The Picture Frame

Mini was bored. She had come to her grandfather’s house for her summer holidays, and there was nothing to do. Her grandfather lived in an old mansion in a little village. For many years, nobody had lived in this creaky old place. Now her grandfather had bought it and had begun living in it.

It had many rooms and Mini had spent long hours exploring the rooms, till she had explored every single room, and today there was nothing to do. Her mother had woken her up early, so she had spent the whole morning in the garden, but now it was too hot to go outside. It was no use complaining to her mother, who had already told her, “There’s so much to do in this house, just find something!”

Mini looked around the mansion, “I might as well be useful,” she said to herself, “I think I’ll clean all the pictures frames in the mansion.” There were quite a few of these in the house, some of them held portraits, or pictures of people. So cleaning them would keep her busy the whole day.

Mini got a large bucket of soapy water, she got a big sponge and begun cleaning the picture frames. But after cleaning three picture frames she got quite tired. Her arms were aching, “I think I’ll clean only one more frame and then I’ll stop”, she said to herself.

The picture frame she chose to clean had a painting of a very strange looking person. He wore a top hat, which was really tall. In his hand was a stick. His eyes were almost red, while his fingers were long. His nails looked like claws, it seemed that the nails were tucked inside in fingers. “How very strange,” thought Mini, “I just hope he is no relative of mine.”

She looked closely at the frame and thought, “This picture frame is very dirty, no one has ever cleaned it.” So Mini put her sponge in the soapy water and begun cleaning the picture frame.

She began rubbing the picture frame. “Kich, kich,” went the wet sponge. And strangely enough “Fff, Fff” went the painting! Mini was startled, she stopped, and the noise also stopped, “Must be my imagination,” said Mini. So she started rubbing the painting again. “Fff, Fff, foee!” went the painting and suddenly there was a cloud of smoke…

The room turned dark, flames leapt from everywhere, shrill sounds filled the room and in the middle of the room was standing the man in the picture! He wore a top hat, which was really tall. In his hand was a stick. His eyes were almost red, while his fingers were long and his nails looked like claws.

Mini was terrified, she ran around looking for a place to hide, just when she heard a loud and unearthly laughter. “Ha, Ha, Ha, where will you run?” screeched the man in the painting. “You have released me from the painting, Thanks ever so much!’ he croaked. “Once more I am the lord of the mansion, I am the cruel one! You child can call me the Evil Lord!” He leaned to the frightened child and said, “Be afraid - be very afraid!

Mini could hear her heart pound like a drum; she was frightened out of her wits. In a distance, she saw her mother come running in with her little brother. She did not want them to get hurt. Mini knew this was not the time to be afraid! She thought hard, there had to be a plan. When a little phrase that she had hear somewhere went through her head. “If you can’t fight them, join them.”

But there was no time to think, Mini’s mother had entered the room and was screaming her head off! “Get out, get out leave my daughter alone!” The Evil Lord just grinned, “Get out lady? Why should I? I am the Evil Lord. Fifty years ago I got extraordinary powers, with these I used to frighten the silly villagers. I could not be destroyed or killed! But one day they called a magician and managed to lock my soul up in the frame.”

The Evil Lord looked grim when he said this, and then his face broke into the most horrible grin that you have ever seen! “Before they did that I managed to put a magic spell on the frame. If anyone rubbed it, I would be out in a flash. I will never get back into the frame again, I will never be locked up again!” Now the Evil Lord had a really-really big grin as he said in a croaky and ugly voice, pointing his long and terrible nails at Mini he said, “You little girl have set me free – Whoeee!”

Mini’s heart was beating hard, but she had to save her family, so with brave face she said, “I bow to you Evil Lord. It was magic the way you came out of the frame. Show my mother the magic. Please lord, get into the frame and show my mother how you came out…please, pretty please!”

The Evil Lord laughed and flew into the frame. There were flames all over and a loud banging noise, as if something was shutting. The Evil Lord was once again stuck in the frame. He screamed, “This is trick!” slowly his voice faded away, and he began looking like a painting again. Once more the Evil Lord was stuck in a frame, there was no escape for him.

Mini’s mother could not believe her eyes; she was astonished with what she saw. “Mini you are so clever!” she exclaimed.

Mini was a heroine with her family. Everyone was very proud of her. Her grandfather took down the painting, broke it and burnt it. There was no Evil Lord anymore, he had disappeared forever.

