Никоненко Тамара Петрівна

   A mother and her little boy lived in a little house. They were very poor. All they had was a horse. One day the mother said, “We have no money, you must go and sell the horse.”
   The boy took the horse and went to the town. He met a farmer with a big green basket in his hands. “Sell me your horse”, said the farmer. “I can give you this basket”. “What good is this basket for me?” – said the boy. “What can I put into it?” “Take me, take me”, said the basket, “I am a wonderful basket.”
   The boy took the basket and went home. When he came home, he put the basket on the table and showed it to his mother. The mother looked at the basket and said, “What good is this basket for us, what can we put in it?”
   But the basket jumped from the table and ran out of the house. When it came back to the poor boy’s house, it was full of good things. Now the mother and her boy had dinner. Every morning the wonderful basket jumped from the table and ran out of the house. And every day it came back full of good things. Now the mother and her boy had their breakfast, dinner and supper every day.
Vocabulary
wonderful – прекрасний
a basket – кошик
poor – бідний
money – гроші
to sell – продавати
took – взяв
met – зустрів
what good – яка користь
to put – класти
back – назад

   A little fir-tree stood near an old oak. It was a fine little tree, but it was sad. One day it said, “The oak-tree has leaves. I have only needles. The birds do not make nests in a fir-tree. I want to have leaves, not needles”.
   The next day it had green leaves and was happy. But a goat came to the tree and ate up all the green leaves.
   The fir-tree was sad again and said, “I want to have gold leaves”. The next day it had gold leaves and was happy. But a man came and took all the gold leaves.
   The fir-tree was sad again and said, “I want glass leaves”. The next day it had glass leaves and was happy again. But the wind blew and broke all the glass leaves.
   The little fir-tree was very sad and said, “I do not like gold leaves. Men take them. I do not like green leaves. Goats eat them. I do not like glass leaves. The wind breaks them. I want to have my needles again. Goats do not eat them, men do not take them, the wind cannot break them”.
   The next morning it had all its needles again.