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Stories to grow by providing the best treasury of stories, riddles for kids and readers theater scripts
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This is the tale of Susu who was the daughter of a very rich man and a very kind hearted one too never was a
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beggar turned from his door. Nor was their hunger or want in the length and breadth of his land
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And he loved his daughter no less than she loved him for a long time
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There was happiness. Sue's mother had died when she was a small child
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And so it came to pass that one day. Her father married again
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Not long after the wedding, a cloud of grief settled in the maiden's heart because on a silent moonlit night
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when she walked with her father, he told her that he was troubled with a wasting sickness and feared he had not long to live
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some enemy he said had cast a spell upon him. So that day by day
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he grew weaker and weaker and weaker because of what her father had told her
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Susu was sad and often wandered into a quiet place where she could tell her troubles to the trees
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The stepmother, not only disliked Suu but was very mean and treacherous
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hiding her hatred from the father and petting Susu when he was near stroking her hair and saying pretty things so well
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Did the wicked woman play her part? That nothing could have made the father believe other than that she loved Suu quite as much as
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he did. For instance, on that moonlit night, when he had told his daughter of his trouble seeing her tears before she had wept bitterly
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He had said, but su su my dove, your mother will care for you tenderly
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When I am dead for, she loves you as dearly as I do at that
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the girl stifled her sobs and dried her tears lest the father she loved so well should be wounded by her grief and seeing her
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calmed, he had supposed that all was well and that his words had soothed her
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But see how it really was with Susu and her stepmother. There was one day not long after when father and step mother and daughter
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were standing by the fountain, when the man suddenly felt a clutching pain at his heart and was forced to sit down for very weakness
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when he felt a little better. And the first sharpness of the pain had gone. Susu walked with him to the house and when he
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was comfortably seated and had a feather robe cast about him, he bade her to return to her stepmother that she did
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Only because he bid her too since she would have much preferred to sit at his feet
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And what was her terror when she came upon the wicked woman talking to a great horned owl that sat in the hollow of an
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old tree seeing Susu, the stepmother took her by the hand and drew her into a place where they could be seen by the father
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Yet far enough away to be out of earshot. The father seeing the woman and the maiden standing thus together was happy thinking that his
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daughter had a friend. It made him happier still to see the woman take Suu's arm and pull it gently around her waist
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But he did not hear what was said for. Had he heard it would have cut him to the heart
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This is what the woman said. And her voice was a poisoned art as she whispered loud enough for the owl to hear Susu stand
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Thus with your arm around my waist and brush your cheek against mine so that your father may see us together
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Thus, he will think that I love you. Then she hissed in the girl's ear but I hate you hate
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you hate, you hate, you hate, you hate, you hate. And the owl lifted his head
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blew a little and repeated, softly, hate you. Who, who from far off in the woods came the sound of an answering owl
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like echo hate you. Who who? And it seemed to Susu that all the world hated her for no cause for the screeching
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parrots too repeated the cry as for the sweet feathered birds that she loved
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they had all fled from that place. Soon the stepmother spoke again and the owl dropped to a lower branch
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The better to hear. Suu said, the woman, your father cannot live much longer
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The spell is upon him and day by day, he nears his death because of that
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I am glad for when he dies. All this land, the house and all its riches must be mine
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Mine hearing that vicious speech, Susu was well nigh faint with fear and horror and would have sped to her father to warn him
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But the woman caught her by the wrist, twisting it painfully and pinched the soft place on her arm with the other hand and stooping
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again. So that it seemed to the watching father that she kissed Susu, she said
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but see to it that you say no word for the moment that you say anything but good of me
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That moment your father will fall dead. So what was Susu to do now while all this was
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going on there lived in the hills far off a youth whose name was Hua
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He was a herder of goats and llamas who had seen Susu from a distance in her comings and goings but could never summon the
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nerve to speak to her brown haired. He was and bright eyed too with clear skin and strong arms and all who knew him said
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that he was a good lad. One day, Susu chanced to see a falcon wheeling high in the air carrying something in its beak that
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sent the rays of the sun flashing far like silver light. Then the bird dipped with the thing it was carrying looking like a glittering
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falling star. So Susu went to the place where the falcon had dropped the shining thing and there at the bottom of a little stream
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she saw a bright round piece of silver. She rescued it and looked at it with astonishment as it lay in her hand
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a polished and smooth disc, it was that reflected her face as clearly as a mirror
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So she kept it wrapping it in a leaf and took it that night to the place where Huey lived with another herdsman
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a very wise and older man who knew many strange things. This wise man told Susu that it was the wonderful mirror of one called
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Paraca Long since dead. He said that whoever looked in it saw his or her own face as others saw it
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But whoever owned the mirror saw something else for he added with it
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You may see the hidden spirit of other people seeing through the mask they wear
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And if a man has the face of a man, but the heart of a monster, then certainly
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while such a man beholds his own face, you as the owner of the mirror shall see the other creature in him
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Hearing that Susu was much amazed at the magic of the thing
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The wise man was looking into the mirror himself that very moment
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And when Susu looked over his shoulder at his reflection, she saw not the rough bearded face of the man alone