Rick the Violinist

In the town of Vallamore lived Rick. He was the worst ever musician you had ever heard. He used to love to play the violin, but whenever he would play the flowers would wilt, the cats would screech, the dogs would howl, even the cows would leave their shed and run away! Everyone tried telling him not to play the violin, but Rick would not listen to anyone!

Rick’s neighbors were at their wits end, they wanted to get away from Rick. Everyday when he started the townspeople would come and throw stones in his house. “Stop playing Rick,” they would shout!

But, Rick was so fond of playing that he never bothered. He just kept on playing his violin! Now the people had enough, they wanted to throw him out of the town.

One day a terrible thing happened to Rick’s town, Vallmore. Enemy soldiers attacked the little town and they were mean and horrid. Every person in the village was made to march onto the streets. The fierce soldiers pointed their guns at them and asked them to all stand in a line. The people could not speak or cry, they had to stand silently in attention. Huge battle tanks with the latest weapons were pointed at them. The people of the town were really scared! The mayor of the town was put in prison.

“OBEY OUR ORDERS –The people of Vallamore!” shouted the general. “Otherwise the soldiers will shoot you!” The people were scared, hot and tired. The children began crying, their parents try to quieten them, but could not as they felt like crying themselves!

Now the General of the Army wanted to listen to some music of victory. The band of musicians of his army had not come with him - they had been left behind! The huge and ugly general sent his soldiers all the people to find out if there was a musician among them.

When the soldiers went to the mayor the town, he said, “Yes we have a musician, his name is Rick.” And then he added, craftily, “He can play the most wonderful music you have hear!”

So poor Rick was called in the front the huge and ugly general. “What do you play?” boomed the general fiercely.

Rick trembled and said, “I can play anything you ask me.” “Very good,” said the general, “Play some glorious battle music!”

Poor Rick was very scared when he saw the huge and ugly general along with his cruel and fierce soldiers. In a voice that shivered and quaked Rick cried, “Oh, good general I’ll play whatever you want, only let me go!”

Then Rick picked up his violin, closing his eyes he played the first note, “Scree-ee-eech, peee, tee, quee!” went the violin. The general cried, “Stop!” The soldiers fainted; everyone thought that their eardrums would burst. The music of the violin went screeching and weeping into the head of the general. He did not know what to do.

Rick just kept on playing; he thought that the general and the soldiers who had terrorized his town were enjoying the battle music. His violin went,“Scree-ee-eech, peee, tee, quee!”

The mean and horrid soldiers went running out off town, the general ran behind them, his hands covering his ears. They all ran as fast as they could and as far as they could. They ran off with their guns and huge battle tanks. They promised that they would never come back to this little town of Vallamore!

Rick became a hero. He could now practice the violin each and everyday. The people of Vallamore bought earplug, thick and strong earplugs that would keep Rick’s horrible music out of their ears. Even the animals were given special earplugs. Everyday when he practiced every single living creature wore earplugs. The plants were covered for the while so that they would not wilt.
So that’s the story of Rick the violin player of Vallamore, if you know any bad musician do let them practice, for you never know when you might need them!

The North Star Meets Comet

The North Star was shining happily. He liked to shine; everyday he would shine away smiling happily. One day just as he was getting ready to shine through the night he saw something going by. It had a long, bright tail, and it had very dirty face. “What a strange thing,” thought the North Star. He asked the stars around him what it was. One of the stars suddenly remembered, “That’s a comet!”

The north star really liked the comet, he loved the way it zoomed through the sky as if it was in a very big hurry! He himself never moved much, everyday he shone in the sky, almost in the same place. Suddenly something strange happened! The comet stopped! “Hey,” yelled the North Star, "Why did you stop?

The comet turned around, usually he never had time for talking to the other stars. He looked at the North Star and saw that him standing still. “Lucky you!” he exclaimed. The North Star was most surprised, “Lucky me, wow I just have been standing here for millions of years, how can I be lucky? “Well at least you don’t zip around universe without a moments rest!” sighed the comet. “Oh! I’m so tired! The North Star felt sorry for the comet and really he did look rather dirty and weary! “Come wait a while with me” and the so the comet rested a while.

Suddenly a big huge storm came rushing near them. “Why have you stopped comet? You are supposed to be going on…” It was the great big storm which had come running down. He had come in such a rush that he was panting! “If you don’t rush on, everything in the sky will be different” he told the comet very sternly.

