Mr.Curly-Hair's Beard

(this story was edited by rrf from original ideas by year1 schoolkids in crewe (96))


Once upon a time not very long ago there was a giant called Mr.Curly-Hair. He had lived in his castle in the clouds for over a hundred years, or that is how long it seemed to Mr.Curly-Hair. There wasn't a lot to do up in the clouds.

One day Mr.Curly-Hair thought to himself, 'Oh me! Oh my! I am ever so hot!' So he decided to go for a walk along a cloud to cool down.

On his walk, Mr.Curly-Hair saw a dog. 'Hello little dog.' said Mr.Curly-Hair. 'What is your name?' 'Josie' said the dog and then she laughed. 'Why are you laughing?' asked Mr.Curly-Hair. 'Because you look so silly,old giant!' 'And why do I look so silly?' said Mr.Curly-Hair 'Why! Your beard is so long it is nearly touching the floor.' barked Josie. And with that she bounded off.. The giant was quite upset and thought that he had better climb down his beanstalk and buy a mirror and a razor (and possibly a large bag of fruit bon bons to cheer himself up a bit).

So Mr.Curly-Hair climbed down the beanstalk, but at the bottom he tripped over his beard and fell to the ground with a BUMP! As he picked himself up he saw some magic birds who said. 'Are you alright Mr.Curly-Hair?' 'Yes I think so but I've got to go to the chemists and buy a mirror and a razor to shave off this beard.' 'We'll fly you there.' tweeted the magic birds. 'Oh and by the way,' sang the birds, 'You left your heating on.' 'That explains everything!' exclaimed Mr.Curly-Hair.

On the way to the chemists, as luck would have it, Mr.Curly-Hair happened to see a razor and a mirror near some trees. And even luckier still, a rather large bag of wnat looked like fruit bon bons! So, after saying thank you to the magic birds , Mr.Curly-Hair jumped to the ground thinking ,'What a lucky giant I am. These are just what I need.' He picked up the mirror and the razor and then looked in the bag .'Aniseed balls.Well you can't have everything I suppose.' thought Mr.Curly-Hair, 'and they are my forth favourite sweet of all time.' He popped one in his mouth and began to make his way back to the bottom of the beanstalk. But just as he arrived at the beanstalk he tripped over his beard again. The mirror flew out of his hand and smashed on the ground in a thousand zillion pieces.

'Bobbins!' said Mr.Curly-Hair, 'now I'll never be able to get rid of this silly long beard and everyone will still laugh at me.' But what Mr.Curly-Hair didn't know (but should have guessed by now) was, that, the mirror was, in fact, a magic mirror and that by breaking it he had released a most beautiful princess who had been trapped inside for over 204 years. When he saw her, Mr.Curly-Hair turned away because he thought that she was sure to laugh at his beard. 'Thank you for freeing me but why have you turned away?' asked the princess. 'Because my beard is so long and untidy that you can but laugh at me.' said Mr.Curly-Hair shyly. 'If you will turn around' said the princess 'I promise I will not laugh at you.' 'Promise?' asked Mr.Curly-Hair. 'I give you my word.' said the princess. So Mr.Curly-Hair slowly turned around. 'My! You really are quite a handsome giant. Even with the beard.' said the princess. 'You really think so?' asked Mr.Curly-Hair. 'Yes I do.' the princess assured him, 'In fact I think the beard looks rather nice, although it could do with a bit of a trim.'

So Mr.Curly-Hair, having now overcome his shyness, offered the princess an aniseed ball and they sat at the bottom of the beanstalk swapping life stories...



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