the newspaper delivery

Prince Oliver wanted to take a trip to the mountains on the shiny, new fast train. But the tickets were expensive, so he needed to make some money.

He got a job delivering newspapers with his bicycle. It was hard at first. He had to wake up so early, and the papers were heavy, and carrying them up the hills was hard. But it got easier as he did it day after day after day.

At the end of the route, one of the last houses he had to deliver the paper to was up on a hill. He did not like going up there, and he dropped it off and left as fast as he could. The house was a bit spooky as the Trees and plants were all overgrown. The paint was peeling up off of the boards. The windows were cracked. There were tools laying here and there. The wheelbarrow was tipped over on its side, half empty. Or half full.

On this day, he walked up to the porch and the door to drop off the paper. He was scared, but curious too. He walked up slowly and quietly. But then he heard a noise.

creeeeeeaaaaaaaaaak.....

The door opened just a tiny bit. It was dark. He could not see anything and became more scared. He did not move. In the darkness of the door, he saw a pair of eyes looking at him.

Prince Oliver dropped the paper, ran off, jumped on his bike and sped away down the hill.

He told his mom, the Queen, about this. And she told him, "don't be too scared, but don't be too curiuos either."

The next morning, when he needed to deliver the paper to that same spooky house, he was scared. But he wanted to know more too.

He walked up to the door. And again, it creaked open.

And the eyes appeared from the darkness.

But then, the door opened up more. And the light came in and he could see: a beautiful little girl with long black hair and skinny arms reaching out. She had on a blue dress with white flowers on the bottom. She came out of the doorway and looked at Prince Oliver.

"You are the newspaper boy..." she said. You scared me yesterday when you walked up here. I'm glad it's you and not somebody scary. My name is Sabine.

"I am Prince Oliver" he said to her. "I was scared, but now i am not." He asked her about the house and all the things laying everywhere that made it look spooky. He did not understand.

She then told him about her dad.

"My dad is sick" she said. "He gets sick easily and when he does, he has to go to bed. Sometimes, he will start to work in the yard, or on the house, or clean something up, but then he can not finish because he has to go to bed." Prince Oliver could tell she was sad telling him the story about her dad. She only had her dad, and not her mom, so she had to take care of him.

Why don't you take him to a doctor?

He did go to the doctor. But then the doctor wanted more money. He went to the bank and got all the money. He gave the doctor what money he had, but the doctor said he needed to give him more money before he could answer more questions.

"Did he get the X-rays?" Prince Oliver asked.

No, he will need those. He needs those and medicine and more doctors.

She was sad. And that made Prince Oliver sad. But then, a big shadow came over her.

"Who is that?" the gruff voice asked. It was her dad and he was big, and mean looking. He sounded mean. "Oh, the newspaper boy... good to see you. Thank you for bringing that, not too many people come up here."

He gave her the newspaper and said goodbye. He rolled off down the hill.

When he got home later and all that day, he thought about Sabine and her dad. He was sad, but wanted to help.


The next day, he started to deliver the newspapers. This time, he took something special with him. It was in a bag in his pocket.

And when he got to that last house on the hill, he walked up to the door. And it opened. And there was Sabine.

He gave her the newspaper. And then he pulled out the bag from his pocket.

"I want to give you this. I was going to use it for a trip, but i think you need to take a trip to the doctor with your dad."