Читать книгу Forty Good-Night Tales - Rose Amy Fyleman - Страница 9
Оглавление(ii) caramel
In a country far away from here there once lived a very rich and powerful prince. He was a bold and cruel man, and his wicked deeds made him a terror to the whole land. One day he stole away the little son of a neighbouring prince while he was playing in his father's garden, and refused to give him back.
The boy's father was not so rich and powerful as the bad prince Ali, and had not sufficient men to fight Ali's army. But brave men went singly, one after another, to try and get the boy back. They all met with a dreadful death, for he was kept on an island in the middle of a river which ran through Ali's land, and in the river was a great crocodile, who ate up every one who tried to get across.
Now there was in the land a young man called Jussuf, the son of a poor labourer, who was very clever and brave, and he was determined to rescue the boy.
So one dark night he set forth all alone, taking nothing with him but his sword and a bag of caramels!
When he came to the river-bank, he moved softly about among the rushes, and the crocodile came swimming quickly to the spot, for he thought he was going to have a fine meal.
But Jussuf put the bag of caramels down on the bank and went a little way off to see what would happen. The crocodile sniffed and sniffed. "This smells very good," thought he, and he opened his great jaws and got his teeth into the caramels. Then Jussuf came boldly to the bank with his sword. The crocodile tried to open his mouth to swallow him up. But you know what caramels are! He couldn't get his jaws apart, not an inch, and Jussuf was able to kill him quite easily. Then he swam across the water and rescued the prince's son, and swam back with him and delivered him safely to his father. You can imagine what rejoicings there were. And Jussuf got a splendid reward and was honoured and admired for the rest of his life for his cleverness and courage.
