Eleanor farjeon the little bookroom download

Written in English — pages. Libraries near you: WorldCat. Little bookroom , Penguin. Borrow Listen. The little bookroom: Eleanor Farjeon's short stories for children chosen by herself , Puffin Books. The little bookroom , Oxford University Press.

The little bookroom , H. The little bookroom: Eleanor Farjeon's short stories for children, chosen by herself , H. The little bookroom: Eleanor Farjeon's short stories for children chosen by herself , Oxford University Press. The little book room. The little bookroom. The little bookroom Eleanor Farjeon's short stories for children chosen by herself First published in Subjects Children's stories, English , Short stories , Children's stories , Children's fiction. For the things the Ship had told him were more than he could understand; but they swelled him with great longings—longings to possess the Silver Moon, to be a mightier fish than the Sun, and to see the whole of the world from top to bottom and from side to side, with all the wonders within and beyond it.

Now it happened that King Neptune, who ruled the land under the waves, was strolling through a grove of white and scarlet coral, when he heard a chuckle that was something between a panting and a puffing; and peering through the branches of the coral-trees he beheld a plump Porpoise bursting its sleek sides with laughter. Not far off lay the Goldfish, swimming in tears.

King Neptune, like a good father, preferred to share in all the joys and sorrows of his children, so he stopped to ask the Porpoise, 'What tickles you so? For seven days and nights he has wept because, ho! Weep for the world that no one can behold? No, Father! When my dinner is in the distance, I'll weep for that ; and when I see death coming, I'll weep for that ; but for the rest, I say pooh! Tears will get you nowhere. Do you really wish to marry the Moon, surpass the Sun, and possess the world?

Are you afraid of it? He let the Goldfish dart through his fingers, and saw him swim boldly to the net which was waiting to catch what it could. As the meshes closed upon him, King Neptune stretched out his hand, and slipped a second fish inside it; and then, stroking his green beard, he continued his stroll among his big and little children.

He was drawn up into the Fisherman's boat that lay in wait above the net; and in the same cast a Silver Fish was taken, a lovely creature with a round body and silky fins like films of moonlit cloud. And to make her pleasure more complete, he first bought a globe of glass, and sprinkled sand and shells and tiny pebbles at the bottom, and set among them a sprig of coral and a strand of seaweed. Then he filled the globe with water, dropped in the Gold and Silver Fishes, and put the little glass world on a table in his cottage window.

The Goldfish, dazed with joy, swam towards the Silver Fish, crying, 'You are the Moon come out of the sky! Oh see, how round the world is! And he looked through one side of the globe, and saw flowers and trees in the garden; and he looked through another side of the globe, and saw on the mantelpiece black and white elephants of ebony and ivory, that the Fisherman had brought from foreign parts; and through another side of the globe he saw on the wall a fan of peacock's feathers, with eyes of gold and blue and green; and through the fourth side, on a bracket, he saw a little Chinese temple hung with bells.

And he looked at the bottom of the globe, and saw his own familiar world of coral, sand, and shells. And he looked at the top of the globe, and saw a man, a woman, and a child smiling down at him over the rim. And King Neptune under the sea, who had ears for all that passed, laughed in his beard and said:.

He needed a world more suited to his size. When Joe Jolly's father died, his fortunes were almost at their lowest ebb. Not quite,—for he had at least the chair he sat in. But the hut the Jollys lived in was not theirs; it was lent them, as part wages, by the Lord of the Manor whose wood John Jolly chopped. For the rest, he got three shillings every Friday. Even the axe he chopped with was not Mr Jolly's own.

Joe grew up in the woods with little education beyond the use of his hands, and a love of animals; and much in the same way he loved his father, whom he often helped with the chopping, though neither the Lord of the Manor nor his Steward knew of his existence. Old Mr Jolly was taken ill of a Thursday evening, when last week's wages were spent.

He sat down in his old chair and said, 'Joe, I see a better world ahead of me. The Steward asked, 'Who may you be? The Steward counted out the three shillings, and left it at that. In the back of his mind was the thought that if, by the grace of God, John Jolly died, he might put in his place an old uncle of his wife's who was considered by the Steward both a nuisance and an expense, as he was obliged to keep him under his own roof.

