The Man Who Built Boxes and other stories

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One day, when Drusilla is watching the cow in the meadow, she dozes off and when she wakes the cow is nowhere to be found. Frantically looking for him, Drusilla crosses paths with the King and tells him her story. The king, who had been looking for a suitable daughter to marry to the Prince of Egypt, agrees to help find the cow if she will, in return, come be his daughter.

Drusilla is taken to a seminary, learning to make many things for herself and the king and queen. In anger, the King sends Drusilla home to her father with nothing. As she arrives at home, the gold-horned cow appears in the meadow carrying baskets of jewels and gold. When the king hears of the cows return, he comes to the cottage to apologize to Drusilla and offers her the princess title once again. Although Drusilla declines the offer to stay with her father, the King and Queen remain very fond of them, build a new castle where their old cottage stood, and name Drusilla as a countess.

The king and Queen of Romalia have a daughter, Princess Rosetta, and the three of them are going to the Bee Festival outside of the city on the sixteenth of May. The Bee Festival, which occurs every year, started when the bees migrated across the river from the other Kingdom because they were being treated so poorly. The inhabitants of Romalia, overjoyed to have the bees and delicious honey, treated the bees so well that they have never returned to the kingdom across the river. At the end of the Bee Festival, the King and Queen return home, with two nurses carrying Princess Rosetta in her basket.

Since the baby is so quiet, the nurses deduce that she must be asleep and continue on home. When they return home, the nurses plan to take the baby from her basket and put her straight to bed, without waking her for her nightly routines. The rest of the house workers, however, convince them to wake the baby but when they go to take Princess Rosetta from the basket, she is no longer in it. The king orders for houses to be upturned and every nook and cranny examined for the missing princess, but the search is unsuccessful. The head nurses who were in charge of the Princess on the day of the festival are now forced to walk in shame, wearing their bonnets on backwards covering their faces.

One of the head nurses travels to speak with the Baron, who is known for his white magic.

The Man Who Built Boxes and other stories

The Baron says that the King's court have damaged all of his potions and glasses and he is unable to perform any white magic to find the Princess. Just then, the Pop-Corn man knocked at the door and brings in his popcorn to sample. When the Pop-Corn man hears that the Princess was missing, he states that he will rescue the princess and takes a group of 6 boys across the river to the other Kingdom to sell his popcorn.

The King across the river loves the popcorn, declares it the new food of the Kingdom, and sets his people to work growing, popping, and eating the corn.

This constant popping of corn, however, tires out the Kingdom and when the King of Romalia hears that his daughter is across the river, he is able to lay siege to the city successfully to rescue the Princess. The Princess, in the end, marries the son of the King across the river, and as a wedding present the King of Romalia gives a beautiful beehive. Both kingdoms live peacefully, with their own bees, honey, and popcorn.

The Christmas Monks live in a convent and grow a garden full of Christmas presents every year. All of the children look in awe at the convent, and one day the Monks post a sign looking for two good boys to come work in the garden. They question all of the boys in the kingdom, but most are dismissed because they have done something bad in their lives.

The two boys that are chosen are Peter, the poor boy, and the Prince. While the Prince hates the work in the garden and is always being punished, Peter is enamored and loves tending to and watching the presents he planted grow. One day, nearly at Christmas time, the Prince escapes from the convent, and unsuccessfully tries to bring a sack of presents with him. This same day, Peter's younger, disabled sister sneaks into the garden. Peter, afraid of doing wrong, tells her she can stay but has to camouflage herself as one of the wax dolls in the garden that did not grow that season.

When she is discovered by a Monk, the girl is brought to the Holy Abbot and presented as a miracle, for they think she is a wax doll that has come alive where no doll had grown before. The Abbot cures her of her lameness, and on Christmas Day the Monks all line up to worship their miracle with presents. The young girl speaks out and tels the truth about being Peter's sister. Peter and his sister return home, and Peter remains an employee of the garden. In this country, there are no pumpkins and only potatoes are grown in the fields. The Pumpkin Giant is a terrible creature who eats fat little girls and boys.

