Classic Storybook Fables Read online

  Classic

  STORYBOOK FABLES

  ALSO BY SCOTT GUSTAFSON

  Classic Fairy Tales

  Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose

  Classic Bedtime Stories

  Artisan | New York

  Classic

  STORYBOOK FABLES

  Illustrated by Scott Gustafson

  Copyright

  ©

  2017 by Scott Gustafson

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced—mechanically, electronically, or by

  any other means, including photocopying—without written permission of the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Gustafson, Scott, illustrator.

  Title: Classic storybook fables / illustrated by Scott Gustafson.

  Description: New York : Artisan, 2017. | Summary: An illustrated retelling of

  eight classic fairy tales, emphasizing the lesson to be learned from each.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016058707 | ISBN 9781579657048 (hardback, with dust jacket)

  Subjects: LCSH: Fairy tales. | CYAC: Fairy tales. | Folklore.

  Classification: LCC PZ8.G97 Sto 2017 | DDC 398.2 [E] —dc23 LC record available at

  https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058707

  Design adapted from Bjorn Akselsen

  For more information about Scott Gustafson’s illustration and books, please visit scottgustafson.com.

  Artisan books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for premiums and sales

  promotions as well as for fund-raising or educational use. Special editions or book excerpts also can

  be created to specification. For details, contact the Special Sales Director at the address below, or

  send an e-mail to [email protected].

  Published by Artisan

  A division of Workman Publishing Co., Inc.

  225 Varick Street

  New York, NY 10014-4381

  artisanbooks.com

  Artisan is a registered trademark of Workman Publishing Co., Inc.

  Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son, Limited

  First printing, August 2017

  To those grand old men Arthur, Norman, and N.C.

  and countless others whose work continues to inspire

  Contents

  The Ugly Duckling

  6

  Beauty and the Beast

  20

  The Crow and the Pitcher

  44

  The Emperor’s New Clothes

  46

  The Boy Who Cried Wolf

  56

  The Little Red Hen

  58

  The Mice in Council

  70

  The Boy Who Went to the North Wind

  72

  A Note from the Artist

  84

  IT WAS A GLORIOUS SUMMER DAY.

  The birds sang, and the sun glistened

  off the water in the canal. In the reeds at the water’s edge, a mother duck sat on her

  nest full of eggs. She had been sitting there, keeping her eggs safe and warm, day

  after day, for what seemed like forever, as she waited for them to hatch.

  But this day, with the sun shining so brightly and a wonderful breeze rippling

  the water, she didn’t feel like waiting there all alone anymore. What she wanted to do

  was jump into the water and join the other ducks, who were swimming and quacking

  in the canal. But she knew she had to stay put until her eggs were ready to hatch.

  Suddenly, one of the eggs began to move and crack, and that egg was soon

  joined by another and then another. As little beaks poked their way through broken

  eggshells, the “peep, peep” of tiny ducklings filled the air. Before long, the new

  arrivals were exploring their surroundings. Compared with the insides of their eggs,

  the family nest seemed huge!

  The Ugly Duckling

  6

  f

  “So you think this little piece of the world is big, do you?” the mother duck

  said with a smile. “Wait until you see the barnyard and the pasture that runs all

  the way down to the parson’s farm!” Then she noticed that the biggest egg had

  not hatched.

  “Hello there,” quacked a familiar voice. It was one of the other barnyard ducks,

  paddling by for a visit. “You’ve got some new arrivals, I see.”

  “Yes, all except one,” answered the mother duck. “This big one seems to be

  taking its time.”

  “Ah,” said the visitor as she craned her neck to get a better look at the

  un cooperative egg. “I bet that’s a turkey egg. One of those got mixed up in my clutch

  once, and I was fooled into hatching it. Good luck!” she said as she swam away.

  7

  f

  The mother duck sighed and settled back onto the egg. It wasn’t long before her

  wait was over. The last egg started to move, and soon it cracked open and a large,

  funny-looking duckling tumbled out. The mother duck immediately noticed that

  this duckling was different from the others. He was sort of a gray color, and though

  she hated to admit it, even to herself, he wasn’t as cute as the rest of her brood. In

  fact, this poor little thing was rather ugly.

  The other ducklings were quick to notice the new arrival’s differences, too.

  “Hey!” they peeped meanly. “Look at the big one. He’s goofy-looking!”

  The mother duck stepped in and told the others they had to be nice to their

  newest brother, but she couldn’t help thinking that there was some truth in what

  they had said.

