Story with All UEB Braille Contractions
This short story, which was created by Erin Jepsen, uses ALL of the contractions in UEB (Unified English Braille) and is a fun way to provide practice for braille readers!
Herbert and the Magic Eggs
Once upon a time, there was a young mouse whose name was Herbert. One day, Herbert, who always thought about wanting to go off by himself for the afternoon, declared that today would be different. According to Herbert, he needed to be quick to get across the road to his favorite hiding spot. Rather than risking all the people driving along the highway, he had a brilliant idea. He decided to tunnel beneath the road in order to reach the place where his friend would meet him. She called herself Spirit Stella, and she was Herbert’s best friend. When they played together, as children do, they imagined all sorts of strange sounds, deceiving themselves into believing that beyond the distant mountains, a voice said, “Lord Herbert, you are just a little bit behind your part in receiving quite enough questions. Your knowledge is not already so great that you cannot arrive between the hills to the magic castle!”
Herbert immediately sat down beside Stella, but before he could begin to cry, she said, “You know, Herbert, you are still a child. Your mother will work with you every day so you receive everything you need to reach the castle: science, either geography or geometry; also, although they should teach beyond the letters that seem useless, they do know as much as myself about so many other things! Don’t deceive yourself, Herbert, you’re already almost through those subjects that you need for your quest.”
Herbert (against his conscience) replied to Stella, “It’s useless. My father was even declaring, ‘my son can do no good unless he reaches the castle, collects the magic eggs, and does the rejoicing dance tomorrow.’ So, I will have to go out tonight into the world. This is the only right way that the magic will renew itself. Perhaps you would come with me?”
“I’d like that, Herbert,” said Stella, after some thought. We should do whatever is necessary, and afterward, we’ll come altogether again from the wonderful castle to your house, although by the time we arrive under the cover of darkness, neither of us will be able to see; we’ll be so blind we must find our way by braille!”
“Shall we depart, then?” asked Herbert, and Stella nodded. This is the way their path led: first, below the forest, under tall trees, then above these crazy large boulders such as did not even have a name. Stella herself, because she had more words than Herbert, could conceive of a compliment to be paid to the boulders, but Herbert, was only perceiving the rumble in his tummy.
“We need a ration given to us,” he complained. “One which we ourselves can affect to eat as we walk. That would at least accomplish its purpose here.”
Stella replied to him, “It’s a pity your character is so weak that you’re thinking more about your stomach than conceiving a name for these rocks! One should tell oneself, or maybe thyself that it’s no illusion we were here—wait!”
“What?” asked a bewildered Herbert.
“I perceive that these enormous rocks, which you would have passed, are really our castle! We have arrived!”
“Oh, let’s rejoice!” bubbled Herbert. “You get the magic eggs, and I’ll get some eggs for eating.”
So they did and ran joyfully back home to Herbert’s dad with the magic eggs.
The end.
Note: all UEB contractions were used (in bold), but not all punctuation or numbers were used.
