Mike and the colt – 14

Every summer Mike goes to his grandfather who lives on a collective farm. Mike likes to live there. There is a big forest near the farm and Mike goes to the forest together with his grandfather. Mike learns the names of the trees and flowers, birds and animals that they see in the forest.

Last summer mike also went to live with his grandfather on the collective farm. One morning the grandfather took him to the field, where Mike saw two horses, a big horse and a colt. Mike wanted to learn to ride a horse. “Come along, Kicker,”²¹ the old man called. “We call him Kicker because he kicks and bites,” he said. Mike was afraid of the colt a little, but he did not want to show it.

“Help me on,”²² he asked his grandfather when the grey colt galloped up to them and began to eat sugar from the grandfather’s hand. Then the colt galloped away with Mike on his back.

Kicker ran and ran until he was tired, and then he saw that now Mike was not afraid of him. So Kicker decided to go slowly. Then Mike patted him and turned his head toward home.

Every day Mike came to see Kicker. He took care of the colt and showed his love for the horse in many ways. Kicker was not a kicker now. He seemed to be proud to carry Mike on his back.

Mike taught Kicker many tricks. He always gave him sugar when Kicker did them well.

The summer was over and it was time for Mike to go back to school. A car came to take him to town. But Kicker didn’t want Mike to go.²³ When the car started, Kicker ran after it. The grandfather had to hold him. “I’ll come back next summer. Wait for me!” Mike shouted.

He watched from the car window as his grandfather and the colt became smaller and smaller and thought: “Good-bye, Kicker, till next summer!”

Roses on the mountain top – 13

It was raining and the friends could not go to the forest. So they came to Karl’s home to spend the afternoon together.

“Let’s play story-telling!” said Karl.

“Yes. Let’s!”

They all stopped talking, and Karl began to tell a story.

“Once upon a time some children decided to go to the very top of the mountain that was near their country. There was always snow on the top of the mountain even in the hot summer.

They walked higher and higher and at last they came to the top of the mountain. The children were surprised to see roses there. Beautiful red roses were everywhere, they even grew from crevasses in the rocks.”²⁴

“But if there was always snow on the mountain top, how could roses grow there?” asked one of the boys.

“Let Karl tell his story and then you’ll ask,” said other children. So Karl said:

“Yes, wonderful roses grew on the mountain top, and that was the cause of the trouble.²⁵ One of the children plucked a rose. The rocks began to fall and the children ran away from that place.”

“You see,” Karl said, “the roots of the roses held the top together.²⁶ The side of the mountain slid down, and since that time on it has been lop-sided.²⁷ You can see it from here,” Karl said as he came to the window.

The children laughed. They saw the mountain every day, they knew it as well as they knew their own street, and now they liked the explanation for the shape of it.²⁸ They all liked Karl’s story very much.

The other children began to tell stories too. They gave explanations for different things in nature.²⁹

But they liked Karl’s story more than other stories.