What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

24 views
SOLVED: Children's/YA > SOLVED. Children's Short Story - Man tells a story to children on a train about a girl who gets eaten by a wolf. Read around 1994.

Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Sheep (new)

Sheep | 2 comments I am trying to find a children's short story.

In it I recall a gentleman is on a train with and sharing a carriage with some children and their guardian. He tells them a story to amuse them which is punctuated by their comments. It is about a little girl who is always very good and punctual and obedient and receives medals for those virtues. The prince hears about it and invites her to spend time in his private garden. She visits the garden and is disappointed there are no flowers because she promised her aunties she would not pick the flowers. There are no flowers because the pigs eat them and the Prince had to choose between pigs and flowers and chose pigs. The children hearing the story approve of this choice. While the girl is in the garden a wolf comes in to eat the pigs and smells her. She hides from the wolf but while she is hiding her medals clink together and the wolf hears it and eats her. The children hearing the story approve of the ending and the moral. Their guardian is horrified.

I read this story in an anthology of children's short stories about 27 years ago. The stories may have been part of the series of anthologies collected by Pat Thomson or at least something similar. I thought the title might have been about "naughty children" or something similar but none of the Pat Thomson anthologies have titles along those lines.


message 2: by Genesistrine (new)

Genesistrine | 575 comments This is The Story-Teller by Saki - you can find it in his collection Beasts and Super-Beasts

It's online at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/269


message 3: by Sheep (new)

Sheep | 2 comments Thank you so much!! I loved being able to read it again :)


message 4: by Kris (last edited Sep 14, 2021 08:43AM) (new)

Kris | 54953 comments Mod
Glad you found your short story, Sheep.

Did the anthology contain short stories for children by different authors or one author (e.g., The Story-Teller: Thirteen Tales by Saki? Here's one cover image of the latter on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Story-Teller-C....)


back to top