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all nodded like a tree trunk but a face full of kindness and gentleness
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Who at the stepped up from behind to gaze at the mirror too. And sous who saw in his reflection
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a face of eagerness, gentleness and strength. She felt glad of what she saw in them both
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Susu thought that with the mirror, she might learn some clue about the mystery disease that ailed her father
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And so she asked if one of the two fellows would accompany her back home
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Hua's friend said that he was much too old for such adventures at which Huia quickly volunteered to come with her
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So h gave the care of the goats and llamas to his friend
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gathered his arrows and bow his flute and after bidding his friend good bye
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Set off with Susu back to her home on the way. He told Susu of a mysterious experience that he had had the night before
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There had been a thin new moon that night and the youth had slept
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but little because of the croaking noise made by the frogs presently fully awake
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He had sat up and it had seemed to him that the air was full of noise
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not only of frogs but of the owls and bats. Presently, he had seen a great white two headed toad
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Then from rock and hole slithered unclean abominable creatures of all sorts
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serpents, Centipedes and great gray spiders. And all these creatures had gathered in a circle with the two headed toad in the center
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Soon the youth had heard the great white two headed toad say this
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Who knows where hides are queen and first one creature and then another had answered
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The toad. Our queen lies hid unsought beneath the stone that men have wrought
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And so it went on a mad and horrible concert with bat and owl and great ghost moth whirling about on silent wings until sickened
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of it. All who had risen up and clapping his hands to his ears
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fled from the place. Since then, H AEA had heard this refrain in his ears
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The toad our queen lies hid and sought beneath the stone that men have wrought
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Surely said Susu to Huia. These are strange goings on. I only wish I could understand what it is all about speaking
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Thus, Susu and Hua arrived at her father's house. It was a day on which the good man was feeling very weak
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But seeing that his daughter was pleased with her new companion, he ordered his servants to spread a table under the trees and the three
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of them had a feast of goat's milk and fruit and cassava bread though the father could eat
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But little then hue took out his flute and played music until the world seemed full of peace
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Su su too sang sweetly. So that for a moment, the father thought that the shadow that was upon him was but a dream and
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might pass. Then came the stepmother who fixed her large dark eyes on Susu
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not looking at her straight but sideways. Susu sang to Hua's flute music again and it seemed to her pleased father that all on
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earth that was soft and shapely and fair was gathered there in that garden until catching the eye of his wife
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He was reminded that his life was flowing away and the old grief came upon him somehow talk fell upon Susu
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her new mirror and the strange way in which she found it though
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no mention was made of its magical qualities. The father came to see this mirror looking over H A's shoulder and seeing his own reflection
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But what Susu saw was a face that denoted great bravery and kindness
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admiring the disk. Also, the stepmother stretched her hand across the table and took the mirror gazing at the picture of her own dark beauty
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Then Susu stepped to her side and looked into the disk. She saw not the dark eyes and night black hair that her stepmother saw
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not the face of a proud woman but the face of a double headed white toad
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horrified. She continued to gaze and suu be held about her stepmother's neck
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two writhing white snakes. A sight so horrible. She could scarcely prevent herself from calling out
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But of all this, the stepmother knew nothing and did not even guess that Susu knew her for a vile witch
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The rich man already tired, stood up and beckoned to the youth to give him an arm
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Having found his seat and being wrapped in his feather mantle by Susu
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he shivered and held the mantle tightly about him. H AEA shivered too and said there is
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I am sure some enchantment in this place for though the sun is warm
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I feel a chill as if some clammy thing enfolded me. All of a sudden
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Suu's eyes fell upon a large grindstone that lay near by, it was a stone so great that two men could hardly raise it
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And so it had been left there for years and grasses had grown about it
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Susu had seen it there countless times, but this time there leaped into her mind
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the song that H AEA had heard the toad. Our queen lies hid unsought beneath the stone that men have wrought
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It had meant little before. But in a flash, she saw that the grindstone was a stone wrought by man
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So she whispered to H AEA to fit an arrow to his bow, to hand her his weapon and then to lift the stone with
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a great effort. He raised the stone heavy though it was setting it down to one side
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And there in a hollow place where the stone had been sat
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a large white double headed toad. Shoot, Susu, shoot, commanded the father
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Let not that evil thing escape. It is the creature that torments me in my dreams at night
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Swift flew the arrow in Susy's hand and it pierced the body of the toad
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At the same moment, there fell from the roof of the house. Two monstrous white serpents where they had lain hidden like lightning
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Who at thea having seized the bow sent two arrows flying and each serpent was cut in half
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In less than three moments, three evil things died and it was like the sun coming from a cloud veil the way in which joy
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came to that place. The weakness of the father fell from him like a cloak
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the bodies of the toad and the snakes withered and shriveled. And as a light breeze sprang up
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what was left of them was blown away is dust. The whole world seemed to burst into song
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So both father and daughter knew then that the witchery were gone and the evil creatures vanished forever
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And that all the trouble that had been upon that place had come from the wicked stepmother
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So youth and maiden were married and the father soon regained his strength and health
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And in all the world, there were no happier people than They