�-(

up in the air, nearly to the moon. Then she opened

the umbrella and came slowly down.
All the time she was coming down the world was
50
turning round so that when Daisy was nearly on
the ground Australia was underneath her.
How the people cheered.
'You are a clever elephant!' they said. 'What a
saving in fares this'll mean! Would you like a
present?'
'Yes, please!' said Daisy. 'I'd like a big feather
bed so that I can lie down and have a lovely sleep
and then I'll go and see my granny.'
So the people gave her a feather bed and Daisy
liked it very much.
'Look!' she said to the Australian sparrows. 'I've
got a feather bed.'
'Humph!' said the sparrows. 'So have we!
We've all got feather beds.' And they put their
heads under their wings and went to sleep.
 Going Down
O NCE T HERE was a man named Mr
Wallington who lived in a flat in a big block in
London.
Every morning, at about half past eight, he
kissed his wife good-bye and stroked his cat and
put up his umbrella and left for the office.

52
 He· always put his umbrella up before he left
home. 'Just in case!' he said.
Mr Wallington lived on the fifth floor, so he
usually took the lift up or down instead of the
stairs. The people in the lift were always surprised
to see him with his umbrella up.
'Why do you have your umbrella up in the lift?'
they asked. 'It's not raining here!'
'Oh, just in case!' said Mr Wallington.
'Perhaps it isn't even raining outside and in that
case you'll have opened it for nothing.'
'If it's not raining it doesn't take me any longer
to put it down than it does to put it up if it
is raining,' he said.
'Oh!' said the people. 'Well, good morning,
Mr Wallington.'
And, 'Good morning, Mr Wallington!' said the
porter at the front door. He wore a blue suit with
silver buttons and looked after the lift and the door
bells and the electric lights and saw that everything
was working properly.
Well, one day when Mr Wallington went
out there was n� one except himself in the lift,
and he was just going to press the lift button
marked 'down' as usual when he thought, 'Shall
53
I press the "up" button instead for a change?
Then he thought, 'I wonder what would happen
if I pressed them both at once. Would I go up or
down or stay still? It's rather naughty! But I'll try
it and see.' And he pressed both buttons at the
same time.
No sooner had he done it than there was a great
big noise as if a milkcart had banged into a railway
engine and the lift broke in the middle and the top
part went up and the bottom part went down. And
Mr Wallington floated down hanging on to his
umbrella like a parachute.
'Oh dear! Oh dear!' he thought. 'Perhaps the
porter will be angry! It's lucky I had my umbrella
up. It just goes to show, doesn't it?'
When he got to the bottom the porter was there
tapping his foot.
' Tut tut,' he said, 'Mr Wallington. Tut tut tut!'
'Good morning, porter!' said Mr Wallington.
'Er . . . nice weather we're having!' and he went
out.
'Oh!!' said the porter. 'He is naughty!!'
 Three Cheers

O NCE UPON a time there was a head­

mistress whose name was Miss Balsam and, after
a hockey match with a neighbouring school, she
called for three cheers.

'Come on, girls!' she said. 'Three cheers for the

girls of St. Hilda's.
'Hip hip hip . . .t

55
 Nothing happened. The cheers had gone for a
drink of lemonade.
Miss Balsam went down to the tuck shop to
find them.
'Now then, you cheers,' she said. 'Come along at
once.'
'No,' said the cheers, 'not till we've finished our
lemonade.'
Miss Balsam was annoyed but she tried to be
friendly and pretended to smile. 'Well, see you
soon!' she said and went away.
'There's only one answer to that,' said the oldest
cheer.
'What's that?' asked the others.
'Well, when she says "See you soon" you say
"Not if I see you first", very quietly under your
breath.'
The cheers laughed for a bit and then decided
to go and see the world for themselves and find out
where they could be useful.
'Let's go to a football match,' said one cheer.
'They're bound to want some cheers there.'
So they went to the football match but on
the way there they met a lot of boos going,
too. And one boo said, 'I don't think cheers are

56
wanted at this match. They're not playing very
well.'
So the cheers said good-bye to the boos and
decided to go somewhere else.
'What about a theatre?' suggested one. 'I expect
people cheer there.'
But when they got to the theatre they found a
lot of common claps there and decided not to stay.
So they wandered about and began to feel rather
lonely and unwanted. They didn't want to go back
to Miss Balsam's school so they went for a walk in
London.
Presently they saw some horses and a golden
coach coming down the street and lots of people
lining the route and waving flags.
It was the Lord Mayor's Show. The cheers were

57
pleased and were soon in great demand. Everyone
cheered. It was nice!
After the show, when they were just going away,
they met Miss Balsam.
'Hall o, you cheers!' she said. 'Wasn't it a
wonderful show?'
'Yes,' said the cheers.
'Well,' said Miss Balsam, 'I must go and catch a
bus. Good-bye! See you soon!'
'Not if we see you first!' said the cheers under
their breath.
 Ginger Biscuits

O NCE UPON a time there was a Prime

Minister who wasn't very clever and when he
made speeches telling people what to do they said,
'Oh no! That's silly!' or 'How stupid!' or, simply,
'Tch! tch!'
So one day the Prime Minister's wife said, 'If
only you didn't make speeches, my dear, people
would think you were clever.'
'I am clever!' said the Prime Minister.
His wife pretended not to hear.
'I'll tell you what to do,' she said. 'Take an
elephant with you tomorrow and let it sit on the
bench next to you when you make your speech.'
'What do I want an elephant for?' said the
Prime Minister.
'Oh, never mind!' said his wife. 'I've got a plan.
Just you take it.'