The King and Queen of this country have a daughter, Princess Adriadne Diana, who is the fattest child in the country. The King is so frightened that she will be eaten that 50 guards are always protecting her. Due to his growing fear, the King issues a statement saying that he will knight whoever cuts of the head of the Pumpkin Giant and kills him, but the town reasons that they were all too afraid and unable to kill him. There is a family that lives not far from the castle of the Pumpkin Giant.

Patroclus throws a large potato into the mouth of the Giant, killing him. After the death of the Pumpkin Giant, pumpkin heads begin to sprout in fields all over the country, and everyone fears that they will soon have hundreds of Pumpkin Giants roaming about. The pumpkin heads stop growing, however, and only the faceless "heads" emerge from the earth. It is the most delicious thing he has ever tasted, and soon his family begins cooking the pumpkin heads in different ways. As Daphne is making pies one day, the King rides by and tastes them.

He falls in love with the pies and knights Patroclus on the spot for killing the Pumpkin Giant. On Christmas Eve, the Mayor is putting on a Christmas Masquerade for all of the children in the town, rich and poor. He is even offering to pay for the costumes of the less fortunate children. A new Costumer has shown up in town, offering the most beautiful costumes. The rich children go to the ball dressed as shepherdesses and chimney sweeps and goose girls while the poor children dress as princesses and fairies.

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After the extravagant party, the happy children head home but as their parents try to remove their costumes they find that the clothing keeps fixing itself and will not come off. Soon the wealthy children are running around trying to tame their geese and sweep chimneys while the poor children are making demands as if they were princesses and fairies.

The Mayor, concerned for his own daughter who believes she is a goose girl, calls a meeting with the Aldermen and decide that they must ask the Wise Woman how to return the children to normal. Violetta, the eldest daughter of the Mayor who is concerned for her younger sister, asks the Cherry-man if he knows how to help. The Cherry-man tells her that the Costumer is living up in one of his cherry trees, and the townspeople head there to find him. Despite their riots and attempts to cut the Costumer from the tree, the townspeople are unsuccessful.

The Costumer agrees to return their children to normal after his two demands had been met: Reluctantly, the Mayor agrees to the demands of the Costumer and all of the children return to their normal selves. Violetta is married to the Cherry-man and the masquerade continues each year.

Dame Clementina has a daughter, Nan, who one day picks a sprig of dill.

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Her mother tells her of the tale that if you hang a sprig of dill over your door, it will freeze anyone who is ill-willed or envious of you before they can enter the house. Now, Dame Clementina is the count's daughter, but when she marries a poor lowly dairyman she is disinherited from her father. One day, Dame Clementina finds that Nan had hung the sprig of dill over their front door, but the Dame insists to Nan that no one is envious of them.

But just then, Dame Goulding comes walking up the path and is stopped by the curse for she envied Dame Clementina and her milk pans. Nan runs to get Dame Goulding's husband, but he too is stopped by the curse for envying Dame Clementina's white cow. More and more people try to enter the house but are stopped by the curse and soon the yard is full of people screaming to be released. Finally, the Count rides to the house and is stopped on his horse for he envied Dame Clementina for having a child like Nan. Nan and Dame Clementina take care of these people the best they can, providing them with food and fire and umbrellas to protect them from the rain.

Eventually, Dame Elizabeth comes to the house and is permitted to enter for she was not envious of either of the two. She suggests that they simply take down the dill from the door, and when they do, the people in the yard scurry away freely. The Count, however, remains and just as he is reprimanding Dame Clementina he recognizes her as his own daughter. The Count offers to rewrite Dame Clementina and Nan into his will and invites them to live with him at the castle. Dame Dorothea Penny is a schoolteacher and teaches twelve children out of her house.