  CLASSIC STORYBOOK FABLES

  The next day, the mother duck led her brood down to the water’s edge for a

  swimming lesson. As each duckling plopped in, its head went underwater, but soon

  each little bird bobbed to the surface and began to paddle around. When the ugly

  duckling’s turn came, the mother duck held her breath. Plop, in he went, and just

  like the others, he bobbed to the surface and started to paddle. But soon it was clear

  that here, too, he was different. He could swim faster and farther than the others.

  “Look what a fine swimmer we have here,” thought the mother duck, “and how

  elegantly he holds himself in the water! He is actually quite handsome, when you

  really stop to look at him.” The next day, proud and eager to show off her little brood,

  she took the ducklings to the farm. But as soon as they reached the barnyard, the

  other birds began to say rude things and peck at the ugly duckling.

  THE UGLY DUCKLING

  “Hey, leave him alone,” said his mother. “He wasn’t bothering you!”

  “Well,” clucked a haughty hen, “we don’t like him. He’s strange-looking!”

  “That’s no reason to be cruel,” said the mother duck.

  “You may be right,” quacked a wise old duck. “But you have to admit, dear, he

  doesn’t really look like the rest of your family.”

  “He was the last one hatched and may have spent a little too much time in the

  egg,” said the mother duck. “But he’s very good-natured and a wonderful swimmer.”

  And yet no matter what she said, as soon as her back was turned, the others

  continued to call him names and peck at the gawky duckling. Even his brothers

  and sisters joined in, m
aking the poor thing feel unwelcome and unwanted. Every

  day it grew worse and worse, until he could take no more.

  One morning, the ugly duckling slipped through a hole in the fence and struck

  out into the wide world. As he waddled and stumbled through the undergrowth,

  wild birds chirped and quickly flew away.

  “They must be flying off because I’m so ugly,” the sad duckling thought. Late

  in the day, he found himself in a marsh, where he took shelter for the night in the

  rushes at the water’s edge.

  The next morning, a pair of wild ducks and their ducklings came paddling by.

  “Well, what have we here?” quacked the mother.

  “I must say, I’ve never seen anything quite like this in our neighborhood

  before,” said her husband.

  “I guess he can stay,” said the mother. “As long as he doesn’t get any ideas

  about joining our family.”

  “We definitely can’t have that!” the father agreed, and the ducks gave their

  beaks a superior tilt as they proudly swam by.

  The poor duckling didn’t want to join anybody else’s family; he just wanted a

  place to stay. Moments later, two wild geese splashed down onto the water nearby.

  They were young and boisterous, honking and laughing as they swam.

  10

  f

  CLASSIC STORYBOOK

  FABLES

  “Hey!” said one of them as they headed toward the duckling. “Look at this!”

  “Yeah,” said the other. “The guy’s kind of funny-looking, but you know what?

  That’s what I like about him!”

  “Hey, buddy,” said the first goose to the duckling. “There’s a flock of us in the

  next marsh over, a really great bunch of guys. Anyway, we’re all getting ready to fly

  south for the winter. Want to come along?”

  But before the duckling could answer, there was a loud boom.

  “Yikes!” honked the second goose. “Hunters!” With a great splash and flurry,

  the two flapped off into the sky.

  BOOM!

  Another shot was fired, and the duckling scurried into the reeds. All

  of a sudden, a dog thrust his head through the weeds. His big nose and drooling

  mouth were just inches from where the duckling cowered. The dog looked at him for

  a frightening moment, then snorted and ran off in the opposite direction, just as

  another shot rang out.

  “Phew!” the duckling sighed in relief. “I guess this time I was lucky to be so

  ugly—even that dog didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

  After the smoke had cleared and the hunters had gone, the duckling remained

  hidden. He waited quite some time before he felt it was safe to come out.

  “There’s got to be a better place to live than this,” he thought. So once

  more, he struck out into the wide world. By evening, he found himself in the

  yard of a run-down farm cottage. The old building leaned this way and that,

  as if it couldn’t decide which way to fall—yet somehow, it remained

  standing. The smell of something cooking drew the duckling closer,

  and he wriggled through a gap beneath the cottage’s front door.

  Inside, an old woman dozed by a cozy fire with her companions: an old hen and a

  cat. The hen had a talent for laying eggs, which made her dear to the old woman’s

  heart. The cat not only caught mice but also purred when he was happy and hissed

  when he was angry, all of which pleased the old woman to no end. Together, they

  lived quite happily in the tumbledown cottage. The duckling found an out-of-the-

  way corner, and he, too, settled in for the night.

  The next morning when the old woman discovered the visitor, her poor old eyes

  mistook him for a much older duck. “This is lucky,” she said, “for if this duck can

  lay eggs, we could have fresh duck eggs to eat.” So she planned to let the duckling

  stay for a while to see if it would produce any eggs.

