A Short Story For Children

In the village of Trimble, at the end of the road opposite the village square is a dirty old house. Inside, Kronk the lowest gnome in the country, rubbed a hole in the ice that had formed on the inside of the window and looked out. The permanent scowl on her face deepened, he looked mean and unfriendly even more than normal.

Outside the snow come winter and the people in the village who had made fun. Sled raced down Fairy Hill, snowballingeverywhere and went to several of the elves were busy trying to build snowmen in the village square. Growled Kronk, the one thing that he hated people who watched more than snow to have fun. He really was the smallest, most stingy and unkind gnome you ever did.

On the green opposite front Kronk, were Peter the Elf and his friend Pod hard at work build snowmen. They had it all morning and were determined that their best snowman would be so. Later, whenthey were finished, they were back in their practical work to be admired. The snowman was very large, as high as she could reach on tiptoe and his body was round and full. He had a large, round head, with black pebble eyes, nose, a carrot and a smiling mouth with much smaller stones. "He is big, but he needs something else to do it," said Peter.

"I have my grandpa's old fishing village, who got the beautiful green feathers," said Pod.

"Great, and I got an oldgo yellow and red scarf around his neck round, "said Peter.

"We could use a row of stones placed on its front look like buttons on a jacket," said Pod.

"OK," said Peter. "You get the hat and come to my house. I'll get the scarf and I took a nice heat warming soup."

Peter was a very good cook, had a big pot of vegetable soup and when he came home yesterday, all he had to do was to pop the pan on the stove and let it heat up. Pod, which was really goodgrowing things in his garden, the vegetables had given to Peter and as always, the two friends would share the soup between them.

"Well, I'm cold now that we have stopped building the snowman and I'm very hungry."

"Me too" let's go, "said Peter.

At home, Peter put the soup pan on the stove, put a new log on the fire and took the towel from the hook behind the door. Ten minutes later there was a knock Pod and put his head through the door. 'Unfortunately, I have solong, but I had to find a job, his hat. I thought it was in the closet and then I remembered I'd made it to the scarecrow in the garden behind the house.

Peter smiled, his friend was sometimes a little forgetful. "Never mind, you've got it now, take off your coat and go and sit by the fire, I bring you some soup."

Pod set in one of the two chairs before the fire, Peter poured two bowls of soup, picking up the pod and gave it another bowl sat on the chair next to hisFriend. There was silence, apart from the odd drink, what do they eat their soup, and when they were finished, they were warm, both inside and.

Peter was an ordinary little elf, and after lunch he washed the bowls and spoons and put them back in the closet. "There is, now we have done and can go Finally, the snowman."

After his return to the green they moved into the snowman's hat with the beautiful green feather and wrapped his long, yellow and red scarf around his neck. The hatwas a little too small, because there was an elf and elves Pod Grandpa are still so small. But apart from the fact that Peter and Pod both agreed that the snowman considered very large indeed. In fact, they were so please that they have a little dance as they danced and made a little song.

Snowman, snowman cuddly and fat
We really love your feathered hat
Feather hat feather hat
We really love your feathered hat,
It is at your oh-so -well.

Snowman, snowman big and strong
We really love your scarf so long
It's so long, it's so long,
We really love your scarf so long
It keeps you warm.

That night, as Peter and Pod were fast asleep in bed, a dark shadowy figure crept up to steal the snowman with a snarl and a green feather hat. After jumping on the hat of the figure wrapped the cloth, put the snowman's nose, struck under his head and walked the rest of thehim to pieces.

The next morning, when they went down into the green and found their snowman destroyed, Peter and Pod were very sad. In fact, Peter was so excited that he put a on a nearby stump of a tree. "Who would like evil, do what?" Pod said.

Peter, the front of house Kronk saw the curtains twitch at the window and suddenly had an idea who it could be. "Kronk is spying for us behind the curtain, I bet he is the one who did it."

"What we doto do? "Asked pod.

Peter sat on the stump thought hard. After a minute or so, he said: "We will build the snowman again, but this time ..." He paused and then whispered the rest of the plan in the Pod's ear so that no one could hear.

Pod laughed. "When are we going to do it?"

"Tomorrow morning we will begin, while it is still dark, so not Kronk can see what we do."

The next morning when Kronk looked out the window, he was surprised to see Peter and PodBuilding another snowman. You need to start very early because they had already built the majority of the body. Kronk watched her for most of the day and the more they build, the more he frowned and growled at under his breath.

Peter and Pod came home when they were finished. But they crept back, just before it got dark and hid in the bushes at the edge of the green. They did not have to wait, and once it was dark, a shadowy figure crept up to the snowman, cut off his head and thenbegan, the body of the snowman's kick. Soon, like much of the body, but the center refused to move. The number went back and took a running kick to the middle and started jumping up and screaming on foot, "Ouch! Ooya! Ouch!" Ouch! "Oh, my foot! Oh, my foot! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Soon every in the village came to see what was going on and in the light of torch Peter, it was Kronk hopped on one leg. "What happened?" she asked.

"Kronk slipped after dark and went downour snowman, "said Peter.

"But why is it skipping?" they wanted to know.

"Because if he bumped our first snowman we built our second on the old tree stump," said Peter.

Everyone laughed, said it was his own fault, and went back inside, so that Kronk to bounce their way home on one leg.

Peter Pod and the rest of the elves build more snowmen that winter and Kronk never touched one of them. In fact, he has not left the house until you returnSpring came, when he was around and he was limping.

Copyright Fred Watson