Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who really wanted a child. They lived next to a beautiful garden full of flowers and herbs, but it belonged to a sorceress, so no one dared to enter it.
One day, the woman saw a plant called Rapunzel in the garden and wanted it so much that she became very sick. Her husband, worried about her, decided to sneak into the garden to get some Rapunzel for her. He climbed over the high wall, picked some Rapunzel, and brought it back to his wife. She made a salad and ate it happily, but soon she wanted more.
The husband went back to the garden, but this time the sorceress caught him. She was angry but agreed to let him go if he promised to give her their child when it was born. Scared, he agreed. When the baby girl was born, the sorceress took her away and named her Rapunzel.
Rapunzel grew up to be very beautiful, and the sorceress locked her in a tall tower with no stairs or doors, only a small window. When the sorceress wanted to visit, she would call, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,” and Rapunzel would let her long hair down for the sorceress to climb up.
One day, a prince heard Rapunzel singing from the tower. He was so enchanted by her voice that he visited the tower every day. He saw how the sorceress climbed up and decided to try it himself. He called out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,” and climbed up to meet her.
Rapunzel was scared at first, but the prince was kind, and they soon became friends. He asked her to marry him, and she agreed. They planned to escape using a ladder made from silk that the prince would bring each time he visited.
Unfortunately, Rapunzel accidentally told the sorceress about the prince. Angry, the sorceress cut off Rapunzel’s hair and sent her to live in the wilderness. When the prince came back, he found the sorceress instead of Rapunzel. In despair, he jumped from the tower and became blind.
After wandering for years, the prince heard Rapunzel’s voice in the wilderness. They found each other, and Rapunzel’s tears healed his eyes. They returned to the prince’s kingdom and lived happily ever after.
Once there was a miller who left his three sons a mill, a donkey, and a cat. The youngest son got the cat and felt unlucky. But the cat, who was clever, asked for a bag and a pair of boots. The young man agreed, and the cat put on the boots and set off on an adventure.
The cat caught a rabbit and brought it to the king, saying it was a gift from his master, the Marquess of Carabas. The king was pleased. The cat continued to impress the king by tricking people into believing his master owned vast lands.
One day, the cat told his master to bathe in the river. While he did, the cat hid his clothes and shouted for help, claiming his master was robbed. The king, passing by, offered the young man fine clothes and invited him to ride in his carriage.
The cat then visited a castle owned by a rich ogre. He tricked the ogre into turning into a mouse and quickly ate him. When the king arrived at the castle, the cat welcomed him to the home of the Marquess of Carabas.
The king was so impressed that he offered his daughter’s hand in marriage to the young man. They married, and the cat became a great lord, living happily ever after.
Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a real princess. He traveled everywhere but couldn’t find one. One stormy night, a princess knocked on the castle door, soaked from the rain. She claimed to be a real princess.
The queen decided to test her by placing a pea under 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds. The next morning, the princess complained about sleeping on something hard. The queen knew she was a real princess because only a true princess would feel the pea.
The prince was overjoyed and asked her to marry him. She agreed, and they lived happily ever after. The pea was put in a museum for everyone to see.
And that’s the end of our stories! Remember, you can always find more fun and educational stories and games online. Enjoy learning and exploring!
Rapunzel’s Garden Exploration: Imagine you are in Rapunzel’s garden. What kind of plants and flowers do you think might be there? Go outside with a grown-up and explore a garden or park. Look for different plants and flowers. Draw or take pictures of the ones you find. Can you find a plant that looks like the Rapunzel plant from the story?
Build a Tower: Using building blocks or recycled materials like cardboard boxes, try to build a tall tower like the one Rapunzel lived in. How tall can you make it before it falls over? What can you do to make it stronger? Think about how Rapunzel might have felt living in such a tall tower. Share your thoughts with a friend or family member.
Rapunzel’s Hair Experiment: Rapunzel’s hair was very long and strong. Try this experiment to see how strong hair can be. Take a piece of string or yarn and see how many small objects (like paper clips or buttons) it can hold before breaking. How does this compare to your own hair? Discuss with a friend how Rapunzel might have used her hair to help the prince climb the tower.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided transcript, removing any unnecessary repetitions, correcting spelling and grammatical errors, and ensuring clarity:
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[Music]
**Rapunzel**
Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman who had long wished for a child. At length, it appeared that God was about to grant their desire. Through a small rear window, they could see a splendid garden filled with beautiful flowers and herbs. A high wall surrounded the garden, and no one dared enter because it belonged to a sorceress.