The North Star asked surprised, “What’s wrong if the comet waits awhile? The Great storm growled, “Look you are supposed to be standing here, and he is supposed to be going, we all have something to do! Now get along comet!

The comet was already beginning to feel cold standing, “I think you are right, I’m getting cold waiting here, I should go on.” So the Comet got ready to start off , “Will see you in some years, North Star, I’ve just got to rush off!

Once again the comet zipped off, and the North Star saw his light shining across the sky, “Bye comet, it was nice to see you!”

Rappin Roo Meets the Spider

A wretched day it really was
The sun was shining so very hard,
And the rain was pretending to fall.
Young Rappin Roo was sitting
And grumbling on her large red ball.
“Oh, this so boring” she said,
“I think I’ll really go to bed,
My books are all read
My toys are all played,
I really don’t want to sleep.
My eyes open, I shall keep.”

She looked at the sky,
She even swatted a fly,
She sang a tuneless song,
that didn’t take too long,
When something caught her eye.
A spider, a funny spider,
he was looking at her,
Should she hide-
or step aside?

Ah, this was scary,
She’d better be wary,
Her mum says don’t talk to strangers
specially creepy crawly web spinners!
Then her friendly smile, she smiled.
The spider just glared,
quietly spinning his web.

Said Rappin Roo, “That’s mighty rude of you
You should really smile, when you are smiled to”
The spider just angrily stared,
Rappin Roo then quickly said
“Say something Mr. Spider
I got nothing to do,
I could talk to you?”
“Silly child,” rudely said a voice
“You humans, I just can’t trust
For whenever you see my pretty web,
completely destroy it you just must.”

Screamed youg Roo,
“Hey I’ve never spoken to a spider,
it’s so very and absolutely nice of you,
Now I’ll have something do to!”

The spider came slowly,
So wary and sulkily
“All right, I have said hello,
But, I got a lot of work you know.
Spinning a fine web is a mighty task,
at which I’m very fast
Last week I have actually won
the web spinning cup!.
Oh! I can’t sit and gabble,
nor lazily all day dabble
I got work, I can’t talk”

“Oh, darn “sighed Rappin roo
I’d like to help you.”
The spider then snapped,
Saying ever so cruelly,
“Stuff and nonsense,
Near my pretty web
how can I ever let you?
Yes , you’ll break it all
Imagine it will all fall
with one touch of your huge hands
I will have no web to crawl about at all.
I can spin me a parachute
On which I can forever hang,
And, it catches me all my food
Like some stupid fly.
My lunch, dinner
and breakfast it can always bring
Isn’t that such a wonderful thing”

So, he asked Rappin Roo,
“How can I let a clumsy thing like you,
Even come close to my beautiful web?”
Rappin Roo said sharp and fast
“Oh dear spider that’s very mean
A little scared of you I may seem.
But, I can crush you with a broomstick
or even with that huge red , shiny brick
You don’t really frighten me”
Sticking out her tongue-she said “Goodbye!”.
“Cheerio !“ cried the spider
“I hope we never meet again “


Angry Rappin Roo burst the big red ball
She was screamed down the hall,
The spidey web she’ll break!
His things she’ll take,
She’ll show what she could do,
So angry was little Rappin Roo.

Setting out with broomstick, she gave spidey a chase
She’d show this lousy arachnid his rotten place!
The fearless spider called his cousin the Tarantula,
From South America, came he!
And Rappin Roo, well what a scare had she!

So off to bed she went – and closed her eyes,
Dreaming of scary spiders, and measly flies.
The Spider of course kept on spinning,
All night he kept working.
No time for boring humans, or a screaming pest,
He had to spin a web that was the best!

Story 2 - Zide the spider sees the world

Zide was a tiny spider that lived in the corner of the garden. He was a very shy spider; and he had never been out of his home. He lived little hole in the soil and made a trapdoor on it with silk. This door would cover his home and even help him trap little insects. Zide is was we humans call a ‘trap-door’ spider.

One day a little fly came to look into Zide’s home. It was caught on the trap door and whoosh the little spider grabbed the fly, read to bite it with its fangs. The fly was smart, he said, “Hey Zide if you let me go I’ll tell you about the world!’

Now Zide had never seen anything more than his house before, so he had no idea how big the world was. He always thought that the world ended just a little bit away from home. He was curious, so he asked the fly about the world. “Tell me,” he said, “What’s there in the world?” Now, the fly as I have said, was clever, and so he said, “I’ll tell you about the world if you promise not to kill me!” Zide promised the fly that he would be safe.

