Easy English Texts

The Gift of the Magi  by O. Henry  At 7 o'clock the coffee was made, and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops. Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment....

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out of the window someday to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty'...

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day...

The Aged Mother by Matsuo Basho Once more he shouldered his burden (how light it seemed now) and hastened down the path, through the shadows and the moonlight, to the little hut in the valley. Beneath the kitchen floor was a walled closet for food, which was covered and hidden from view. There the son hid his mother, supplying her with everything she needed, continually watching, and fearing she w...

The Aged Mother by Matsuo Basho Also known as The Story of the Aged Mother, this Japanese folktale tells the story of an unkind ruler who issues cruel orders, including one demand that all old folks are to be abandoned and left to die. Basho tells a poignant story about a mother and her son and their love for one another. Long, long ago there lived at the foot of the mountain a poor farmer and his...

Old King Cole Was a merry old soul, And a merry old soul was he: He called for his pipe, And he called for his bowl, And he called for his fiddlers three. Every fiddler, he had a fiddle, And a very fine fiddle had he; Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers. Oh, there's none so rare, As can compare With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

There were once six blind men who stood by the road-side every day, and begged from the people who passed. They had often heard of elephants, but they had never seen one; for, being blind, how could they? It so happened one morning that an elephant was driven down the road where they stood. When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they...

In the northern part of Austin there once dwelt an honest family by the name of Smothers. The family consisted of John Smothers, his wife, himself, their little daughter, five years of age, and her parents, making six people toward the population of the city when counted for a special write-up, but only three by actual count. One night after supper the little girl was seized with a severe colic, a...

When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort. And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair and cried to the pool and said, `We do not wonde...

History of the Air Force Song In 1937, after the U.S. military had been developing airplanes for more than a decade, the Assistant Chief of the Air Corps, Brigadier General Henry Arnold, thought the Army Air Corps needed a fight song similar to the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. In 1938, Liberty Magazine offered a $1,000 prize in a contest for composers to come up with a suitable song for the Air F...

Aesop was a Greek fabulist and storyteller born in 620 BCE (Before the Christian Era) and died in 564 BCE (Before the Christian Era) . He is credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables The Fox And The Monkey by Aesop At a great meeting of the Animals, who had gathered to elect a new ruler, the Monkey was asked to dance. This he did so well, with a thousand funny caper...

The Elephant's Child ,Part 5 of 5 One dark evening he came back to all his dear families, and he coiled up his trunk and said, "How do you do?" They were very glad to see him, and immediately said, "Come here and be spanked for your 'satiable curiosity." "Pooh," said the Elephant's Child. "I don't think you people's know anything about spanking; but I do, and I'll show you." Then he uncurled his t...

The Elephant's Child PART 4 OF 5 "Then you will have to wait a long time," said the Bi-Colored-Python-Rock-Snake. "Some people do not know what is good for them." The Elephant's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really tr...

The Elephant's Child PART 3 OF 5 Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful. "I think," said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like this--"I think to-day I will begin with Elephant's...

"That is odd," said the Elephant's Child, "because my father and mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for my 'satiable curiosity--and I suppose this is the same thing." by Rudyard Kipling The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled around a rock. "'Scuse me," said the Eleph...

One fine morning in the middle of the Procession of the Equinoxes this 'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, "What does the crocodile have for dinner?" Then everybody said, "Hush!" in a loud and dreadful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time. The Elephant's Child PART 1 OF 5 by Rudyard Kipling...

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag A Pledged   means you make a promise, you swear it.  An Allegiance-   means loyalty, to be faithful. In the United States, before all government function is customary to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, also when one became a Citizen of the United States. The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States should be rendered by st...

The Bremen Town Musicians- PART # 2 Brothers Grimm So they made their way to the place where the light was, and soon saw it shine brighter and grow larger, until they came to a well-lighted robber's house. The donkey, as the biggest, went to the window and looked in. "What do you see, my grey-horse?" asked the cock. "What do I see?" answered the donkey; "a table covered with good things to eat and...

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was born in 1785, and his brother Wilhelm Carl Grimm was born in 1786. Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm were among the first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales The Bremen Town Musicians  PART 1 OF 2 By Brothers Grimm A certain man had a donkey, which had carried the corn-sacks to the mill indefatigably for many a long year; but his strength was go...

The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defense of Fort McHenry". The   poem was written on September 14, 1814, by a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key. After witnessing, the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore Harbor, during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key...

Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805  in Denmark,  so he was a Danish Author. He died in 1875.  He was usually called H.C. Andersen, Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his fairy tales . The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen ONCE upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would h...

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie as born in 1912 in Oklahoma, U.S.–  He died in 1967 . He was an American singer-songwriter, who is considered one of the most significant figures in American western folk music. His music, including songs, such as "This Land Is Your Land", has inspired several generations both politically and musically Guthrie wrote hundreds of country, folk, and children's songs, along...

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay ,British India in 1865 – died in 1936 at the age of 70. He was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King, and many short stories, Just So Stories (poems) BY Joseph Rudyard Kipling The Camel's hump is an ugly lump Which well you may see at the Zoo; But uglier y...

The most popular Nursery rhymes has no known author -it is anonymous, but in 1695, a French author Charles Perrault created many stories and fairy tales. He put together all popular nursery rhymes, and fairy tales, under the name of the Tales of  Mother Goose. Mother Goose stories was first translated into English by Robert Samber in 1729. Thanks to Mr. Perrault for giving us Mother Goose and crea...