Once upon a time there were Three Bears, who lived together in a house of their own, in a wood.

Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme,

And monkeys chewed tobacco,

And hens took snuff to make them tough,

And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!

There was an old sow with three little pigs, ...

There was once upon a time a poor widow who had an only son named Jack, and a cow named Milky-white.

Well, there was once a very rich gentleman, and he had three daughters, and he thought he'd see how fond they were of him.

The once lived a king and a queen as many a one has been. They were long married and had no children; but at last a baby boy came to the queen when the king was away in the far countries.

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jack, and one morning he started to go and seek his fortune.

An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. "What," she said, "shall I do with this sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig."

Once upon a time there was a woman, and she baked five pies. And when they came out of the oven, they were so overbaked that the crusts were too hard to eat.

Hans Christian Andersen, let’s call him Hans, is best known today for his fairy tales. In his own time he was better known for other writings such as poetry, short stories, novels, autobiography, and his travelogues, at least to begin with -- he traveled all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and even to America. He spent a lot of time as a house guest to well off benefactors and even stayed so long with Charles Dickens at his home in Kent, that the Dickens family had to ask Hans to leave. But that’s another story.

In a cloister there lived a young man named Urbanus, who was pious and studious.