=Frog was in his garden.
=Toad came walking by.
"What a fine garden you have, =Frog," he said.
"Yes," said =Frog. "It is very nice, but it was hard work."
"I wish I had a garden," said =Toad.
"Here are some flower seeds. Plant them in the ground," said =Frog,
"and soon you will have a garden."
"How soon," asked =Toad?
"Quite soon", said =Frog.
=Toad ran home.
He planted the flower seeds.
"Now seeds," said =Toad, "start growing."
=Toad walked up and down a few times.
The seeds did not start to grow.
=Toad put his head close to the ground and said loudly, "Now
seeds, start growing!"



=Jasper lived in the house on the corner.
It was a busy corner. All day long people passed by,
hurrying to work, hurrying home again.
=Jasper didn't hurry.
He didn't have any place to go.
Sometimes he didn't have anything to do.
He watched the people pass by.
Sometimes they stopped and talked to him.
They asked him questions.
There was one question that everybody asked him.
"What are you going to be when you grow up?"
"I'm going to be a hero," =Jasper said.
And then they laughed.
"Wait and see," thought =Jasper. "Someday
I am going to be a big hero. I will have my
picture in the paper."



Humpback whales live in the sea but are not fish.
They breathe air and stay warm in the coldest weather.
Blubber is a thick layer of fat.
It keeps the whales warm.
When they have not food, whales can live off their blubber.
Most great whales don't need teeth.
They eat very small animals called krill.
Krill live in icy water near the North and South Poles.
Whales feed all summer long.
Their mouths can hold a ton of krill.
Whales can't see or smell very well.
How do they find food?
Whales make a clicking sound, then listen for the echo.
The echo tells them where to find krill.



Not long ago on a high hill in =Haiti there lived a little
girl named =JosefinaFebruary.
=Josefina lived with her grandfather, Mr =February, in a house
that had one room, bamboo walls and a banana leaf roof.
In front of their house stood an enormous Silk-cotton tree in
which =Josefina had her private sitting room.
From her room in the tree she could watch the sea a mile away,
and the market place which was halfway to the sea.
In back of their house was the grove, surrounded by a cactus fence.
In the grove there were oranges, breadfruit, bananas and yams;
avocodos, mangos, pineapples and beans.
Poppies, which grew everywhere, covered the ground and poinsettias
ringed round the trunks of calabash trees.





Once there was a goat named =Gregory.
=Gregory liked to jump from rock to rock, kick his legs into the air, and
butt his head against walls.
"I'm an average goat," said =Gregory.
But =Gregory was not an average goat.
=Gregory was a terrible eater.
Every time he sat down to eat with his mother and father, he knew he was in for trouble.
"Would you like a tin can, =Gregory," asked =MotherGoat?
"No, thanks," said =Gregory.
"How about a nice box, a piece of rug, and a bottle cap," asked =FatherGoat?
"Baaaaaa," said =Gregory unhappily.




There was once a good shoemaker who became very poor.
At last he had only one piece of leather to make one pair of shoes.
"Well," said the shoemaker to his wife,
"I will cut the leather tonight to make the shoes in the morning."
The next morning he went to his table, and he couldn't believe what he saw.
The leather was polished.
The sewing was done.
And there was a fine pair of shoes!
Not one stitch was out of place.
"Do you see what I see," asked the shoemaker?
"Indeed I do," said his wife.
"I see a fine pair of shoes."
"But who could have made them," the shoemaker said?
"It's just like magic," said his wife!
At that very moment a man came in with a top hat and cane.
"Those shoes look right for me," said the man.





=LittleOwn rolled over in his bed and tucked the covers up around him.
He listened to the rainfall on the leaves outside.
He liked the sound of rain.
He liked it so much he fell asleep.
When he woke up, the rain had stopped.
Moonlight came through the bedroom window.
Suddenly, =LittleOwn sat up.
"Tonight is my birthday," he cried aloud!
He threw back the covers and ran into the kitchen.
"Good evening, =LittleOwn." His mother smiled.
"Are you ready for breakfast?"
"I'm hungry," said =LittleOwl, sitting down at the table.
"Do you know what tonight is?"
"Yes, I do," said Mrs =Owl, as she put two big slices of toast
with black-currant jam before him. "Tonight is the night I must
clean the cupboards."




=VanessaMouse lived with her mother and father on three floors of a fine, old house.
Mrs =Mouse had many friends.
When they came to visit, =Vanessa hid under the sofa and peeked out.
"Say hello, =Vanessa," said her mother.
But =Vanessa didn't.
When Mr =Mouse's friends came over, =Vanessa sat in a corner and didn't look up.
"Look up, =Vanessa," said her father.
But =Vanessa wouldn't.
No friends came over to see =Vanessa.
Because =Vanessa didn't have any.
"Not one friend," said Mrs =Mouse sadly.
"Not even a now and then friend. Or an every Sunday friend.
Or a rainy day sit by the window and nibble crumbs friend. Nobody."




Old =Bartholomew is =Nelly's neighbor.
When =Nelly was very small, he would take her every day for a walk down the block to
Mrs =Pringles vegetable garden. =Bartholomew never pushed too fast. He always
warned =Nelly about Mr =Oliver's bumpy driveway:
"Hang on, =Nell! Here's a bump!"
And she'd shout, "Bump" as she rode over it!
If they met a nice dog along the way, the'd stop and pet it.
But it it was nasty, =Bartholomew would shoo it away.
When Mrs =Pringle's sprinkler was on, he would say, "Get ready,
get set, charge!"
=Nelly would squeal " Wheeeee " as he pushed her through it!




It is nighttime.
You are sleeping in your bed.
Many of the animals outside are sleeping, too.
But others are stirring. Let's see who is awake.
A little mouse steps softly out of its grassy nest.
It is time to look for seeds, or berries, or nuts to nibble on.
But someone in the dark forest heard the tiny sounds the mouse made.
Suddenly a shadow swoops down.
It is the screech owl.
It closes its wings as it lands, ready to dig its hooked claws into the mouse.
But the mouse is gone. It ran back into its nest.