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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Gabrielle and the Black Sheep

Gabrielle was a five-year old girl with black hair and blue eyes. She was intelligent and playful. Gabrielle was fond of stories. At night she slept with her Grandma who told her a story before she went to bed. One night Grandma told Gabrielle a story about a little country girl who was chased by an angry black sheep. When Gabrielle went to bed after the story, she saw in her dream a black sheep chasing her in a green field. With a shriek she sat up in her bed.
‘What happened?’ asked Grandma who woke up with the shriek. 
‘The black sheep! It’s after me.’ Gabrielle told her.  Grandma consoled the little girl and soon they were asleep. But the next night, Gabrielle again saw the black sheep running angrily after her. Again she woke up with a shriek. Grandma asked her if she was all right. Gabrielle told her about the dream.
‘Go to bed sweetie,’ said Grandma. ‘There is no black sheep. It was only there in the story.’
Next night, the same thing happened again. Then Grandma thought of a way to keep Gabrielle from bad dreams. She told Gabrielle a prayer to say with herself again and again before going to bed. The following night Gabrielle kept saying the prayer until she fell asleep. In the middle of the night Grandma woke up with some noise in the room. She saw that Gabrielle was kicking in her sleep. She was breathing fast and was making a noise in excitement.
‘Gabrielle!’ Grandma called her name. She thought that Gabrielle was again running from the black sheep in her dream.
‘Gabrielle!’ She called aloud to wake her up. Gabrielle opened her eyes. She looked at Grandma in wonder.
‘Oh Grandma!’ she said. ‘Why did you wake me up?’
‘You were running from that sheep again?’ asked Grandma. ‘My prayer didn’t help you, did it?’ 
‘Oh Grandma! Of course it did,’ said Gabrielle. ‘This time I was after that black sheep. I had almost got it when you woke me up. Now please Grandma let me say my prayer and go back to sleep again. I must catch that horrid thing tonight.’ Saying this Gabrielle closed her eyes and started to say her prayer.