But John Jolly lasted a month, during which time Joe tended him like a woman, and did all his work besides. As three shillings did not go far, with sickness in the house, he sold up their sticks, bit by bit, to get his father extra little comforts.

By the fourth Thursday everything was sold but the chair and his mother's brass wedding-ring, John Jolly lay at peace under the grass, and Joe, for the first time in his life, considered his future.

He did not consider it for long; here he was, at the age of eighteen, a fine upstanding young chap, as limber as a squirrel, with a skin like the red tan on a pine tree, and no trade to his hands except the power to chop wood.

So he decided to put in for his father's job. When he went as usual on the Friday evening for his pay, he said to the Steward, 'Dad'll not be cutting timber for you any more. But the Steward's chance to rid himself of his uncle had come; so he pursed his lips, scratched his nose, shook his head, and said, 'It wants a man of experience. Joe was not one for arguing; he knew he was experienced by craft, but not by years, and if the Steward thought one way, it was no manner of use his thinking another.

He went back to the hut, looked at his father's chair, and thought, 'Well, I can't take it with me, and I don't want to sell it, and I'd never chop it up for firewood, and the next woodcutter will want something to sit on, and over and above that it'll like to stay where it has always been, as much as I should do. But it can't be helped, goodbye to you, old chair!

It was quite a new experience for Joe to be walking along a highroad many miles from his dwelling. Loving his wood better than most things, he had seldom seen reason to go out of it; but within forty hours of his father's death he was strolling through the world, with a bright eye and a quick ear for anything he might see and hear. Not minding which way he turned, he told himself to follow the first sound he heard.

He had no sooner cocked his ear than he heard, very faint and distant, the familiar tapping of the axe-stroke on the tree. It was so far away that it might have come from another world. However, Joe heard it clear enough, and let it lead him on his way. About noontime on the Saturday he heard a sound far more disturbing, the whining of a dog in distress.

Joe quickened his pace, and turning the end of a lane he found himself in view of a village pond. A group of youths stood around it, one of whom had a puppy in his hands, which he was trying to hold under water; but the puppy's mother, a beautiful Clumber spaniel, was whining and worrying him so that half his attention had to be given to kicking her off, while the rest of the youths looked on, taking neither side, amused by the contest between the boy and the dog.

As Joe appeared on the scene, the puppy-drowner lost patience, and, with a final kick at the spaniel, was about to toss the puppy into the middle of the pond. Before he could do so, Joe caught his arm, and said, 'None o' that! The youth turned on him roughly, but seeing somebody both taller and stronger than himself, instead of looking fierce looked sulky, and said:.

He handed the Clumber Pup to Joe, snatched the three shillings, and ran off, followed by the other lads, who were shouting with laughter, he who had taken the money laughing louder than any. The spaniel stood on her hind legs, placed her forepaws against Joe's chest, and licked the hands that held her pup so gently. Joe looked into her melting brown eyes and said, 'I'll see to your baby, lass; run you after your master.

One of the boys then bawled over his shoulder, 'He's not her master! So now you can both join my fortunes, mother and child together. He cuddled the pup inside his jacket, and as it settled there he knew, with a pang of joy, that this dog was his dog as no other ever could be again.

He resumed his road with an empty pocket, and the Clumber spaniel running at his heels. As Joe had no money, he had to walk hungry for the best part of the day. Towards evening, when the tapping of the distant axe which had never ceased to call him had become very near, he came to a wood. It was the first he had struck since leaving his own green forest, and he entered its shade with delight, feeling himself at home again.

He had not been walking long when he heard the sound of mewing, a mew as tiny as the squeak of his pup. Following the sound, he soon found a scrap of a kitten, as gold as sunlight dappling a running stream, with eyes as clear as swung honey. It trembled on its four tottering legs, and was evidently pleased when Joe stooped and picked it up; he could almost hide it from sight by shutting his big fingers over its morsel of a body, soft as down.