59
 'Elephants aren't allowed in,' said the Prime
Minister. 'There's a notice outside which says,
"Members must not bring pets into the House".'
'Does it say you mustn't bring elephants?'
'No.'
'Well, there you are then!'
Next day, after breakfast, when the Prime
Minister left number ten Downing Street to go
and make speeches, his wife kissed him good-bye
and gave him his hat and a rope with an elephant
tied to it. It was very friendly and followed the
Prime Minister out of the front door, but no matter
how hard they tried it couldn't squeeze into his
car.

6o
 'Perhaps it could go on the roof-rack,' said the
Prime Minister.
'Of course it couldn't!' said his wife. 'The poor
thing might be sick. Let it walk. It's not far to the
Houses of Parliament.'
'All right!' said the Prime Minister.
Just as they were going the Prime Minister's
wife gave the elephant a big bag of ginger biscuits.
It was very pleased and carried it in its trunk.

When they got to Parliament the Prime Minister

took the elephant in and let it sit on the bench
beside him.
Then he got up to speak and, at the same time,
61
the elephant opened its bag and put all the
ginger biscuits into its mouth at once. What a
noise it made crunching them!

Nobody could hear a word the Prime Minister

said though he shouted as loud as he could.
But, when he finished, everyone clapped.
' That's the best speech the Prime Minister ever
made!' they said. ' He is a clever man!' and they
all went and shook hands with him .
The Prime Minister was very pleased and after
that he always took the elephant to Parliament with
62
him when he was going to make a speech and his
wife always gave it a bag of ginger biscuits
'I do like ginger biscuits!, thought the elephant.
'Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!,
 The Boy who Growled
at Tigers

ONCE UPON a time there was a little

Indian boy whose name was Sudi, who growled
at tigers.
'You be careful,' his mother told him 'Tigers
.

don't like being growled at.'

But Sudi didn't care and, one day, when his
mother was out shopping, he went for a walk to
find a tiger to growl at.
He hadn't gone very far when he saw one hiding
behind a tree waiting for him to come along so
that he could chase him .
As soon as Sudi came up the tiger sprang out
and growled, 'GRRRRRGRRRRRRRGRRRRR­
GRRRRRR.RR ' And Sudi growled right back,
'GRRRRGRRRRG
RR RRRRRGRRRRRR.'
64
 The tiger was annoyed!
'What does he think I am?' he thought. 'A
squirrel? A rabbit? A ocelot? Er . . . An ocelot?'
So, next day, when he saw Sudi coming, he
sprang out from behind the tree and growled
louder than ever, 'GRRRRRGRRRRRGRRRRR­
GRRRRRGRRRRRGRRRRRGRRRR!R !!!!'
'Nice tiger!' said Sudi, and stroked him.
The tiger couldn't bear it and went away and
sharpened his claws and lashed his tail and
practised growling.
 'I am a tiger!' he said. ' T-1-G-E-R; TIGER,
GRRRRRR !'And then he went and had a drink at
the pond. When he had finished he looked at his
reflection in the water. There he was a lovely
yellow tiger with black stripes and a long tail. He

. .

growled again, so loudly that he frightened even

himself, and ran away. At last he stopped.
'What am I running away for?' he thought.
'It's only me. Oh dear, that boy has upset me!
I wonder why he growls at tigers?'
Next day, when Sudi passed, he stopped him.
'Why do you growl at tigers?' he said.
66
 'Well,' said Sudi, 'it's because I'm shy, really.
And if I growl at tigers it sort of makes up for it,
if you see what I mean.'
'I see!' said the tiger.
'After all,' said Sudi, 'tigers are the fiercest
animals in the world and it's very brave to growl
at them.'
The tiger was pleased.
'Fiercer than lions?' he said.
'Oh, yes!' said Sudi.
'And bears?'
'Much fiercer.'
The tiger purred and felt very friendly.
'You are a nice boy!' he said and gave him a

lick.
After that they often went for walks together
and growled at each other.
 The Milkman's Horse

O N CE UPON a time there was a very clever

milkman's horse who could write. His name was
Harry. He wrote a note to the milkman.

He showed it to the other horses in his stable.

