Family Quizmas by Gordon Pape & Beborah Kerbal

Author:Gordon Pape & Beborah Kerbal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada

When she woke up it was morning and she was lying in her own bed. She looked around for the Nutcracker, trying to remember what had happened to him.

“Where have all those nasty mice gone?” she asked her mother, who was standing nearby. “And where is my Nutcracker?”

“Hush now, dear,” said her mother. “Your Nutcracker is safe and sound in the toy cabinet. I found you sleeping there on the floor last night.”

“But he was alive and there was a big fight and the Mouse King wanted to capture him …,” she protested.

“Now, now, Marie. I’m sure you just had a bad dream,” said her mother, smoothing the hair away from her face. “Or perhaps you have a bit of a fever. Either way, I think you should stay in bed until you feel better.”

And so, much to Marie’s dismay, her mother made her stay in bed for the rest of the day. She was so bored she wanted to cry.

Sometime in the afternoon her bedroom door opened and in came Godfather Drosselmeier.

“I heard you’re not feeling well,” he said with a wink of his one good eye. “But I think I have something that might make you feel better.”

And then from behind his back he pulled out the Nutcracker, whose broken teeth he had fixed and put back in.

“Oh, thank you!” exclaimed Marie, hugging her doll with relief. The Nutcracker smiled back at her with his big wide grin. “But Godfather Drosselmeier,” she added after a moment’s thought, “why did you make the Nutcracker with such an ugly face?”

“Well,” he replied, sitting down at the foot of her bed, “that’s a very long story. Are you ready to hear about Princess Pirlipat and the Hard Nut?”

Marie nodded. Since she wasn’t allowed to get out of her bed, it was a perfect time to listen to a story. And here’s how it went:

“Once upon a time, the King and Queen had a little baby girl,” began Godfather Drosselmeier. “Her name was Princess Pirlipat, and she was the most beautiful child anyone had ever seen. But she had to be guarded closely by a team of nurses and cats to keep her safe. Why, you ask? Because there was a mouse in the palace who had threatened to bite the beautiful baby in two! This terrible rodent’s name was Madam Mouserinks.

“For many months, the family kept the baby safe. But one awful night when everyone was sleeping, a nurse woke up and found Madam Mouserinks right in the baby’s crib. The nurse and her cat quickly chased the mouse away, but alas it was too late. The most horrible thing had happened! Madam Mouserinks had changed the beautiful little princess into an ugly, horrible-looking creature.

“The King and Queen were very upset when they saw what had happened to their child. They called in the best doctors and scientists in the land to find a way to cure her. Finally, they discovered that to become beautiful again, the little Princess Pirlipat had to eat the sweet kernel of the Krakatuk nut.

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