Stories from Around the World
“The Burning of the Rice Fields”
by Traditional
A grandfather and his grandson grow rice in the rice fields and one day they set fire to the fields to save the people below from impending death.
Search results for 'the burning of the rice field'
Displaying 1–25 of 1,190
The Crimson Fairy Book
“The Crab and the Monkey”
by Andrew Lang
A monkey steals the fruit of the crab’s tree and gets his punishment.
More Jataka Tales
“Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals”
by Ellen C. Babbitt
A poor man’s good heart wins him power and riches over Prince Wicked.
Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
The Change
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
"Love used to carry a bow, you know,"
Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow
Love's Draft
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
"The draft of love was cool and sweet"
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Selected Works
The Slave's Dream
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A poet describes a slave’s mental escape from reality during a fatal beating
Aesop's Fables
“The Four Oxen and the Lion”
by Aesop
The importance of working together, even through disagreements.
Nursery Rhymes and Traditional Poems
Whirly-Whicker-Whaker
by Traditional
A rhyme about a farmer who chases a hog out of his fodder field.
Japanese Fairy Tales
The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees to Flower
by Yei Theodora Ozaki
A childless couple love their dog very dearly, and the dog finds gold coins buried under their tree. The old man is grateful and loves his dog even more. The man has a very jealous and hateful neighbor, who tries to copy his neighbor’s luck by borrowing the dog and making him dig. The hateful man finds only garbage, and kills the dog in rage. The good man asks for the tree in remembrance of his dog, and the tree’s wood is made into a mortar that produces unending food. The jealous neighbor asks to borrow it and destroys it when it won’t also give him food. More events continue until the good man is eventually given riches by a lord for his kindness to him, and when the hateful man tries to copy the kindness, he is arrested as an imposter and jailed forever, thus finally being punished for his crimes.
Lyrics of Lowly Life
"A Corn-Song"
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
"On the wide veranda white,"
Lyrics of the Hearthside
The Conquerors (The Black Troops in Cuba)
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Round the wide earth, from the red field your valour has won,
Japanese Fairy Tales
My Lord Bag of Rice
by Yei Theodora Ozaki
A Japanese warrior defends the Dragon King by killing his enemy, the monster centipede. In gratitude the Dragon King gives the warrior several presents, including a bag of rice that never runs out, and he comes to be known as My Lord Bag of Rice.
Japanese Fairy Tales
The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab
by Yei Theodora Ozaki
The monkey and the crab were playing along the river. The monkey finds a persimmon seed and the crab a rice dumpling; the monkey convinces the crab to exchange the items. The crab grows a tree from the seed, and asks the monkey to help him pick the fruit. The monkey is greedy, and eats all the fruit and then throws hard seeds at the crab, killing him. The crab’s son plans revenge on the monkey, eventually killing him.
Japanese Fairy Tales
The Farmer and the Badger
by Yei Theodora Ozaki
A badger kills a farmer’s wife, and the farmer asks a rabbit to get revenge for him.
A Lincoln Anthology
The Gettysburg Address
by Abraham Lincoln
Speech given by Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863 at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Curly and Floppy Twistytail, the Funny Piggie Boys
Chapter 14: “The Piggies and the Pumpkin”
by Howard R. Garis
Curly and Flop are sent to the store to get bread and, along the way, are asked by the nice old rat gentleman if they want a large pumpkin to make a Jack O’Lantern. They are greeted by a wolf who wants to eat them. They must figure out a way to escape him.
Humour and Dialect
Then and Now
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
He loved her, and through many years,
Poems of Emily Brontë
Sympathy
by Emily Brontë
Words of sympathy are offered.
Stories from Around the World
The Rat Princess
by Frank Rinder
The Rat King searches for the most powerful being for his daughter to marry and after he searches from the sun to the cloud to the wind, he finds the strongest being is the Grey Rat that the Princess wanted to marry.
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter
Chapter 5: The Slave Market
by William Wells Brown
Althesa goes to another slave market and is purchased by a new owner.
The Tale of Tommy Fox
Chapter 10: “Mrs. Fox Outwits Dog Spot”
by Arthur Scott Bailey
When Tommy is chased by Farmer Green’s dog for trying to steal a hen, he runs straight for home. His mother fools the dog and loses him.
Poems and Limericks of Edward Lear
“The Jumblies”
by Edward Lear
A poem about a fairy tale journey to find the mythical Jumblies.
Japanese Fairy Tales
Momotaro, or the Story of the Son of a Peach
by Yei Theodora Ozaki
An old woman finds a large peach in a river, and when she and her husband cut it open to eat it, they find a child inside. They are overjoyed to now have a son to ease their lonely days. When the boy is fifteen, he goes off to rid the land of devils who live on an island, and takes a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant with him. He is victorious over the devils and returns home to live happily with his parents.
Black Beauty
Part 1, Chapter 1: My Early Home
by Anna Sewell
The narrator describes life as a young horse.
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
To My Mother
by Edgar Allan Poe
The author laments the loss of his mother.