She has a beautiful silver hen that goes missing from a pad locked coop in her backyard one day. Dame Louisa, who lives next door to Dame Penny, has the most beautiful Christmas trees that line the path in her front yard. Every year, the Christmas trees sprout with strands of popcorn, fruit, candy, and wax candles. This season, however, they are dead and Dame Louisa blames the silver hen.

When Dame Penny tells her school children that the hen is missing, they are all terribly sad and she gives them permission to search for her.

After searching for three weeks, the children go to Dame Louisa and ask if she knew where they should look. Dame Louisa tells the children to look in the White Woods, which are dangerous and so cold that no one can ever venture in.

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While Dame Penny is out looking for the hen, the children descend into the woods calling for her. It soon becomes dark and the Snow Man comes out from the woods, frightening the children and telling them that there is no hen here but they should come back to his house for his wife will love the company. When they get to the house, the Snow Man's family is so happy to see the children, but they insist that the children are hot and keep giving them cold food and fans to keep cool.

After being shown their bedroom, the children wait until the house is quiet and then try to escape only to find that the Snow Man's wife has placed an icicle in the lock and they cannot leave. In the village, the parents of the children are in a panic and Dame Louisa knows that the Snow Man and his wife must have the children.

She goes to Dame Penny and tells her what she did and the two of them head into the woods to get the children. When they arrive at the Snow Man's house, they rescue the children but as they are riding back out of the woods the Snow Man comes blowing after them, claiming them are stealing his company. Dame Louisa lights her bonnet on fire to scare the Snow Man and they exit the woods safely.

When they return home, the Christmas trees in Dame Louisa's yard have returned to their beautiful selves and the silver hen, along with twelve silver chickens, are waiting in Dame Penny's yard. Aunt Malvina, while sitting with Uncle Jack and Letitia, starts talking about Toby, Pokonoket, and the loon while she waits for her car to come and pick her up. Pokonoket was a very dark country, one where the people were required by law to have squeaky sneakers and phosphorescent buttons on their clothes and phosphorescent names on their umbrellas.

All of this was necessary so that you could see someone coming towards you. The people of Pokonoket were peaceful and rarely committed crimes. There once was an Ogress who lived in the darkness somewhere in Pokonoket and ate anyone that she could catch. Toby was a widower who spent all of his days making soup and knitting stockings for his grandchildren. Clover-Leaf, to ask for her hand in marriage so she could assist him in making soup for his grandchildren.

When Toby arrived at the widow's house, it was dark and his lantern was out, but he asked her to marry him and she said yes. The two went to the ministers house, were married, and then returned home to begin making soup for the grandchildren returning from school that afternoon. Clover-Leaf and instead was wed to the Ogress herself.

Scared for the lives of his grandchildren, Toby ran to the minister and asked for his help. The minister followed Toby home and, by showing the Ogress her own face in a mirror, killed her. Clover-Leaf accepted Toby's offer of marriage and spent her time making soup while Toby knited stockings for his grandchildren.

After hearing the story, Letitia continues on with her patchwork. There is a benevolent woman with a large amount of money who wants to develop a place for children that misbehave for their parents and are ungrateful or unhappy. A special form of police officer patrols the streets looking for children who appear to be complaining or misbehaving.

The Box Man

The old woman suggests that the children sit and sew patchwork all day long, having to look longingly outside the windows at freedom. Most all children in the city have spent some time in the Patchwork school, except for one boy, Julia. While Julia has many reasons to complain about his life, he has yet to be sent to the Patchwork School.

Julia, with four grandmothers, spends his days looking for their missing spectacles or chasing the balls of yarn that they drop on the floor. Every Christmas, Julia receives two pairs of knitted stockings from each of his grandmothers, and they all get hung up on the mantle for Christmas morning. Several reminded me of The Twilight Zone or something. However, I loved the story about the she-devil.