The fly told him about the little garden that Zide lived in. As the little spider had never gone away from his home, he had no idea about it. It all sounded rather interesting.

The fly told him about the flowers, the bees, and the lawnmower that was noisy and seemed like a huge beast. He told him about rats, dangerous frogs, the fort ant’s nest and stones and the rain that fell all over. Zide has always thought that the water from the sky fell only in his little burrow, it all seemed very new to him. Finally, after a long chat the fly went away leaving Zide in deep thought. “There is so much to see around,” he thought. He imagined the flowers all around, the frogs and dragonflies; the pond and the rain that fell all over.

Zide wanted to see the world. “What is life without a little adventure!” he thought.
Then one day he made up his mind, “I’ll go see the world.” So, the next morning he caught himself some bugs to have a very heavy breakfast and set out to see the world. Our tiny hero walked out of his burrow onto the earth and was taken aback by what he saw. The garden was huge, magnificent and colorful, with many creatures around. “Hello world,” he yelled, “I’m coming to see you.”

Quickly he ran across on his eight tiny legs, when he suddenly saw a big green thing, with dark green patches. This thing was jumping all over, and it had long tongue coming in and out of its mouth. The spider got onto a log of wood and cried in its tiny voice, “Hi, who are you?” The green giant was taken aback to see the spider, “I’m the big bullfrog. What’s a tiny spider like you doing out here?” he asked. The spider said, “I’m out to see the world!” The bullfrog laughed loudly, “Oh you’ll get eaten up. Go back to the web you came from!”

Zide the spider was offended, “Humph!” he said, “I am not like other trap-door spiders, happy to sit in my burrow! I want to see the world!” The bullfrog just laughed and let Zide go.

So he moved ahead, he found a pretty little ladybird sitting under the flowers. Zide and the ladybird were friends. Long long ago he had tried to eat her. But the ladybird told him a funny story, so he had let her go. Today she was most surprised to Zide so far away from home, “What are doing here, Zide?” she asked, “You never leave you burrow!” Zide told her about the fly, who had tempted him to see the big world, the garden.
The ladybird was very kind. She wanted to throw Zide a party. She called all the insects and the arachnids to the party. Only the scorpions were left out, as all the insects and spiders were scared of those. (Now arachnids, I must tell you are eight legged creatures like spiders. They are proud to be different from insects)

The ladybird made Zide promise that he would not eat any of the insects here. Zide was too happy to have a party, so he promised the ladybird every single insect would be safe with him. You should have seen the bugs and insects in the party. How they danced, even Zide flung his eight legs around and danced. He had so much fun.

A little scorpion heard all the noise. He came and watched for a while, and then he saw Zide. “Mmm,” he thought, “A nice fat spider, he’ll make a good meal!” The scorpion called out to Zide, “Hey what are you doing here?” Zide was so happy dancing that he forgot his fear of scorpions.
“I’m out to see the world,” he shouted back.
The scorpion said, “Come with me I’ll show you the world.” The scorpion and Zide the trap-door spider ran on, both had eight feet, so they were quick.

They stopped at the edge of the garden and Zide for the first time in his life saw the fence and the world beyond. It looked strange to him. There were huge vehicles, which he thought were giant bug rushing all over. He was quite scared. If you were a little spider, you too would get scared.

The scorpion thought to himself, "Hee, hee! Now I can eat him!” and so he raised his shard pincers towards Zide. Seeing these our hero said, “Oops gotta run!” and off he was like a shot! The scorpion followed him shouting, “I’ll catch you!”

At last finding his way, Zide ran as fast as he could, the bugs and insects saw him run, “Go Zide go!’ they yelled. The ladybird shouted, “Run kiddo, run!” The bullfrog yelled, “Go back to your burrow fast!

Zide ran and ran. The scorpion was fast. At last Zide’s saw the safety of his house. He rushed in quickly and spun a stronger door, stuck with mud and shut himself in. The scorpion tried his best to get in, but Zide was safe! Finally, he gave up and went away. Zide, sighed with relief.

“That was an adventure!” he said, before he tucked him self to sleep that night. His dreams were about the big-huge world he had seen. Sweet Dreams Zide, the trap-door spider!

