The Secret of an Old House

Characters:

Granny

Meggy

Pauline

Rachel

Nothing disturbed the perfect serenity of the night. It was calm and full of mystery. Everyone in the old house seemed to be sleeping exept three children. The girls were bewitched by full moon shining in their window and were whispering softly. The hand of the clock over the mantelpiece pointed to twelve.

Meggy : Why can’t we do what we want? Well, everybody does. Father goes to work every day, so he likes it, otherwise he wouldn’t do this!

Pauline : It’s unfair! We, children, are like puppies tied to their duties!

Rachel : We can’t be ourselves! Why, I want to go to the forest at night.

Meggy : Let’s go to our granny! She knows a lot of scaring stories!

Pauline : That sounds like a good idea!

Rachel : Come along!

Granny : Dear me! Why don’t you sleep?

Meggy : We can’t, Granny, tell us something thrilling!

Granny : OK, girls, listen! I was a young girl back then. I was engaged to Robert & we were going to marry soon.

Pauline : But our grandpa’s name is James!

Granny : Don’t interrupt! You’ll understand it now! Robert inherited a big beautiful house, but there was something mysterious about it.

Rachel : Really? How interesting!

Granny :Yes, there was a prophecy that nobody could touch the hook in the middle of the room upstairs! The fate of everyone living in the old house depended on it!

Meggy : I am dying to know what happened.

Granny :But Robert wanted that room to be our bedroom. But that hook irritated him. And he could do nothing about it!

Pauline : What happened next?

Granny :Robert had his birthday and invited all his friends to the party. Of course I was there. We had as wonderful time among the guests still we wanted to be alone. We went upstairs to that very room. Robert came first and stumbled over the hook.  That was just too much!

Rachel : Oh, if I were in Robert’s boots I would have pulled the odious hook out!

Meggy :So would I!

Granny :Well, so did he. I regret it awfully. After he had done this something terrible and incomprehensible happened. It was like a thunderstorm!

Pauline : Did a monster fly to see who was breaking the prophecy?

Granny :No.

Rachel : What happened then?

Granny :An enormous luster on the ground floor was attached to that hook. After it had been pulled out it fell immediately with a terrible noise…

Meggy : How awful!

Granny :More than that, people used to light candles in halls in those times, so that luster caused a fire. I was the only person who managed to escape.

Pauline : You had quite a narrow escape, hadn’t you?

Granny :Right, the prophecy had nothing to do with evil spirits, but every word of it came true. The house burnt to ashes, everyone who was it the old house that night died…I was extremely unhappy, but then I married your grandpa. You see, sometimes it’s better not to do what we want…

Rachel : Granny, how do you know what we were talking about? Are you a fairy?

Granny said nothing. She was looking somewhere far away. And her shrewd  eyes were filling with tears…

Meggy : It’s awesome to chat in small hours about mystery!

Pauline : I even forgot that I want to sleep.

Rachel : Well, it’s high time to go to bed!

Meggy : Granny, dear, we’ll be as good as gold!

Pauline : We promise!

Rachel : Good night!

What is Halloween actually?

Most holidays commemorate or celebrate something. But what about Halloween? What is Halloween actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual where folks get together for parties, dress up in Halloween costumes and bob for apples?
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Dealing with Stressful Situations

It may seem that there’s nothing you can do about your stress level. The bills aren’t going to stop coming, there will never be more hours in the day for all your errands, and your career or family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you might think. In fact, the simple realization that you’re in control of your life is the foundation of stress management.

Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on.

Identify the sources of stress in your life

Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Your true sources of stress aren’t always obvious, and it’s all too easy to overlook your own stress-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Sure, you may know that you’re constantly worried about work deadlines. But maybe it’s your procrastination, rather than the actual job demands, that leads to deadline stress.

To identify your true sources of stress, look closely at your habits, attitude, and excuses:

• Do you explain away stress as temporary (“I just have a million things going on right now”) even though you can’t remember the last time you took a breather?
• Do you define stress as an integral part of your work or home life (“Things are always crazy around here”) or as a part of your personality (“I have a lot of nervous energy, that’s all”).
• Do you blame your stress on other people or outside events, or view it as entirely normal and unexceptional?

Until you accept responsibility for the role you play in creating or maintaining it, your stress level will remain outside your control.

Look at how you currently cope with stress

Think about the ways you currently manage and cope with stress in your life. Your stress journal can help you identify them. Are your coping strategies healthy or unhealthy, helpful or unproductive? Unfortunately, many people cope with stress in ways that compound the problem. 

Learning healthier ways to manage stress

If your methods of coping with stress aren’t contributing to your greater emotional and physical health, it’s time to find healthier ones. There are many healthy ways to manage and cope with stress, but they all require change. You can either change the situation or change your reaction. When deciding which option to choose, it’s helpful to think of the four As: avoid, alter, adapt, or accept.

Since everyone has a unique response to stress, there is no “one size fits all” solution to managing it. No single method works for everyone or in every situation, so experiment with different techniques and strategies. Focus on what makes you feel calm and in control.

Dealing with Stressful Situations: The Four A’s

Change the situation: Avoid the stressor. Alter the stressor.

Change your reaction: Adapt to the stressor. Accept the stressor.

Brush up your pronunciation :)

Read the following verse. I bet you'll scream after having read a couple of lines. Or you won't? Come on, try!

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough -
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!