Some made me sad the guy who built boxes. Some made me wanna slap somebody the dude who's wife kept trying to kill him , some made me shrug my shoulders and what the.. Apr 18, David rated it it was amazing. A great collection of short fiction. I enjoyed this collection of short stories that took a look at relationships in our lives--often with lovers and sometimes with members of our families. Sometimes Tavares takes a conventional literary approach.

Other times, it's more fantastic, such as in the title story or the story, "Max Ryland Meets the Devil. Dec 15, MsFolio rated it really liked it Shelves: There are some powerful stories in this collection. Frank Tavares writes well as he delves into human relationships and finds despair, longing and loss.

Tavares ranges from the ordinary to the fantastical as he works his way through the lives of his protagonists. Sometimes he is forgiving of what he finds and at other times, he is harsh - but always interesting. I almost put the book down after the first stoy, which i think was the weakest, but hope drove me to continue reading and I'm glad I did There are some powerful stories in this collection. I almost put the book down after the first stoy, which i think was the weakest, but hope drove me to continue reading and I'm glad I did.

Jul 13, Sari Gilbert rated it really liked it. I thought this was really intriguing. But man this guy was wasted. The stories might be a bit "old" in style -- think Red Sirling - but incisvely written, ingenious and sometimes a bit disquieting. The writing wasn't terrible, but not good either. The stories didn't feel completely fleshed out.

Nome of them were particularly memorable. All of them seem to suggest that women are terrible people. It felt like it took me forever to read this because I had no desire to pick it back up. Also, I'm pretty sure this guy has some issues with women. I mostly enjoyed these short stories, though I found the whole collection to be somewhat unremarkable. It's been less than a week I think since I finished this collection, not a long amount of time at all, but out of the twelve stories there is only two stories I can recall with any kind of confidence.

Not bad for a freebie, but I would not recommend it for anyone serious about short stories. Instead of wrapping things up by the end, many of these stories were more like first chapters ripped out of full-length books. The writing was good, things start to heat up The stories towards the back of the book have more cohesion, at least.

Give those a shot if the first half doesn't do it for you. Feb 16, Eileen Carter rated it it was ok Shelves: Interesting many different strange, weird short stories that make you think I didn't really enjoy the stories in the book but I am sure that if you are one who enjoys the twilight zone you will enjoy these stories.

Aug 16, Alethea Bothwell rated it liked it. I think short stories must be both the hardest and easiest things to write - easy because they're short, hard because it's difficult to make them memorable. These were good enough stories, but not one of them sticks in my mind. Apr 13, Judy rated it did not like it Shelves: I kept hoping for a better story in this collection of short stories. Most of the stories were what I would think the pulp fiction genera would read like.

Max rylant meets the devil had an interesting end. Doin the laundry had an interesting end twist. Apr 17, Marilyn Dahl rated it really liked it. I gave this 4 stars because I couldn't give a 3. Although the writing was excellent, some stories ended far too abruptly for my taste. In fact I kept checking to see if I missed a page. I usually enjoy a selection of short stories but this book left me a little disappointed.

Feb 05, Brian White rated it really liked it. I found this collection of short stories to portray an interesting slice of life. The stories were earthy and well written. I wouldn't put them in the category of timeless literature but they were compelling. The title story was worth the price of the book. The author quickly moved into the story with ease, compelling me to read on. Some quirky, but believable characters and the plots held up. The endings sometimes fell flat leaving me wanting more of a resolution or ending. Jan 30, Liz Wood added it.

Piddly little stories no real beginnings, endings are non-existent, and minimal plots. Jun 14, Michele rated it really liked it. A collection of short stories that are well written and slightly I found it very enjoyable and recommend it to anyone with a taste for the Another book that I think would be best if shared with others in a discussion group. Some of these short stories will definitely stay with me for quite some time as I reflect on them. Aug 09, Michelle rated it it was ok. Good book You people should just read this novel yourselves and write your own review on this novel.

I really enjoyed reading this novel very much so. These were dark, quirky tales, but the author kept me reading. Apr 14, Linda R Edenstrom rated it really liked it.

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