Once upon a time, there was a forest covered in snow. A small wagon bumped and bounced along the dirt path that wound through these trees. Now, this is no ordinary forest. The trees can walk and talk and all other kinds of things. The path is never the same from one hour to the next, and who knew where the unlucky travelers would come out. The wagon was perfectly ordinary and so was the driver, a poor man coming home after a long day.
This man had a kind and generous heart, perhaps too generous, given the fact his family had a bit of moldy bread for dinner tonight…and the night before. When the man saw a huddled figure just inside the woods, he stopped. Climbing down from the wagon, he saw that the figure was an old woman, so thin you could see her ribs through the holes in her cloak. The man couldn’t leave her there so he picked her up and set her gently in the back of the wagon. He climbed in and kept driving, hoping the path would take him home soon. More than once he had turned up miles away from his little cottage on the tricky path.
Luckily, he arrived soon after. He unhitched the horse and turned to the old woman. But the back of his wagon was empty. No woman in sight. Confused, he headed towards his home. A tall woman with billowing robes blocked his path.
When she spoke, her voice was deep and powerful. “You, who have so little, stopped to help a starving woman, when so many with so much simply passed by. You are truly worthy of any reward you desire.”
The humble man did not ask for a life of extravagance or a royal title. He simply asked to have food on his family’s table and clothes on his children’s backs.
The woman smiled. “And that you shall have. Hearty food and warm clothes. Nothing else?”
The man shook his head. His family was lacking gold but rich in love. With food and clothes, they would be the wealthiest family in the forest.
The End