ลองดูจ้าคุณรัตน์
แมวล้านตัว (Millions of Cats) เรื่องนี้จงมีแต่หนังสือภาษาไทยเหมือนกันค่ะ อ่านสนุกดีค่ะแม่ชอบ ลูกยังไม่ค่อยยอมฟังเท่าไร ^__^
Once upon a time there was a very old man and a very old woman. They lived in a nice clean house which had flowers all around it, except where the door was. But they couldn't be happy because they were so very lonely.
"If we only had a cat!" sighed the very old woman.
"A cat?" asked the very old man.
"Yes, a sweet little fluffy cat," said the very old woman.
"I will get you a cat, my dear," said the very old man.
And he set out over the hills to look for one. He climbed over the sunny hills. He trudged through the cool valleys. He walked a long, long time and at last he came to a hill which was quite covered with cats.
Cats here, cats there, cats and kittens everywhere, hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.
"Oh," cried the old man joyfully, "Now I can choose the prettiest cat and take it home with me!" So he chose one. It was white.
But just as he was about to leave, he saw another one all black and white and it seemed just as pretty as the first. So took this one also.
But then he saw a fuzzy grey kitten way over here which was every bit as pretty as the others so he took it too.
And now he saw one way down in a corner which was too lovely to leave so he took this too.
And just then, over here, the very old man found a kitten which was black and very beautiful.
"It would be a shame to leave that one," said the very old man. So he took it.
And now, over there, he saw a cat which had brown and yellow stripes like a baby tiger.
"I simply must take it!" cried the very old man, and he did.
So it happened that every time the very old man looked up, he saw another cat which was so pretty he could not bear to leave it, and before he knew it, he had chosen them all.
And so he went back over the sunny hills and down through the cool valleys, to show all his pretty kittens to the very old woman.
It was very funny to see those hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of cats following him.
They came to a pond.
"Mew, mew! We are thirsty!" cried the hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.
"Well, here is a great deal of water," said the very old man.
Each cat took a sip of water, and the pond was gone!
"Mew, mew! Now we are hungry!" said the hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.
"There is much grass on the hills," said the very old man.
Each cat ate a mouthful of grass and not a blade was left!
Pretty soon the very old woman saw them coming.
"My dear!" she cried, "What are you doing? I asked for one little cat, and what do I see?-
Cats here, cats there, cats and kittens everywhere, hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats."
"But we can never feed them all," said the very old woman, "They will eat us out of house and home."
"I never thought of that," said the very old man, "What shall we do?"
The very old woman thought for a while and then she said, "I know! We will let the cats decide which one we shall keep."
"Oh yes," said the very old man, and he called to the cats, "Which one of you is the prettiest?"
"I am!"
"I am!"
"No, I am!"
"No, I am the prettiest!" "I am!"
"No, I am! I am! I am!" cried hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of voices, for each cat thought itself the prettiest.
And they began to quarrel.
They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a great noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into their house as fast as they could. They did not like such quarreling. But after a while the noise stopped and the very old man and the very old woman peeped out of the window to see what had happened. They could not see a single cat!
"I think they must have eaten each other all up," said the very old woman, "It's too bad!"
"But look!" said the very old man, and he pointed to a bunch of high grass. In it sat one little frightened kitten. They went out and picked it up. It was thin and scraggly.
"Poor little kitty," said the very old woman.
"Dear little kitty," said the very old man, "how does it happen that you were not eaten up with all those hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of cats?"
"Oh, I'm just a very homely little cat," said the kitten, "So when you asked who was the prettiest, I didn't say anything. So nobody bothered about me."
They took the kitten into the house, where the very old woman gave it a warm bath and brushed its fur until was soft and shiny.
Every day they gave it plenty of milk-
-and soon it grew nice and plump.
"And it is a very pretty cat, after all!" said the very old woman.
"It is the most beautiful cat in the whole world," said the very old man.
"I ought to know, for I've seen-
Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats-
and not one was as pretty as this one."
A little boy planted a carrot seed.
His mother said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."
His father said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."
And his big brother said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."
Every day the little boy pulled up the weeds around the seed and sprinkled the ground with water.
But nothing came up.
And nothing came up.
Everyone kept saying it wouldn't come up.
But he still pulled up the weeds around it every day and sprinkled the ground with water.
And then, one day,
a carrot came up
just as the little boy had known it would.
Corduroy
Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store. Day after day he waited with all the other animals and dolls for somebody to come along and take him home.
The store was always filled with shoppers buying all sorts of things, but on one ever seemed to want a small bear in green overalls.
Then one morning a little girt stopped and looked straight into Corduroy's bright eyes.
"Oh, Mommy!" she said. "Look! There's the very bear I've always wanted."
"Not today, dear." Her mother sighed. "I've spent too much already. Besides, he doesn't look new. He's lost the button to one of his shoulder straps."
Corduroy watched them sadly as they walked away.
"I didn't know I'd lost a button," he said to himself.
"Tonight I'll go and see if I can find it."
Late that evening, when all the shoppers had gone and the doors were shut and locked, Corduroy climbed carefully down from his shelf and began searching everywhere on the floor for his lost button.
Suddenly he felt the floor moving under him! Quite by accident he had stepped onto an escalator -- and up he went!
"Could this be a mountain?" he wondered. "I think I've always wanted to climb a mountain."
He stepped off the escalator as it reached the next floor, and there, before his eyes, was a most amazing sight--
tables and chairs and lamps and sofas, and rows and rows of beds. "This must be a palace!" Corduroy gasped. "I guess I've always wanted to live in a palace."
He wandered around admiring the furniture.
"This must be a bed," he said. "I've always wanted to sleep in a bed." And up he crawled onto a large, thick mattress.
All at once he saw something small and round.
"Why, here's my button!" he cried. And he tried to pick it up.
But, like all the other buttons on the mattress, it was tied down tight.
He yanked and pulled with both paws until POP! Off came the button -- and off the mattress Corduroy toppled,
bang into a tall floor lamp. Over it fell with a crash!
Corduroy didn't know it, but there was someone else awake in the store. The night watchman was going his rounds on the floor above.
When he heard the crash he came dashing down the escalator.
"Now who in the world did that!" he exclaimed. "Somebody must be hiding around here!"
He flashed his light under and over sofas and beds until he came to the biggest bed of all. And there he saw two fuzzy brown ears sticking up from under the cover.
"Hello!" he said. "How did you get upstairs?"
The watchman tucked Corduroy under his arm and carried him down the escalator
and set him on the shelf in the toy department with the other animals and dolls.
Corduroy was just waking up when the first customers came into the store in the morning. And there, looking at him with a wide, warm smile, was the same little girl he'd seen only the day before.
"I'm Lisa," she said, "and you're going to be my very own bear. Last night I counted what I've saved in my piggy bank and my mother said I could bring you home.
"Shall I put him in a box for you?" the saleslady asked.
"Oh, no thank you," Lisa answered. And she carried Corduroy home in her arms.
She ran all the way up four flights of stairs, into her family's apartment, and straight into her own room.
Corduroy blinked. There was a chair and a chest of drawers, and alongside a girl-size bed stood a little bed just the right size for him. The room was small, nothing like that enormous palace in the department store.
"This must be home," he said. "I know I've always wanted a home!"
Lisa sat down with Corduroy on her lap and began to sew a button on his overalls.
"I like you the way you are," she said, "but you'll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened."
"You must be a friend," said Corduroy. "I've always wanted a friend."
"Me too!" said Lisa, and gave him a big hug.