One day, the woman saw a bed of Rapunzel and longed for some. This desire increased daily, and not knowing how to get any, she became miserably ill. Her husband, frightened, asked her what ailed her. She replied, “If I do not get some Rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die.” The man, who loved her dearly, thought, “Before I let my wife die, I must get her some Rapunzel, whatever the cost.”
Just as it was getting dark, he climbed over the high wall into the garden and took some Rapunzel to his wife. She made a salad of it and ate it greedily. It tasted so good that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. To have any peace, the man had to climb once again.
In the gloom of evening, he let himself down, but when he climbed over the wall, he saw the sorceress standing before him. “How dare you climb into my garden and steal my Rapunzel? You will pay for this!”
“Let mercy take the place of justice,” he answered. “I only did it out of necessity. My wife felt such a longing for Rapunzel that she would have died without it.”
“If things are as you say, I will allow you to go on, but under one condition: you must give me the child that your wife will bring into the world.”
In his fear, the man agreed to everything. When the woman gave birth, the sorceress appeared, named the girl Rapunzel, and took her away. Rapunzel became the most beautiful child under the sun, so the sorceress locked her in a tower that had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the sorceress wanted to enter, she called out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me.”
Rapunzel had splendid long hair, and when she heard the voice, she let her hair fall, and the sorceress climbed up.
[Music]
A few years later, a prince was riding through the forest nearby the tower. He heard a song and stopped to listen. It was Rapunzel singing with her sweet voice. He rode home, but the song had touched his heart so much that he returned every day to listen. One time, as he was there, he saw the sorceress approach and heard her say, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me.” Then Rapunzel let down her hair, and the sorceress climbed up.
The prince thought, “If that is the ladder into the tower, then I will try my luck.” The next day, he went to the tower and called out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” The hair fell down, and the prince climbed up. At first, Rapunzel was terribly frightened, but the prince began telling her that his heart had been so touched that he could have no peace until he had seen her in person.
Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her to marry him, she said yes. “I would go with you gladly, but every time you come, bring a strand of silk from which I will weave a ladder. When it’s finished, I’ll climb down, and you can take me away.”
One day, Rapunzel asked the sorceress, “Why are you so much heavier for me to draw up than the young prince?”
“You godless child!” cried the sorceress. “What am I hearing from you? I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!” In her anger, she cut off Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses and took her into the wilderness.
Then the sorceress tied the cut-off hair to the hook at the top of the tower, and when the prince called out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,” she let down the hair. The prince climbed up, but instead of Rapunzel, he found the sorceress, who peered at him with evil looks. “You have come for your mistress, darling,” she cried scornfully, “but you will never see her again.”
The prince was beside himself with pain and jumped down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns pierced his eyes, and he became blind. He wandered for some years, finally happening into the wilderness where Rapunzel lived. He heard her voice and went toward it. Rapunzel recognized him, fell on his back, and wept. Two of her tears fell into his eyes, and they became clear once again.
He led her into his kingdom, where he was received with joy, and for a long time, they lived happily.
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**Puss in Boots**
There was a miller whose only inheritance to his three sons was his mill, his donkey, and his cat. The division was soon made; they hired neither a clerk nor an attorney, for they would have eaten up all the poor patrimony. The eldest took the mill, the second the donkey, and the youngest the cat.
The poor young fellow was quite comfortless, thinking that after he had eaten up his cat and made himself a muff from its skin, he must then die of hunger. The cat, who heard all this, said to him with a serious air, “Do not be so concerned, my good master. If you will give me a bag and have a pair of boots made for me, then you shall see that you are not so poorly off with me as you imagine.”
After receiving what he had asked for, the cat pulled on the boots and slung the bag about his neck. He went to a place where there was a great abundance of rabbits, put his greens into his bag, and stretched himself out as if he were dead. A foolish rabbit jumped into his bag, and the master cat immediately closed the strings. Proud of his prey, he went with it to the palace and asked to speak with his majesty.
