Cuentos En Inglés Para Niños

The gingerbread man

An old woman was baking one day, and she made some gingerbread. She had some dough left over,so she made the shape of a little man. She made eyes for him, a nose and a smiling mouth all of currants, and placed more currants down his front to look like buttons.

Then she laid him on a baking tray and put him into the oven to bake.

After a little while, she heard something rattling at the oven door. She opened it and to her surprise out jumped the little gingerbread man she had made. She tried to catch him as he ran across the kitchen, but he slipped past her, calling as he ran:

-"Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

She chased after him into the garden where her husband was digging. He put down his spade and tried to catch him too, but as the gingerbread man sped past him he called over his shoulder:

- "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

As he ran down the road he passed a cow. The cow called out,

-"Stop, gingerbread man! You look good to eat!"

But the gingerbread man laughed and shouted over his shoulder:

- "I´ve run from an old woman And an old man. Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

The cow ran after the old woman and the old man, and soon they all passed a horse.

-"Stop!" called out the horse, "I´d like to eat you."

But the gingerbread man called out:

"I´ve run from an old woman And an old man, And a cow! Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

He ran on, with the old woman and the old man and the cow and the horse following, and he went past a party of people haymaking. They all looked up as they saw the gingerbread man, and as he passed them he called out:

- "I´ve run from an old woman, And from an old man, And a cow and a horse. Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

The haymakers joined in the chase behind the old woman and the old man, the cow and the horse, and they all followed,him as he ran through the fields.

There he met a fox, so he called out to the fox:

"Run, run, as fast as you can, You can´t catch me, I´m the gingerbread man!"

But the sly fox said,

-"Why should I bother to catch you?" although he thought to himself, "That gingerbread man would be good to eat."

Just after he had run past the fox the gingerbread man had to stop because he came to a wide, deep, swift-flowing river. The fox saw the old woman and the old man, the cow, the horse and the haymakers all chasing the gingerbread man so he said,

-"Jump on my back, and I´ll take you across the river!"

The gingerbread man jumped on the fox´s back and the fox began to swim. As they reached the middle of the river, where the water was deep, the fox said,

- "Can you stand on my head, Gingerbread Man, or you will get wet."

So the gingerbread man pulled himself up and stood on the fox´s head. As the current flowed more swiftly, the fox said, "

- Can you move on to my nose, Gingerbread Man, so that I can carry you more safely? I would not like you to drown."

The gingerbread man slid on to the fox´s nose. But when they reached the bank of the river, the fox suddenly went snap! The gingerbread man disappeared into the fox´s mouth, and was never seen again.

FIN

The ghostly village

The night was rainy; a big storm was falling on the sea. The waves were enormous and the fog was thick. The ships rocked one side to the other as marionettes.

Suddenly, an awful creaking was heard in the darkness. A big cloud of smoke was seen in the distance and an intense odour could be noticed in the air. Everybody was wondering what had happened.

A ship had ran aground near the shore and had split part of the petrol it carried. A big black stain spreaded on the water, as a big black cloack which had the sea gone into mourning. The smell of petrol was each time stronger and mixed with the freshness of the breeze each sunset near the beach. Charles and Anne used to go watching the stars. When they felt that freedom that only those who have not betrayed their ideals feel. They were the children of a fisher and lived in a humble white house very near from the cliff.

The fishers had recently had problems to fish, fishing was not very good. Now, it would be worse, there would not be anything in many time. Fishers will not be seen carrying fish to the harbour. They could not be said goodbye as it was usual. Now they will have to go far, to be able to live.

The village became a village without people. A ghostly village. Just a few women and children remained there. Men and young people went to look for a job and came back once in a while to see their families. At nightfall, a few lights, brought the village back to existence.

But from the cliff the view was not the same, it seemed that even the breeze had changed of place. The air smell of petrol and the sea’s calm had turned to a terrible anguished seeing how all the sea life was being destroyed. Dead fishes floated and all was devastating. The few people who remained, started to rebuild and clean all that had been damaged.

Some years passed until the village returned to normal. Some of who had left returned and the boats returned to the harbour. Hope was born again with the fear that the story would repeat.

The End

The Crystal Ball

Long time ago, a witch lived. She had three sons who loved themselves as good brothers, but the old woman didn’t trust them fearing they wanted to take her power away.

That is why she transformed the old one in an eagle who nested in the summit of a rocky mountain and who was seen few times drawing circles in the immensity of the sky.

She turned the second into a whale condemning him to live in under the see and only from time to time he stuck out of the surface throwing a large water stream. Both recovered their human shape during two hours each day.

The third son, fearing to be turn into an animal such as a bird or a wolf, fled secretly.

He had known that in the castle of the Golden Sun, an enchanted princess lived waiting the time of her liberation, but whoever tried it risked his life and twenty three young men had sadly died. Just one more could try his luck and no one more after him. And as he was a boy of intrepid heart, he decided to go in the search of the castle of the Golden Sun.

He had been on the way for a long time, without finding the castle, when he found himself lost in an immense forest. Suddenly, he discovered two giants in the distance who were making sings to him and when he approached, they told him.

-We are arguing who has to keep this hat and since we are the same strength, none of us can win the other. As you, men, are cleverer than us, we have thought that you decide.

-How it is possible that you are fighting for an old hat?- exclaimed the young man.

-You ignore its virtues. It’s a miraculous hat, since everyone who puts it on, will be transported in a moment to any place he desires.

-Give me the hat- said the boy- I will go ahead a stretch and when I call your names, start running, I’ll give it to the first who arrives to me.

And he went away pulling down the hat. But, with the princess on his mind, he quickly forgot about the giants. Sighing he exclaimed

-Ah if I could be in the castle of the Golden Sun-

And he had scarcely pronounced these words that he found himself in the summit of a mountain in front of the door of a castle. He entered and went all over all the rooms finding the princess in the last one.

But, he what a terrible fight he got when he saw her! Her face was the colour of ash, full of wrinkles, her eyes blurred and her hair was red.

-Are you the princess whose beauty is praised by everybody?

-Ah!- she answered- what you see is not my proper shape. Human eyes can only see me in this horrible aspect but for you to know how I really am look through this mirror who is not wrong and reflects my true image.

And she put on his hand a mirror through which the young man saw the figure of the most beautiful girl in the world. He said then.

-How can you be redeemed? I don’t give up in any danger.

-Whoever seizes the crystal ball and shows it to the warlock will break his power and will restore my original figure. Ah!- she added- many have paid it with life, and seeing you so young it aches me to see you exposing to such a great risk for me.

-Nothing will stop me-he answered- but tell me what do I have to do.

-You will know all- said the princess.- If you go down the mountain in whose summit we are, you will find by the foot, next to the fountain, a wild bison with whom you will have to fight. If you kill him, a fire bird will raise from him.

This bird carries in the body a burning egg and the yolk of this egg is a crystal ball. But the bird won’t let go of the egg unless he is forced to do it and if it falls on the ground it will light, burning everything around it and dissolving with the crystal ball so then all your tiredness will be useless.

The young man went down to the fountain and in a moment he heard the snorts

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