The Poor Sister and the Wealthy

Once upon a time, there were two sisters who lived on the edge of a great wood. One sister lived in a house that was built of red bricks and her house was filled with fine things money can buy. The other sister lived just down the lane, on the far side of a meadow, beside a brook, in a house made of logs, mud and thatch. Her house was filled with "gifts." One of the sisters was wealthy and the other was poor. One fine morning, the sister who lived in the red brick house noticed a tear in the corner of her best tablecloth. She decided it would be wise to repair it quickly, before the cloth deteriorated further. "A stitch in time saves nine, after all," she thought to herself, so off she hurried to market to purchase a spool of golden thread with which to mend it. Soon, she was back home and ready to mend her tablecloth, but as she came to it, she saw that the golden thread she had purchased wasn't quite right to match what had been used to make the cloth in the first place. She thought it best to return to market and exchange the thread for something that was a closer fit. She left right away. When she came into the store, she noticed some small cups on display and remembered her favorite cup had a chip on the bottom edge of its fine little handle. She decided to replace it with one of these, very lovely new cups. She selected one that would go well with her saucer and looked forward to her evening broth, sipped slowly from the beautiful new cup. Having finished her business, she hurried home and placed her new cup on her favorite saucer. Alas! The cup didsn't sit properly upon the saucer and didn't look quite right. The sister was frustrated, but remembered: There were many other cups on display at market. She determined to simply exchange the one she had for one that fit better. Beside that, she would need to return and exchange the golden thread again, because although the color was better on this second spool, there was something about the texture that didn't go well with her fine table cloth. On the third trip to market, this sister found another cup (which she hoped would work well), and exchange the second spool of thread for a third (which she also hoped would work well). As she was turning to leave the store, she noticed a display of new brooms. She was so happy to have seen this, as her old broom was beginning to wear very thin and really needed to be replaced. She gladly paid the price for the new broom and hurried home to her little brick house. She went inside and placed her new broom in the corner of her kitchen. Unfortunately, the broom didn't stand up as she expected it should. She was disappointed, too, that the third spool of thread was not a match and couldn't be used to repair her table cloth. She now felt she would have no choice but to buy a new table cloth the next time she went to market. The second cup she had selected didn't sit quite right in her saucer, either. What a disappointing day! She decided to put off the next trip to market until tomorrow. With frustration and exasperation, the sister laid down upon her bed, closed her eyes and went to sleep with a heavy heart. Meanwhile, the sister who lived in the cabin made of logs, mud and thatch spent a morning washing her clothing in the brook that flowed beside her home. As she was making ready to leave the water's edge, she noticed a long strand of hair that had been caught in the bark of a tree, no doubt pulled from a horse's tail as a horse and rider had recently passed that way. "What a gift!" she said aloud. "Just the thing I need to mend the tear in my apron." So, she gathered the strand of hair from the tree and looked for a stone around which to wrap it so that she might carry it along with her clean, wet clothes. She looked down into the brook to find a stone and saw something unusual; it was a seashell. "This must have fallen from the treasure of an adventurer who came home from the sea," thought the sister. "What a gift!" she said aloud. She knelt down, washed the sand and soil from the seashell and used it to scoop some of the cool, clean water from the brook. It was the most delicious drink of water she had ever tasted. She placed the shell in her pocket and headed home to hang her laundery and mend her apron. Along the way, she found four feathers from a peacock's tail. These, she also counted as a "gift." That evening, with a happy countenance, the sister used a leftover piece of the horse's tail to bind the four new peacock feathers to her broom (which was made entirely of peacock feathers tied to the end of a thin cedar branch, stripped of its bark). She gladly swept the floor of her little cabin and sent her prayer of thanksgiving for the blessings of the day toward heaven, as she always did at the end of each day. What a wonderful day it had been! How grateful she was for the gifts of the day and how joyfully she anticipated the morrow. The sister laid down upon her bed, closed her eyes and went to sleep with a happy heart. The reader may have discovered by now, which of these siters was The Poor and which was The Wealthy.

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