Story for Kids: Good Cheer Stories: Every Child Should Know

This fairy tale of a gormandizing people contains no mention of Thanksgiving Day. Yet its connection with our American festival is obvious. Everyone who likes fairy tales will enjoy reading it.

The country of the Greedy, well known in history, was ruled by a king who had much trouble. His subjects were wellbehaved, but they had one sad fault: they were too fond of pies and tarts. It was as disagreeable to them to swallow aspoonful of soup as if it were so much sea water, and it would take a policeman to make them open their mouths for abit of meat, either boiled or roasted. This deplorable taste made the fortunes of the pastry cooks, but also of theapothecaries. Families ruined themselves in pills and powders; camomile, rhubarb, and peppermint trebled in price, aswell as other disagreeable remedies, such as castor —— which I will not name.