The Speck of Dust and Rosa and the Pomegranates

THE SPECK OF DUST Once upon a time, long ago, from very far away, there came a Speck of Dust. It floated around for a while, then slid down a sunbeam (a slippery slide of light from the sun). Then the wind blew it lightly this way and that and let it go. The Speck of Dust landed on a cloud. “Who are you?” asked the Speck of Dust. “I'm a cloud,” said the cloud. “And sometimes I rain down on the Earth and make things green..” The Speck of Dust felt how the cloud was very soft and moist and then the wind took hold of it again and blew it about. Suddenly a raindrop hit the Speck of Dust and it knew there was a cloud above it. But it didn't think of that for long, because it was falling, falling – very fast – with the raindrop, till it landed on the Earth. “Who are you?” asked the Speck of Dust. “I am the Earth,” said the Earth. “And I am much deeper than you can see.” “Oh,” said the Speck of Dust. And it sat and thought about that..... ****************************************************** ROSA AND THE POMEGRANATES Once upon a time there lived a little girl in Andalusia in Spain. Her name was Rosa. She was a very shy little girl and her parents were not very rich. They all lived in a little wooden house by an olive grove. Every day Rosa helped her parents. They took the stones out of olives and put the olives into jars. Then her parents pickled the olives. When there were no olives, the family made brooms. Once a week, her father put the olive jars and the brooms on his cart, harnessed the horse and took all these things to market in the big town of Granada. Rosa stayed at home with her mother. To keep Rosa happy, her mother often sang songs and taught her the names of all the flowers and trees in the neighbourhood. Her father often told her stories. The one she liked best was about the beautiful Spanish dancers he saw at the market with their long red dresses and pretty red necklaces and their black hair tied back off their faces.