  “Can you lay eggs?” the hen asked the duckling.

  “No,” he replied.

  “How about catching mice or purring?” asked the cat.

  “I can’t do those things either,” the duckling answered.

  “Well, then just sit in the corner and keep your mouth shut when your betters

  are speaking,” said the hen. So the duckling sat quietly in the corner, feeling as if he

  had done something wrong.

  Several days later, the sun shone so cheerfully through the window that it

  reminded the duckling of summer days on the pond, and he asked the hen if she

  had ever gone swimming.

  “What a question!” the hen replied. “You not only look peculiar but you say

  peculiar things. Well, I’ve got a question for you. Can you lay eggs yet?”

  “No,” said the duckling.

  “Then you’d better go,” said the hen.

  “Before you’re cooked for dinner,” added the cat.

  14

  f

  CLASSIC STORYBOOK

  FABLES

  So once more, the duckling struck out into the wide world. The cold wind

  was blowing more sharply now, and the leaves were turning to yellow, orange, and

  red. Autumn had come, and the poor duckling wandered aimlessly, looking for food

  and shelter.

  15

  f

  THE UGLY DUCKLING

  Soon winter arrived. The weather turned colder, and then colder still, and

  the duckling took refuge in a small pond. As the edges of the pond froze, the

  duckling kept swimming around in circles to keep the water free from ice until,

  exhausted, he could swim no more. The next morning, he awoke to find his legs

  frozen fast in the solid ice.

  Luckily, a poor peasant found him and, after breaking the duckling free

  from the ice, carried him home to his cottage. There, the peasant and his wife

  put the duckling in a crate that they placed near the fire. The couple’s children,

  excited to have a new pet in the house, fed the duckling every day. They con-

  stantly begged to be allowed to take the bird out of his crate so they could play

  with him, but the answer was always no.

  As the days went by and the duckling regained his strength, he, too, wondered

  when he would be set free from the confines of the crate. One evening, just before

  dinner, when their father was out gathering firewood and their mother was in the

  barn, the children opened the crate and coaxed the duckling out. As the bird

  emerged from his pen, the children began to laugh and clap their hands.

  This startled the poor duckling and, in a panic, he ran

  about the small kitchen, flapping his wings.

  Just then, the children’s mother returned from the barn. “Oh,

  no!” she cried. Soon the entire family was chasing the poor, confused

  duckling from one side of the room to the other. Terrified, he ran across

  the table, sending plates and utensils flying. He ran through the butter

  pot, overturned the milk pitcher, then landed in the bean bin.

  “Open the door, Fritz!” the frantic mother called to her son. Then,

  waving a large wooden spoon, she chased the frightened duckling out into the

  cold dark night and slammed the door shut behind him.

  The rest of that winter, the duckling searched for food by day and huddled

  under rushes by night. After many weeks, the snow and ice melted—

  spring had come at last.

 
One warm spring day, the duckling realized

  that his wings had grown, and when he

  flapped them, he rose into the air.

  Soon he was flying short distances, and before long, and without even quite

  knowing how he’d gotten there, he found himself in a beautiful park. There he saw

  fragrant apple trees blossoming and willows bending over the banks of a lovely river

  that wound its way through the park. As he swam across the water, two majestic

  swans came into view from around a bend. Even at this distance, he was in awe of

  their beauty and embarrassed by his own ugliness. Wishing he could disappear, he

  lowered his head in shame.

  There, in the glassy shimmer of the water, he saw something unbelievable.

  Looking back at him from the mirror-like surface was not the gawky creature he

  had expected to see but a graceful white bird. He spread his wings, and the

  magnificent reflection did the same. It was true: the ugly duckling had grown into

  a beautiful swan!

  18

  f

  The other swans approached and welcomed him. Children playing in the park

  spotted him and cried, “There’s a new swan, and he is even more beautiful than the

  others!” They threw bread and morsels of food to the swans and laughed excitedly as

  the regal birds glided near them.

  Through it all, the duckling moved as if in a dream. After all the hard times

  and disappointments he had known, it was difficult to believe that he had really

  come to such a wonderful place. The once lonely and frightened little creature could

  never have imagined that he would one day be so completely transformed. When he

  raised his graceful neck and ruffled his snow-white feathers in the warm sunlight,

  he did so not out of pride but with a spirit of thankfulness and joy. Because now

  he realized that it didn’t matter if you were born an ugly duckling, as long as a

  beautiful swan awaited within.

  19

  f

  ONCE UPON A TIME

  there was a very rich merchant who had three daughters.