Thursday, 30 July 2020

The Little Sumo, and the Princess, and the Giant, part 2 -小さなお相撲さんとプリンセスと巨人 パート2-


In part 1, the Little Sumo, and Mummy and Daddy go to the vegetable garden.  There they see a very elegant princess who is growing vegetables without getting dirty.  She uses two long sets of chopsticks to pull up weeds, without touching the soil.  But then a nasty giant comes to the vegetable garden, and decides to take the princess, the Little Sumo, and Mummy and Daddy away to his castle.  He plans to eat them.

*

Before anyone could complain, or run away, the giant picked up the princess in his left hand, and scooped up the little sumo, and Mummy and Daddy in his right hand.

“How lucky!” boomed the giant.  “I have found breakfast, lunch dinner, supper, and a snack too, in this vegetable garden!”

And the giant carried them all off to his castle, so that he could eat them the next day when he got hungry.

*

Part 2:

The giant put everyone inside a cupboard in his huge castle, and then put a heavy stone in front of the cupboard door.  The princess, and the Little Sumo, and Mummy and Daddy were trapped inside the cupboard.  There was only a little light coming into the cupboard from a crack in the door.

“Stay in there tonight, and we can have a nice breakfast together in the morning!” laughed the giant.  Then he went to bed.

“We have to escape before morning,” said Mummy.

“I know!” said Daddy.  “We can escape using a rocket ship.”

“That’s a great idea!” said the princess.

“But we don’t have a rocket ship, Daddy,” said the Little Sumo.

“Ah, yes.  Well that idea won’t work then,” said Daddy.

“So the giant really is going to eat us,” said Mummy.

Everyone sat there unhappily in the gloomy cupboard for a while.

“I wonder how the giant eats,” said the Little Sumo.  “Does he use a fork and knife, do you think?”

“That gives me an idea,” said the princess.  “Maybe if we wait until morning, we can escape after all.”

*

The next morning, the giant came into his huge kitchen to prepare his breakfast.  He opened the cupboard, and scooped everybody up and placed them on his giant dining table, which was pushed up against a huge wall in his castle.  The Little Sumo could see green grass outside of a giant window in the wall.

“I’m so hungry,” said the giant.  “I can’t wait to start eating my breakfast.  Now there are four tasty-looking people.  Who shall I eat first?”

“But where is your plate?” said the princess.  “I’m a princess and I have eaten breakfast with many important people.  They always eat with a plate.  Surely a giant like you is important enough to eat breakfast using a plate?”

“Uh… Of course I’m important enough to eat breakfast with a plate.  I was just about to get it.”

Then the giant walked out of the huge kitchen, looking a little embarrassed.

Everybody quickly ran to the window, looking for a way out.  They found a little gap between the window and the window sill.  It was just big enough for one person to slowly squeeze through.  Daddy was about to try to crawl through to escape, when they heard the giant coming back.

“Oh, dear!” said Mummy.  “We don’t have time to escape.  We’ll have to try again.”

They all ran back to the middle of the table, and pretended not to have moved.  The giant set down a huge, smooth rock on the table in front of them.

“Well, now I have my plate,” he boomed.  “Let’s eat breakfast!”

*

Oh, dear!  The princess’s escape plan hasn’t worked.  Find out if the Little Sumo and his companions become the giant’s breakfast next time!


Vocabulary:

to be trapped – to be stuck; to be unable to escape

a crack – a long, thin line where something is breaking apart

gloomy – dark; unhappy




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