英语故事：THE BOY UNDER THE BED

Once Upon A Time in a bedroom not unlike yours and mine, full of knick knacks, brick bracks & other snacks, ..there lived a monster named Giles... 
  .....With a boy under his bed.
Each night when the clock struck ten the boy crawled out and danced about.
Giles woke with a start then began to shout....”FATHER, MOTHER, COME QUICKLY! THE BOY IS OUT .”  
But boys are clever and disguise themselves well so father and mother can never tell.
Mother and father always say, “Boys don’t exist today."
But once the lights are turned out that mischevious boy is at it again. Whooping², hollering and laughing.
Jumping from the dresser to the floor and thumping³ against the door. 
  Wearing a sheet and saying, “BOO TO YOU!!!!”  
At the crack of dawn the boy is always gone. Only to return once again at the stroke of ten.  
All through breakfast Mother and Father Say again and again, “THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS BOYS!”
One night, while hiding under the covers, Giles whispers a song....
"Bumper⁴ Stumper...Go away boy...With a prayer of relief, the snap of my tail & the click of my feet, you vanish thief, from beneath, so monster can sleep."
“OUCH!” A voice exclaims from under the bed. “Careful with that prayer, you’ve given me a knot on my head the size of a pear.”
Standing⁵ up in bed Giles cries, “BE GONE....BE GONE FROM UNDER THERE, BEFORE I SAY A DOZEN MORE OF THE SAME PRAYER.”   
Crawling out from under the bed and rubbing his head the boy shouts, “YOU be gone!”
Giles sings again, “Bumper Stumper, Go away boy...With a prayer of relief, the snap of my tail & the click of my feet, you vanish, thief from beneath, so monster can sleep.”
The boy replies, “Well Monster, I’m sorry to say, I’ve lost my way. Won’t you please let me stay?”
“NO...NO....BEGONE. BOYS LIE SO THEY CAN MAKE MONSTER PIE.”
Much to Giles astonishment⁶, the boy begins to cry.
Giles kneels down and whispers, “Why do you cry?”
“Because I’m alone, and I can’t find my way home. I’ve also heard monsters lie so they can make boy pie.”
“Well I’ve never had boy Pie, and I don’t even think I’d like to try,” says Giles. “But I have a light, and It might help you find your way tonight.”
Climbing into the corridor beneath the bed, Giles and Boy folllow the light.....
Until rounding the bend they come to a door marked # 10. 
“Well, this is it my friend. You’ve helped me find my way home again,” says the boy. “You’ve been swell⁷, won’t you come in for a spell?”
Before Giles can protest, boy whisks him through door # 10 into the secret den⁸.
Passing....Passing past the door and clamoring up through floor, emerging from under the bed, Giles beholds⁹ with his eyes a mighty¹⁰ tree house perched in the skies.  
With a whistle and a whoop¹, the boy announces his return.
"Well Lads, gather around the den and meet my new friend. I was lost and he helped me find my way home again. Come on, don’t be afraid. This monster is more fun than a parade.”
Soon there are Boys....Boys crawling out of every corner and crany.
Some boys are dressed like cowboys, some boys are dressed like Indians, some boys are dressed like cops, other boys are dressed like robbers.
Some are tall, some are small. Boys will be boys after all.....
“Three cheers for my friend monster,” shouts Boy.
Then with a Hey and a Hooorahh....One and all lift Giles from the floor.....
"THREE CHEERS! MONSTER IS HERE”, they sing, “TONIGHT YOU’LL BE OUR KING.”
Boy asks Giles, “Oh mighty King what is the thing you decree?”
From his great throne, King Giles declares, “TAG.....YOU’RE IT!
And so beneath the moon, in their Tree-House Room, the children play the evening away.  
However time waits for no boy or monster. But in the evenings, boys and monsters are much the same; all return again for fun and games.
Some evenings the boys visit Giles for a grand game of Cowboys and Indians.
On other nights Giles and his friends visit the boys for a game of Mad Scientists and Monsters.
And this, you see, is how monsters came to be underneath¹¹ boy’s beds.


THE END