Marmara Elt Resources

ESL Literature Library-Manabozho and the Woodpeckers
(Adapted from H. R. Schoolcraft)

MANABOZHO lost the greater part of his magical power through letting
his young wolf grandson fall through the thin ice and drown. No one
knew where his grandmother had gone to. He married the arrow maker’s
daughter, and became the father of several children, but he was very
poor and scarcely able to procure a living. His lodge was pitched in a
distant part of the country, where he could get no game, and it was
winter time. One day he said to his wife, “I will go out walking and
see if I can find some lodges.”

After walking some time he finally discovered a lodge at a distance.
There were children playing at the door, and when they saw him
approaching they ran in and told their parents Manabozho was coming.
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The Donkey and the Elephant (A Fable)
Once upon a time, in a magical land far across the sea, there lived together a donkey and an elephant. This was very difficult, because they both had such different ways. The elephant loved to trample trees and make a lot of noise, while the donkey nibbled on lowly grasses and said almost nothing.
One day, the elephant noticed the donkey eating his grass and thought; “Hmm.Why not talk the donkey into giving me some of his grass? The donkey, stupid as he is, would never have a clue about what I am doing, and maybe I could even persuade him that I was doing it for his own good!”
So that night, the elephant made a call on the donkey. “Hello my good friend. How are you this wonderful evening,” said the elephant. The donkey replied, “Fine, but it seems like any other evening to me, and not too wonderful.”

“But that is because your glass is half-empty,” said the elephant. “Things are what you make them!”
“I’m not convinced of that,” said the donkey, “but you seem happy, while I am perhaps too serious. Tell me, what is your secret?”
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The Cask of Amontillado-Edgar Allan Poe
THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. AT LENGTH I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled — but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile NOW was at the thought of his immolation.
He had a weak point — this Fortunato — although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity to practise imposture upon the British and Austrian MILLIONAIRES. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen , was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially; I was skilful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.
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The Cricket on the Hearth-Chirp the Second-Charles Dickens
Caleb Plummer and his Blind Daughter lived all alone by themselves, as the Story-books say — and my blessing, with yours to back it I hope, on the Story- books, for saying anything in this workaday world! — Caleb Plummer and his Blind Daughter lived all alone by themselves, in a little cracked nutshell of a wooden house, which was, in truth, no better than a pimple on the prominent red-brick nose of Gruff and Tackleton. The premises of Gruff and Tackleton were the great feature of the street; but you might have knocked down Caleb Plummer’s dwelling with a hammer or two, and carried off the pieces in a cart.

If any one had done the dwelling-house of Caleb Plummer the honour to miss it after such an inroad, it would have been, no doubt, to commend its demoli- tion as a vast improvement. It stuck to the premises of Gruff and Tackleton, like a barnacle to a ship’s keel, or a snail to a door, or a little bunch of toad- stools to the stem of a tree. But, it was the germ from which the full-grown trunk of Gruff and Tackle- ton had sprung; and, under its crazy roof, the Gruff before last, had, in a small way, made toys for a generation of old boys and girls, who had played with them, and found them out, and broken them, and gone to sleep.
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