Moral Stories of Grandpa

Abstract

The title-page has Moral Story of Grandpa. Fifty-two stories get generally one partial-page black-and-white design each. The stories are mostly standard Aesopic offerings. The book is a solid inexpensive paperback. I found several in the series while I was in the Oxford Bookstore in Kolkata. This copy is marked down 10 rupies as an introductory offer. There is a T of C for the numbered stories at the beginning. Almost all are familiar stories, even when told with some variations. Several, e.g. GGE (5) and The Blue Fox (117), are variants of stories appearing in other books in the series. In The Two Goats here, they agree that one will walk over the sitting other, and both can arrive (20). New to me are Jungles Without Animals (57) and Choosing the Next Ruler (98). The Boy and the Barber (74) is a funny story of a boy who fools with a barber by asking for a shave. The barber lathers him up but then waits on other customers. When will I get my shave? When you grow your beard! In The Magical Sticks (106), a clever king threatens five servants, one of whom is certainly a thief, by giving each a stick. The thief's stick will grow two inches by tomorrow. Of course, the thief cuts his stick down and is thereby easily found out.