100个儿童英语小故事: The Happy Family 幸福的家庭（在线收听）

031 The Happy Family

There was a butterbur leaf in a country of the south. A lot of butterbur trees with big leaves looked very nice. A snail was living on a back of a butterbur leaf. The snail ate the butterbur leaves and lived peacefully moving from one leaf or stem to another.

Two snails were living on a back of the butterbur leaves. These two had never been out of the butterbur wood, but they knew that there was a different world out of the forest.

Birds always felt impatient when they saw the snails. "Hey, why are you that lazy? Try to walk faster." When the birds complained, one snail said, "That's because we are not in a hurry."

"Why don't you just stop crawling around here and go some other places?" "We have a roof and it's full of food here." "If you like staying here that much, do as you want." The short-tempered bird flew away to the sky. But the snails did not envy the bird that could fly everywhere freely.

"Even she has wings, she has no house, it must be very uncomfortable." "If it rains or something scary comes up, how can she hide her head and legs?" The two snails her felt pity for the bird.

They were just lonely because they were only two. One day, they found a little snail crying on the back of a butterbur leaf. "What a pity! What's happened?" "Hey little snail, where are you from?" The two snails asked the crying little snail.

The little snail cried and said he was searching for his dad, mom and his brothers for a few days. "Oh dear! Stop crying. I will be your dad." "And I will be your mom. Come on!" The two snails took him to a big special butterbur leaf where they were always living.

A few days later, the little young snail ate delicious food and recovered slowly. Even his mom and dad were surprised that the baby snail could crawl very quickly and play far away from the leaf. "Sweet heart, you don't need to crawl very fast. Always walk slowly." She showed him slow crawling.

When it rained, funny sounds came from the splashing raindrop on the butterbur leaf. "Do you like it? It sounds like a drum, doesn't it?" The husband snail was proud of himself as if he made the sound. "Wow, it's funny." The baby snail was very happy.

The baby snail is old enough to marry now. His Mom and Dad searched for his bride crawling from one butterbur leaf to another. A ladybug heard it and visited them. "I know a great one."

Mom and dad snails were happy to hear that and asked. "Does she have a house?" "It's not just a house. She has her own wonderful castle with 700 hallways. She is the queen ant." The ladybug told them proudly.

"Thank you for your kindness, but our baby will be eaten by ants if he marries to the queen ant." The mom snail rejected the ladybug's kindness. After a while, a fly taught them there was a young woman snail right next to her.

The snail family decided the woman snail would be the baby snail's bride. The night of the wedding, six fireflies shone beautiful bluish light on the ceremony. The snail family lived together happily and peacefully ever after.