'Huh!' they said. 'What do you mean, "latter?"
There's only one t in later if that's what you mean.'
Harry was annoyed and muttered to himself,
'Oatter latter-dater later-water watter.'
68
 'Anyway,' he said. 'I bet none of you can even
write.'
There was no answer.
'Well then,' said Harry, 'one spelling mistake.
That's not bad.'

As a matter of fact Harry was in a bad temper

because he had a sore nose. When he was learning
to write he held the pen between his front hooves
and kept falling over.
He'd keep quite still and rigid but if he moved
ever so slightly or even blinked he'd begin to tip
slowly forward, and then-'bang!' right on his
poor nose.
After a bit he learnt to stop falling over by
resting the nib on the paper and balancing that

69
way, but it broke as often as not and even when
it didn't it made it scratchy to write with.
In the end he learnt to write by holding the pen
in his teeth.
But his nose was still sore.
Next morning when the milkman came he read
the note, and for the first half hour he didn't clatter
the bottles at all, but later, when Harry was
properly awake, he clattered in the way milkmen
usually do.
'How is your poor sore nose this morning,
Harry?' he asked. 'It looks better.' He stroked him
and gave him an apple.
That evening, in his stall, Harry wrote a poem.

To t'Y>tn �·�ti) frtu/tl\1Lk1A"".)

of CovRtE
A l/o-..s�
L\1(5 4)' -p L \:.. t
i�
··�
���w�� ��\ ]' f:"Jt
A"""{T E"R.
• • • • • •• •
WHAT MATT� NS
,,. M ... �t:S Tt-IC:M FATTER.�
4 )fYVAY / '11< Ii Tt\ f rt\·
00 Ol>:SYE lOR NOW.
)wo 1'1 "'..,..� '>L £� S� -l( X .)C
•

70
 He put the paper in the top of a milk bottle and
next morning the milkman came and gave Harry
some sugar lumps.
Five big lumps, a middle sized lump and two
small lumps.

The milkman held them out to Harry on the

palm of his hand.
'Don't make too much noise crunching them or
you'll wake the other horses,' he said.
So Harry crunched them quietly while the milk ­

man read the poem.

'That's a good poem!' he said. 'And thank you
for the kisses. Here's three right back.' And he

71
gave Harry three kisses and then they went and
delivered the milk.
Eros and the Nightingale

ONCE UPON a time a nightingale came to

London and perched on the fountain in Piccadilly
Circus and sang to Eros, the statue of the winged
boy with his bow and arrows that stands above it.

73
 It was a dark summer night and the nightingale
sang of the trees and flowers in the country and
about the seaside and the blue, white-crested waves
rolling ashore on pale tawny sands; and about
children playing, building sandcastl� flying kites,
eating sweets, and swimming and paddling in the
sea.
'How wonderful it must be!' said Eros. 'Herc
there are only buses and taxis and cars and people
hurrying to their offices and going to the shops.
I wish the seaside would come here. How happy I
should be!'
Eros sighed and a tear rolled down his cheek.
'Dear nightingale, ask the seaside to come here
just for one day.'
'I'll try!' said the nightingale and flew away.
Next evening, as the stars were coming out,
perched on a tree stump by the seashore the
nightingale sang of the lonely little boy on top of
the fountain far away in London.
The wind carried the song out to sea and the
waves listened. All night long the nightingale sang
and, when the sun rose, it flew away.
That morning, when the people in London
were going to work, they were very surprised.

74
There, in Piccadilly Circus, was the seaside, the
waves rolling across and breaking on the sandy
shores of Shaftesbury Avenue and Regent Street.
The sun was shining and there were no buses or
taxis or cars but donkeys trotting up and down .

The people took off their hats and clothes and

put on their bathing costumes and got their
buckets and spades and sat down on the sand and
played. Some got surf boards and romped down
the Haymarket on the creamy crests of the waves
and splashed Eros as they passed, and he laughed
for joy.

75
 In the evening storm clouds gathered and the
sky grew dark and rain fell in torrents. When it
stopped and the sky cleared there was Piccadilly
Circus as before with Eros in the middle and, all
around, buses and taxis and people in hats and
coats hurrying about their business.
When it was dark and they had all gone home
the nightingale came again and perched on the
fountain.
'Thank you, nightingale!' said Eros. 'It was
beautiful!'
Presently it came on to rain again, rather gently,
and the nightingale perched in a little dry place at
the boy's foot and put its head under its wing and
went to sleep as the first early morning bus rolled
down Regent Street on its way to Piccadilly.
 Other 'Read Aloud' Books

DONALD BISSET Sometime Stories

This Time Stories
Next Time Stories
LEILA BERG Little Pete Stories
DOROTHY EDWARDS My Naughty Little Sister
My Naughty Little Sister's
Friends
More Naughty Little Sister
Stories and Some Others
UURSLA HoURIHANE Happy-Go-Lucky Stories
Sugar and Spice
Traveller's Joy