Читать книгу Сказки дедушки Ралота. Учим наших детей иностранным языкам - Александр Ралот - Страница 5

The end of May 2022. A cozy village on the shore of the warm Black Sea.

Do you know what is the most difficult occupation in the world? No, not to dig weeds on garden beds on a hot summer day and not even to roll a heavy stone uphill in gloomy Tartarus, as the mythical Sisyphus * did. The most difficult and thankless task is to put restless grandchildren to bed!

My fidgety twins George and Mary won’t close their eyes in the evening and go to the kingdom of Morpheus** until they listen to a bedtime story and moreover, a new one every evening despite the fact that all the children’s books in our house have already been read and reread many times.

– What does our grandpa do? Mary asks.

– He’s a writer! – George immediately answers his sister’s question and continues, – it’s a child’s play for our grandfather to make up a fairy tale. Tell us something tottaly new today that none of the guys have heard before.

– I wonder who do you want me to concoct a fairy tale about? – I grumbled, naively believing that the kids, having run all day long, will fall asleep without any help on my part.

– Tell us about him, – the granddaughter points with her finger at a small firefly that has flown into the room through the open window.

– About him, then? I asked not taking my eyes off the flying insect performing aerobatics under the ceiling.

– Yeah! And also about the mantis, and about the spider, and about bees, and about the fly, and about the ant, and about the ladybird, my little listeners began to name all sorts of bugs they knew all together.

– Oh, really! I interrupted their duet, – then get a scary fairy tale. You asked for it!

Mary and George have pulled the duvets up to their noses, but they are not going to close their curious eyes. The fidgets are expecting something interesting and mysterious.

– * In ancient Greek mythology Sisyphus, the Corinthian tsar, who was condemned by gods and had to roll uphill a heavy stone, and every time it rolled down from the top of the mountain.

– **In Greek mythology Morpheus is the god of dreams.