It was very cold, so he buttoned it under his jacket alongside the pup, where it lay purring with bliss. The night was advancing; and now the sound of the axe hewing timber, which to Joe was better than music, was within a hundred yards of him.

He stood still to listen to it for sheer pleasure. All of a sudden came the crash of a tree, followed by a groan. Now he stood still no longer, but hastened to the scene of the accident. Under the fallen tree a man lay pinned, an old man in shape so like his father that in the dusk Joe almost took him for John Jolly himself. But how could that be? Running to him, he saw that this old woodcutter merely resembled his father as one old man will resemble another, when they are much of a size, and have followed the same calling for a lifetime.

A great limb of the tree lay across the woodcutter's right arm. Joe found the old man's axe, and chopped him free. Then he felt the limb tenderly and skilfully, and found that it was broken; but he had too often set the broken legs and wings of hares and jays not to know what to do.

In a few minutes he had made the old man comfortable, and lifting him from the ground asked where he might take him. Under his direction, Joe bore him there. It was just such a dwelling as he was used to, but rather better furnished. A narrow bed with a gay coverlet stood in one corner, and on this Joe laid the old man down. Then, without asking questions, he set about brightening the fire, boiling the kettle, and preparing the old man's supper.

He looked in the cupboard and on the shelf for food and crocks, and in no time had the teapot steaming, and the bread-and-dripping spread, while the old man lay and watched him with eyes as shrewd as a weasel's. As soon as the sick man's meal was ready, Joe undid his jacket and took out the pup and the kitten.

The Clumber spaniel settled herself by the hearth and suckled them both; and her eyes, following Joe's actions, were as bright as those of the old man. But in the morning you must go and tell the King you are doing my work.

Joe slept sound on the hearth-rug, and was up betimes. He saw to the old man, the animals, and the hut; and, when all was in order, asked his way to the King's palace. The old man told him it was in the heart of the city, which lay three miles due north; and he advised Joe to take with him the royal axe, with the crown burned into the handle, as a sign that his tale was true.

So Joe set out upon this new adventure. At the end of the first mile, hearing a tiny mewing, he looked behind him and saw that the honey-coloured kitten had followed him; not wishing to go back, he buttoned the pretty creature under his jacket again, and pursued his way. The end of the second mile brought him out of the forest, and at the end of the third he saw for the first time the capital city of the country he lived in.

As he drew near, amazed at the sight of so many houses and shops and churches, towers, temples, and turrets, domes, spires, and weathercocks, he saw that the whole place was in a commotion. The streets were packed with people running about, or stooping and crawling, as they poked their noses into every corner, grating, and cranny. At the gates a tall sentinel barred Joe's way, demanding, 'What is your business? But as he turned to go the sentinel caught him by the shoulder and cried, 'How come you to be handling the royal axe?

Joe told his story briefly, and the sentinel opened the gates. If anybody questions you, show him the axe, and it will be as good as a passport. Nobody questioned Joe's right to be in the city, however, all being much too concerned with their peeping and poking and prying; the nearer Joe approached to the palace, the greater became the fuss; and on arrival he found the palace in such a state of confusion, with nobles and pages running hither and thither and wringing their hands in despair, that once more he passed unheeded through the courtyards and corridors, until he reached the throne-room itself.

Here he found nobody at all but a lovely girl in tears. In her white dress, with her lemon-coloured hair, she reminded Joe of his Clumber Pup. He could not bear to see her in trouble, so he approached her and said, 'If it's a hurt, show me, and perhaps I can heal it. She stopped crying again, and caught the little ball of gold fluff from his hands, and kissed it many times.

Then she ran and pulled a golden chain that rang a golden bell hanging in the middle of the hall. Instantly the room appeared to overflow with people, as everyone, from the kitchen boy to the King, came running to see what had happened. For the bell was only rung on great occasions. The Princess, for it was no other, stood up on the throne, holding up her kitten in full view, and cried, 'This boy has found my Honey!