Story 1 -In Search of An Adventure

There was once a boy called Looka. He lived in a huge city and for some strange reason he was quite bored of living there. If you asked him why, he would say, “It’s because nothing adventurous happens in a city!” Now if you live in a city you would know that is quite untrue. In a big city, it can be quite an adventure crossing the road. But, our young friend Looka didn’t quite see it that way, he was looking to fight pirates and robbers and nasty gangs. Of course, his parents would never let him stay out for too long so he never met any blackhearted criminals, but Looka was always on the search for them. He would jump into alleys; look around corners in the hope of finding an adventure.

One day as young Looka was walking down a busy street, he saw a strange looking man. He wore a long overcoat, with a black hat that almost covered his face. All that Looka could see on his face was a big, black moustache.

“A villain,” whispered Looka to himself, “Surely this man is up to something really bad! I think I’ll follow him!” So, Looka began shadowing the man, he felt like a real detective. His heart beat faster, he breathed deep. “This will be a great adventure!” Looka told himself.

The mysterious man in the overcoat went quietly through the streets. He did look quite strange; it was a too hot a day to be wearing such a thick overcoat. People on the streets did stare at him, but then in a city people are too busy rushing from one place to another to be bothered about strange looking people. Everyone left him alone, that except Looka, who kept following him.

“He must be an international spy,” thought Looka, “Only international spies wear such overcoats.” He had seen international spies on television and he was sure that this is how they looked!

The man walked on, then he entered a rickety old building, Looka followed him. The stairs of the building looked as if they might just crash, but the strange man rushed up. Looka waited for to go up, and then followed him. A voice went through his head, his mother had told him never to go into strange buildings, “They can be very, very unsafe,” she had told him. But, Looka was in search of his adventure and so he crept up the building slowly, trying not to make a sound!

The building was scary, there were strange sounds going on as Looka was climbing up. It creaked and moaned, Looka was sure that it would break. But the brave boy went ahead. It looked like an abandoned building; there was no one in there.

Looka went up, then he looked around in the corner he saw the evil looking man, so he quickly hid behind a door. The door was rickety; it looked as if it would fall! The man turned around, and suddenly to Looka’s dismay he seemed to look at him. “Who’s there?” the man shouted. “Show your face!”

Looka ran as fast as his he could! The weird stranger ran behind him. The stairs and the wooden floors made a lot of noise. “CRR, CRR, went the floor! “Oh dear! I think the house will break,” shouted Looka. The man behind Looka yelled “Stop!” but the boy was too scared.

They both began racing down the stairs. The house moaned and groaned, “STOP BOY!” Yelled the man; But Looka was not ready to listen to him. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, not stopping even to catch his breath! He could hear the steps of the strange looking man chasing him. “Oh dear,” thought Looka, quite upset with himself, “Why did I ever come looking for adventure?

Just then, the house began to shake and shiver, Looka could hear the floorboards groan, “This is terrible, the house is about to crash!” screeched Looka, but there was no one around to help him!

Creek, went the house, the stairs began to shake and break, “Oh God, Please help me!” yelled Looka. Suddenly he found he began to roll and to his surprise, the strange man that he was shaking fell down ahead of him. It seemed something had hit him on his head and he had fainted. Looka didn’t know what to do, he was relieved that the man could no longer attack him, but he had to save him. With all his strength Looka began to drag him out! It was really difficult, and Looka’s arms ached.

Finally, Looka was on the street, there was a whole load of people gathered there. The fire brigade had come over there, blaring its sirens and one of the firemen saw Looka. He ran towards him, “Come here kiddo,” he said gently, he pulled Looka towards him. A stretcher quickly carried the strange and unconscious man across the road!

Looka was shivering in fear, but the still had to know whom the strange man was. So he crossed the street behind the stretcher. The paramedics put quickly took off his coat, and dark glasses. Looka could hear one of the paramedics whisper, “This is a false mustache, let’s pull it off!” As soon as it was pulled off, Looka cried in astonishmentm, “Oh, man, this is the famous rock singer Gory Goo! What’s he doing here?”

Of course there was a big uproar after the identity was discovered of the strange man. It turned out that Gory Goo the rock singer was here, because this was where he grew up. He did not want to get any of his bodyguards and came alone as he was tired of never being alone. Gory Goo, was very happy that he was saved, Looka received a bravery award, he even got a lifetime of free tickets to any Gory Goo concert, anywhere in the world! With air tickets thrown in, once again all free. Looka was very happy. “I really think I’ll make a great detective!” he told everyone he knew!