The Story Teller

If you remember right, Grandma B had reminded Marlee that the library was supposed to be a quiet place. Well, the Story/Movie room was anything but quiet. In fact it was down right noisy!
They couldn't believe that the Story Teller was all dressed up like a pirate. The Story Teller was in fact, their lovable old Grandma Lu. The children were happy to know that their elderly friend, Grandma Lu, could be silly and be all dressed up in a costume just like they do at Halloween time. Oh she looked so funny. She had a bandana around her head and a hat that had all kinds of vegetables on it. She had an ugly black wig on her head and all kinds of beads around her neck.
The room had a pirate flag which is called a Jolly Roger and pictures of parrots and all kinds of things about pirates on the walls and all around the room. There were even really big pictures of pirates that were standing in the corners of the room.

On the tables where the children sat there were pirate decorations. This was so much fun.
The library lady who is called a librarian, had even made popcorn for them and had drinks ready too. How nice of her.
The grownups helped serve everyone their snacks and got the children and themselves seated so they could hear what the Grandma Lu pirate had to say. It still was not quiet in the room. There was a lot of whispering and quiet talking.

There was a lot of snickering and children were covering up their faces with their little hands. They couldn't believe Grandma Lu was dressed up like a pirate!
 Finally Grandma Lu said, "Shiver me timbers! You are a noisy bunch of twinkies. If you want to sail on me ship, maties, you better be quiet as little mice!"
Well that got everyone's attention. They couldn't help but be quiet because they really wanted to hear the story. It was hard to do though, because she looked so funny.
 Grandma Lu was talking so strange. She didn't even sound like herself.
For the first time the children realized that Grandma Lu was not sitting in her easy chair telling stories. She was standing up. She was walking around the room, dipping her head and looking them in the eyes. It was kind of scary. But she would wink at them and grin. Then she began to tell the story.

"Well, once upon a time many many years ago when me pirates first took over the high seas. (Remember a sea or ocean is really big water. It is even bigger than a river or a lake. It is so big that all you can see is water.) There was a mama who was really really poor. She was all alone. She had no husband, or any kind of family."
"She lived in a land far far away. The country that she lived in was called England. England is a country that has water all around it. It has the Atlantic Ocean, The North Sea and other big waters." Grandma Lu walked to the front of the room and pointed to a map on the wall. "This is England," she said.
 In England there is a very big town, much bigger than your hometown. It is called London. London was very big and had many people that lived there. A town as big as London is called a city. Many of these people were very poor. They didn't have nice clothes or enough food to eat. They didn't even take a bath very often because they couldn't afford a bar of soap. Many of these people lived by the sea."

"The way to travel on these big waters was by ship, which is a really big boat. If you were a boy or a man you could get a job or work on a boat and be a sailor. Sometimes you could be a pirate too. But girls couldn't be a pirate or a sailor. So poor moms had to dress their little girls like boys in order for them to get a job on a ship. That is just what this very poor lady did. She dressed her little girl up to look just like a young boy and sent her to the docks by the sea to get a job. This trick worked well enough to get to the docks where the men were hiring workers for the ships. But she was overlooked because she was so small. Being a very smart little girl she sneaked on board the ship and went to the very bottom of the ship. That is being called a stowaway. She thought, "I'll never be discovered down here. I will get to sail on the high seas and have a wonderful adventure. I will get very rich when I find treasures. Oh those pirates call it booty and put it in their treasure chests. I will find gold and jewels and lots of pretty things. When I get home I will sell it all and give my mama all my treasures. Then we won't be poor anymore."
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In our next story we will see if our little stowaway will be discovered by the pirates.