In five minutes, everybody had returned to his business, the city gates were opened, and the King was asking Joe Jolly what he would like for a reward. Joe would rather have liked to ask for the Princess, for she would have matched so nicely with his Clumber Pup; her hair was just the colour of his ears, and her soft brown eyes were looking at him as meltingly as any spaniel's.

But of course she was out of the question, so he answered, 'I should like the Royal Woodman's job, till the Royal Woodman is whole again. Joe hoped the King was not going to cut his head off, for any reason or none; but he obeyed, knelt down, and felt himself touched between the shoulder-blades with the axe head. No order could have pleased Joe better; he pulled his forelock, with a smile at the Princess, but she had turned away, and with her nose in her kitten's fur was whispering things into its ear.

So he pulled his forelock again to the King, returned on his traces, and found all in the hut as he had left it. Daddy took longer to heal than Joe would have supposed possible.

Month after month went by, and the fracture in his arm would not set; moreover, he seemed to have been so shaken by his accident, that he never left his bed. Gradually Joe grew accustomed to stretching out on the hearth without thinking that it would soon be for the last time; the new job turned into an old one, and the days mounted until a year had passed. The Clumber Pup was now a dog as beautiful as his Mother, but Joe continued to think of him as the Pup, if only to mark the difference between them.

The old dog lay mostly indoors by the hearth, or out of doors in the sun; but the Clumber Pup followed Joe daily to his work, and was the joy and delight of his heart. Since the day of his appointment Joe had stuck to the woods, and gone no nearer to the city than the Lodge of the King's Forester on the outskirts of the trees.

He put in an appearance early in the morning on the first day of each month, and more often than not found the Forester chatting with a pretty chambermaid from the palace, whose name was Betty, and who evidently fancied a stroll in the morning dew before the duties of the day.

When she had gone, the Forester gave Joe his orders for the month; and wherever he might be cutting, he had each day to bind the special faggot of firing for the room of the Princess. He made the faggot of the sweetest smelling wood he could find, and with it he always bound up a little posy of whatever the season might offer.

In spring there were the primroses and violets; in summer, harebells, wild rose, and honeysuckle; in autumn he found the brightest leaves and berries; and even winter had her aconites. On Joe's nineteenth birthday, which fell on the First of June, he went as usual to the Forester's Lodge, and there found Betty in her striped silk frock, gabbling away a little faster than her habit.

There's something she wants, and nobody knows what, for she won't say. Sometimes she mopes, and sometimes she sings, sometimes she pouts and sometimes smiles, as changeable as the quarters of the year, and she won't tell her father, she won't tell her mother, she won't tell her nanny, and she won't tell me! And the doctor says if she don't get it soon, whatever it may be, she'll fall into a decline and die of longing.

On the last day of the month there's to be an Assembly at the palace, so that everybody can offer his opinion, and—— Oh la! Don't keep me gossiping any longer, or I'll be sure to be dismissed.

The Forester kept her just long enough to give her a kiss, for which she boxed his ears, and then ran off as fast as her heels could carry her. The Forester laughed and said, 'That's something like a wench! Joe went back, his head so full of them, except for one corner that was full of being sorry for the Princess, that for some time he did not miss his Clumber Pup. But it was no longer gambolling about him, and even when he whistled did not come bounding and bouncing as usual; a thing any dog that loves his master must do when he hears the whistle, whether he wants to or not.

So by then the pup must have got a long way off. However, half through the morning he appeared, in the highest of spirits, where Joe was working; though when they got home that evening he would not touch his supper.

This would have worried Joe, if the pup had not been so unusually boisterous. That night Joe had a curious dream, as he lay stretched on the rug before the dying fire: one of those dreams we get when we are half awake, that seem to take place outside instead of inside us.

In this dream, Joe saw, as plain as if he was waking, his Clumber Pup lying nose to nose with the spaniel his mother, who lay with her head sunk flat on the floor between her two silky paws, and opened one beautiful brown eye to look at her child. And in his dream Joe seemed to hear how dogs make known their thoughts to each other, and the talk went this way between them. The spaniel said:. But in the morning he remembered his dream, and it seemed so real that he fell to puzzling.

