Jack and Jill by John Bryant

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful girl named Jill and a handsome boy named Jack and their old mother.  One very sunny morning their mother got ill so she asked Jack and Jill to fetch a golden bucket of cold water.

Suddenly it looked like it was going to rain a lot of boots and umbrellas so they were extra anxious.  “We could bring one of the huge umbrellas from outside,” suggested Jill. 

“I’ve got a way better idea,” said Jack opening the big garage door.  “Here’s the plan!” exclaimed Jack.  “We get our own dry umbrella...” he said, pretending to hold an umbrella.”Go up to the green, grassy hill with our rusty pail and ...”

“What’s a pail?” interrupted Jill.

“A bucket,” explained Jack.  “Now let’s get going,” said Jack opening the gigantic backdoor as fast as a racing car.

Quickly they ran up a big hill; Jack was as fast as a cheetah but Jill walked.  She was as slow as a leaf floating in the wind, a bit like a snail.   At the top there stood a deep, dark, dirty, damp well.  When they got to the top they saw a silvery rope.

“I’ve read about this well,” said Jill.  “It’s two thousand metres long,” she explained.  They started cranking.  Jack cranked and cranked and cranked.

They slowly started skipping back down when “Oh no!”  Jack tripped over a wide rabbit hole and banged his head on a wooden plank.  He ran home screaming as loud as a lion’s roar. 

Jill didn’t tie her heart-shaped shoes so she tripped over her laces and rolled down the hill as fast as lightning.

Jack went inside, jumped in his big bed, and drank his milo that Jill had kindly made him and then he went to sleep.