He was shown upstairs into the king’s apartment, and making a low bow, said to him, “Sir, I have brought you a rabbit from my noble lord, Marquess de Carabas.”
“Tell your master that I am very pleased with his gift,” said the king.
One day, when the king was driving along the riverside with his daughter, the cat said to his master, “If you will follow my advice, your fortune is made. You must bathe yourself in the river.”
The master did what the cat advised him to. While he was bathing, the king passed by, and the cat began to cry out, “Help! My Marquess de Carabas is going to be drowned!” At this noise, the king put his head out of the coach window and found it was the cat who had brought him the rabbit. He commanded his guards to run immediately and assist.
While they were drawing in the poor lord, the cat told the king that while his master was bathing, some rogues had stolen his clothes. In truth, the cunning cat had hidden the clothes under a large stone. The king commanded the officers to fetch one of his best suits for the Marquess and asked the lord to join them on their drive.
At that time, the cat ran ahead, meeting some countrymen who were mowing a meadow. He said to them, “My good fellows, if you do not tell the king that the meadow belongs to my lord, Marquess de Carabas, you shall be chopped up like mincemeat.”
The king did not fail to ask the mowers whose meadow it was that they were mowing. “It belongs to my lord,” they answered all together, for the cat’s threats had frightened them.
“You see, sir,” said the Marquess, “this is a meadow which never fails to yield a plentiful harvest every year.”
[Music]
The master cat came at last to a stately castle, the lord of which was an ogre, the richest that had ever been known. The cat had known who this ogre was and what he could do. He asked to speak with him, saying he could not pass his castle without paying his respects.
The ogre received him as civilly as an ogre could. “I have heard,” said the cat, “that you are able to change yourself into any kind of creature. You can transform yourself into a lion or an elephant, or the like.”
“That is true,” answered the ogre. “To convince you, I shall now become a lion.”
The cat was so terrified that he leaped onto the roof. However, the ogre resumed his natural form, and the cat came down.
“I have further been told,” said the cat, “that you can also transform yourself into a rat or a mouse, but I can scarcely believe that. I think that would be quite impossible.”
“Impossible?” cried the ogre. “You shall see!” He immediately changed himself into a mouse and began to run about the floor. As soon as the cat saw this, he fell upon him and ate him up.
Meanwhile, the king, who saw this fine castle of the ogre as he passed, decided to go inside. The cat, who heard the noise of his majesty’s coach, ran out and said to the king, “Your majesty is welcome to the castle of my lord, Marquess de Carabas.”
“What? My lord Marquess? Does this castle also belong to you?”
“Let us go inside, if you don’t mind.”
The Marquess gave his hand to the princess and followed the king. They passed into the spacious hall, where they found a magnificent feast. His majesty was perfectly charmed with the good qualities of Lord Marquess de Carabas, as was his daughter, who had fallen in love with him.
“It will be your own fault, my lord Marquess, if you do not become my son-in-law,” said the king. The Marquess de Carabas, making several low bows, accepted the honor which his majesty conferred upon him and forthwith that very same day married the princess. The cat became a great lord and never again ran after mice except for entertainment.
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**The Princess and the Pea**
Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess, but she would have to be a real princess. He traveled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were plenty of princesses, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. So he came home again and was very sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.
One evening, a terrible storm came on. There was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly, a knocking was heard at the town gate, and the old king himself went to open it. It was a princess who stood outside in front of the town gate, but good gracious, she was in a terrible state from the rain and the wind. The water streamed out of her hair and dirty clothes, running down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. But she said that she was a real princess.
“Well, we shall soon see if that is true,” thought the old queen, but she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bedclothes off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom. Then she took 20 mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, and then 20 feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night.
In the morning, she was asked how she had slept. “Oh, very badly,” said she. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in that bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”
Now they knew that she was a real princess, and there was no question about it, because only a real princess would have such sensitive and delicate skin.
The prince rushed over to her side and knelt before her. “Please marry me and live here.”
The princess looked shocked and said, “Yes, I will marry you.”
The next day, after the princess got a good night’s sleep without a pea to disturb her, the prince and the princess were married, and they lived happily ever after. As for the pea, they put it in the royal museum where it could still be seen if no one has stolen it.
That is a true story.
**The End**
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This version maintains the essence of the stories while ensuring clarity and readability.