Was it a dream after all? His puzzle showed in his eyes, and Daddy from his couch asked, 'What's bothering you? So before he went to work that morning, Joe sat down and wrote a love-letter. He was not very good at writing, so he did not make it a long one, and therefore made it as much to the point as he could.

It was rather straggly and blotted by the time he had folded it, but it was quite readable, which, after what is in it, is the best thing about a love-letter; so Joe, quite satisfied, took it with him to his work, and put it inside a bunch of pink campions which he tied to the Princess's faggot. Then he thought no more about the matter till the First of July, when, going to the Forester's, he found Betty taking her leave with these words:. Another year went by in peace and content. The work was good, the dogs thrived, the hut was comfortable, and there was always enough to eat; though, as Daddy still lay on the bed, Joe still lay on the floor.

And on the First of June, his twentieth birthday, he went once more through the wood with the pup at his heels, to find Betty before him at the Forester's Lodge. Who wouldn't, thought Joe, be glad to be out at such an hour, with the birds singing in the leaves, and the dew on the flowers in the grass? But today Betty looked less glad than usual, as she gabbled her news.

And she's no more help now than she was then; there's only one thing she wants in the world, what, nobody knows! The doctor comes daily to change her physic, all to no purpose, and he says if she doesn't get it soon she'll die of longing. So the last day of the month there's to be another Assembly, to say what the Princess wants, since she won't say herself, and he who gives it her shall have anything he names, no matter whatso, and—— Bless me, Forester, there's the eight o'clock bell!

Out upon you, keeping me here a-talking and a-talking when it's time for the Princess's chocolate! Off she ran, but not before the Forester had given her a hearty kiss, for which she smacked his face; and he only wagged his head saying, 'An excellent wench! If the Princess wanted a second love-letter, he couldn't think of anything else to say; yet the first one had plainly ceased to serve her purpose.

In his bother, he failed once more to observe the absence of the Clumber Pup. Later in the day he turned up, barking and jumping and wagging his tail, so that Joe had to throw down his axe and have a rough and tumble before he would be satisfied.

Yet that night he never touched his supper at all, a thing that had only happened once before, just a twelve-month since, now Joe came to think of it. It brought it all back so strong to him, that as he lay on the mat before the fire and dozed off into his first sleep, he even dreamed that he heard the spaniel and her pup talking as they had talked a year ago.

Her ear flopped over her eye, and she was asleep; and Joe's dream passed out of being. But in the morning it revived in his mind, as clear as if it had happened. And had it not? He could not decide; and Daddy from his bed asked, 'What's the puzzle? I don't know whether to do aught about it, or naught. So when he had bound the day's faggots for the Princess, Joe slipped his mother's brass wedding ring over the stems of a wild-rose posy, and tied it carefully among the branches.

Then, having done his best, he dismissed it from his thoughts, until a month later he heard Betty chattering volubly on the Forester's doorstep:. That morning, when he reached the Lodge, she was relating, full of woe:. She's white as a new pillow-slip! She weeps in corners, and stares at the sky, and says "no thank you" to all our offers; but sits by the hour with her honey cat in her arms, while doctor tears his hair, her father is distracted, her mother is distraught, and her nanny says nothing but "Lawks-a-mussy me!

But this much I do know, if she doesn't get it soon, they'll be digging her green grave. The King has ordered another Assembly on the last day of the month, and whoever can give her what she wants may have whatever he wants, no matter whatso! Eight o'clock, eight o'clock, there goes eight o'clock, and me oughting to be at my work: give over gossiping, Forester, do! Away she started, but the Forester pulled her back to give her a kiss, for which she tugged his hair and ran; and he nodded his head remarking, 'What a wench!

But the thought of the Princess's green grave was such a grief to Joe that he did not observe the absence of the Clumber Pup till he was well at work. After a bit, the pup sneaked up, with his tail between his legs. Nothing Joe could do put him in spirits, and Joe being out of spirits himself it was not a happy day. They both went home depressed that night, and neither of them touched his supper.

