Mother's Nursery Tales

The old goat put the stones inside the wolf, where the little kids had been, and then she drew the hide together and sewed it up, using the stout, strong thread. After that she...

“Prince,” said the fox, “you did well indeed to follow my advice. Now seat yourself upon my tail and I will carry you on your journey far faster than you can walk.”

She entered the house, and now her mother and sister were glad to see her because she was covered with gold. They asked her where she had been and who had given her all that tre...

As it drew on toward midnight Cinderella became very uneasy. She tried to slip away without being seen, but the Prince followed her everywhere she went. At last she made some ex...

A cat was sitting on a gate-post. “Puss, puss, catch rat,” called the old woman. “Rat won’t gnaw rope, rope won’t hang butcher, butcher won’t kill ox, ox won’t drink water, wate...

Then the Prince, a Beast no longer, told Beauty that a wicked fairy had changed him into the shape of a Beast, and not until a fair young maiden would love him enough to be his...

“What nonsense!” said his wife. “If anyone had come here don’t you suppose I would have seen him? A crow flew over the roof and dropped a bone down the chimney, and that is what...

“Was his name John?” “No, it was not.” “Was it Henry?” “No.” “Was it James or Conrad or Phillip or Habbakuk?” “No, no, no; it was none of them.” The Queen went over all the name...

One day Goldilocks went out into the meadows to gather flowers. She wandered on and on, and after a while she came to a forest, where she had never been before. She went on into...

“I couldn’t help knowing! I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, and a part of it fell on my tail. Oh, let us run, run until we get some place.”

Jack was very much troubled at this. He feared there was some enchantment about the place that made him visible in spite of his cap of darkness. However, none of the other anima...

It was not long before Little Red Riding-Hood came running along, and she was in a great hurry, for she had spent a long time gathering flowers. The woodcutter did not see her,...

The Sultan at once sent for Aladdin, and when he came the Sultan made the tailor’s son sit beside him, and talked with him as an equal. “My dear Aladdin,” said he, “you are inde...

PAGE The Sleeping Beauty 1 Jack and the Bean Stalk 13 Beauty and the Beast 31 Jack-the-Giant-Killer 47 The Three Wishes 71 The Goose Girl 75 The Little Old Woman and Her Pig 92...

Well, the ogre was willing to oblige him. At once he turned himself into a lion, for he really had that power, and he was a very terrible looking lion indeed. He roared and lash...