Short Stories (Katherine Anne Porter)

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

By Katherine Anne Porter

“She flicked her wrist neatly out of Doctor Harry’s pudgy careful fingers and pulled the sheet up to her chin.  The brat ought to be in knee breeches.  Doctoring around the country with spectacles on his nose! “Get along now, take your school books and go.  There’s nothing wrong with me.”

Granny Weatherall is 80 years old.  She sure wishes her daughter and Doctor Harry would quit treating her like she was deaf.  She can hear just fine since she can hear all of their whispering.

Tomorrow she wants to get those letters out of the attic, letters written to George and John.  She doesn’t want anyone to know just how silly she used to be.

“Well, she could just hear Cornelia telling her husband that Mother was getting a little childish and they’d have to humor her.  The thing that most annoyed her was Cornelia thought she was deaf, dumb and blind.”

Oh how she wished for the old days back again, when the children were young again.  There was no changing the fact they were hers.

Even though there is still much to do Granny begins to realize this is what her death is like.  All her children have come to watch her die.  Granny doesn’t want to go yet, she still has things to do.

Pain Killer Poisoning in Dogs and Cats

Please take this very seriously. Stewie our youngest cat is now suffering the effects of getting a hold of an aspirin. We really have no ideal on how he got it except for the fact he may have found one that was accidentally dropped to the floor. Please be aware and check to make sure no medications have dropped to the floor after taking your meds.

Free e-book Friday

For one week you can download From the Ashes by Jeremy Burns for free!

Nook Spotlight

For a limited time you can download

Child 44 [NOOK Book] 

by

Tom Rob Smith for 99cents. 

Short Stories (Grimms Fairy Tales)

The Frog Prince

“In the older time, when wishing was having, there lived a King, whose daughters were all beautiful; but the youngest was so exceedly beautiful that the Sun himself, although he saw her very often, was surprised whenever she came out into the sunshine.”

One day while the Kings youngest daughter was setting by a brook, playing catch with her golden ball, her ball rolls into the water.  Thinking her ball was lost forever the Kings daughter began to cry.  A frog setting nearby hears her cries and asks her what will she give him if he fetches her ball?   When she asks what he wants in return the frog answers:

“Dresses, or jewels, or golden crowns, are not for me; but if thou wilt love me, and let me be thy companion and playfellow, and sit at thy table, and eat from thy little golden plate, and drink out of thy cup, and sleep in thy little bed, if thou promise me all these, then will I dive down and fetch up thy golden ball.”

Of course she promises him everything but thinking at the same time that he should remain in the water with his own kind.  As soon as the frog fetches the ball for her, she grabs it up and runs off to the castle with no more thought of the frog.

When the frog shows up the next day and demands the daughter let him in, she must explain to the King why the frog is there.  The King orders his youngest daughter to live up to her promises she made to the frog.  Finally after being forced to carry the frog up to her bed chamber she becomes angry with him and throws him against the wall.  The second he hits the floor he changes back into a handsome Prince.  He explains that a witch had cursed him and only the Kings daughter could break the spell.  The two marry and live happily ever after.

Short Stories (Mark Twain)

The Signet Classic Book of Mark Twain's Short Stories

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

by Mark Twain

“In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the east, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friends friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the results.”

Simon Wheeler was asked if he knew a Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley.  Simon never smiles nor frowns when he answers back that there used to be a Jim Smiley who lived there back in ’49 or ’50.  He then proceeds to tell the story of Jim Smiley who would make a bet on anything.  He would bet on a horse race, dog-fight, cat fight, or a chicken fight.  He had even been to known to bet on how far a bug would travel.  If something could be bet on, he bet on it.

One day Jim Smiley be this man that his frog could out jump any other frog in Calaveras County.  While Jim is out searching for the man a frog to use, the man does something that ensures this is one bet that Jim Smiley won’t be winning.

The Story of the Bad Little Boy

“Once there was a bad little boy whose name was Jim-though, if you will notice, you will find that bad little boys are nearly always called James in your Sunday school books.  It was strange, but still it was true, that this one was called Jim.”

Jim really had no excuse for the way he acted.  His mother wasn’t sick like a lot of bad little boy’s mothers were.  In fact Jim was so bad that his mother didn’t care if he broke his neck.  She never kissed him goodnight but instead she spanked him and boxed his ears.

Jim could steal apples from the neighbors orchard and never get hurt by falling out of the trees like other bad little boys.  In fact nothing bad ever happened to Jim.  Where other bad little boys would go fishing or boating on Sunday would either drown or get hit by lightning,  Jim on the other hand would enjoy a nice day of fishing or boating.

Jim would finally grow up, marry and have a very large family.  Jim murdered his whole family.  Still he was respected by everyone.  This Jim lived a charmed life.

Free E-book Friday

This weeks free e-book Friday is

Don't Know Much About Mythology: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History but Never Learned [NOOK Book]

• by
• Kenneth C. Davis