As Joe stretched out on the hearth, Daddy, who noticed everything, said, 'Off your feed? But were they dreams, he asked himself in the morning, or had he been awake? Dream or no dream, he had a hole in his heart and Daddy could not but be aware of it. He went out to his work, whistling to his pup to follow him, and when the day was done he made for the Princess a better faggot than he had ever made before, and tied his pup to it.

The Clumber looked at him with mournful eyes, and tried to follow Joe home, dragging the faggot behind him. But Joe Jolly said, 'Stay there! That was the saddest month Joe ever lived through.

He tried to be cheerful for Daddy's sake and the spaniel's, but Daddy himself was extra quiet, the spaniel moped for her pup, and Joe had to bear his own broken heart. On the last day of the month, when June was at her zenith, and the forest was rich with sunshine, Daddy said, 'Joe, a man can't work all the year round all his lifetime.

Take a holiday! Then it occurred to Joe that among the sights of the city was his own sweet pup. The mere thought of looking into his brown eyes and hearing his gay excited bark again made Joe's heart as light as a feather.

He decided to follow Daddy's advice; his work was well in hand, and he could spare the day. So off he set, and once out of the forest was amazed at the crowds on the road, until he remembered that this was the day of the Assembly. He allowed himself to be swept along on the stream towards the palace; for everybody had a right there on this day, and there, if anywhere, he would see his pup.

It was with an eager heart he passed, for the second time, under the royal gateway, and entered the throne-room with the rest of the crowd. The court was all assembled; from the middle of the crush, Joe could just manage to see the heads of the King and Queen, and the tops of the soldiers' pikes.

A trumpet sounded, and a herald cried for silence. When this was obtained, he shouted:. But before a word could be spoken, the voice of the Princess called out, as gay as sunshine in the leaves, 'There is no need, for what I want I have!

The herald blew his trumpet and dismissed the crowd. As it dispersed, Joe was left standing in the middle of the floor, in view of the great double throne, with the Princess seated at the King's feet, the honey cat in her arms, and crouched against her knee the Clumber Pup. Suddenly there was a yelp of joy, the pup leapt into the air, bounded across the floor, placed his gleaming paws on Joe's two shoulders, and licked his face, whining and barking as though his heart would burst.

Joe hugged him, and wept. Then what a commotion in the court! Everybody asked, 'What is it? Who is it? What is happening? This boy gave him to me, because what I wanted was the Clumber Pup. He beckoned Joe nearer. Name it, and it is yours. The Princess looked at Joe, and he looked at the Princess, with her white dress and her lemon-coloured locks. But he knew he must not ask for what he wanted most. So he put it out of his mind, and said, 'I would be glad of an extra mattress, so that I could lie on it instead of on the floor.

But the Princess cried quickly, 'He must have something besides, for last year he also gave me what I wanted! Joe clasped the Clumber Pup to his heart, but of course he could not ask for it, for the Princess would die of longing if he took his dog away.

So he put the thought from him, and said, 'When I came to this place, I left behind me, in my dwelling far away, my father's old chair. I should like to have that chair to sit in of a night, if it was doing nobody a bad turn. The King smiled graciously, and said, 'The chair shall be brought to you this very night, and in its place we will leave the best chair in the kingdom. He made a sign that the audience was ended, but the Princess cried still quicker than before, 'No, father!

Loading Related Books. Walck in English. December 7, August 1, Edited by ImportBot. February 28, July 14, Edited by Mek. October 18, Created by WorkBot. The children always stopped their bickering at once, for none of them wanted to miss her extraordinary stories of princes and princesses, Greek gods, sea captains and other wonderful characters she had come across in her hundreds of years as a children's nurse.

All the tales were so entrancing that the boys could hardly be blamed for sometimes making large holes on purpose, so that they'd have a long story to match! More than anything, Ella wants to go to the ball at the Royal Palace. But Ella is the slave of the household, waiting on every wish and whim of her horrible stepsisters. They call her Cinderella for the ashes that cling to her face, hands and hair. How can Ella go to the Royal Palace? Then, on the evening of the ball, something wonderful happens.

Now her dreams may come true at last.