Worlds Rise
      Home    Learn About Fairies     Fairies Tales Archive
                                                                         
Fairies Tales
part 4
Previous     Next



The Baker and the Wood Wife



Heat billowed out the door as the flour covered baker stepped out to get a rare moment of air. He stood quietly for a moment with the heat at his back watching his breath rise in the moonlight.
“Excuse me,” a small woman said, her moss covered head twitching nervously as she approached him.
“What is it good woman?” The baker asked, feeling anxious at speaking to one of the folk.
“Could you perhaps bake me a loaf of bread as large as a millstone without cumin in it?”
The baker fidgeted even more nervous than before, he hated making a loaf of bread not yet purchased, but the fear of being cursed made him agree.
“Thank you kind sir,” the wood wife told him graciously. “Please place it under the giant yew tree before the cock crows.”
The baker had to pull six loaves of bread out of his ovens early to make the wood wife’s giant request. He scowled as he thought of all the money he would lose as he leaned back in his old, creaking chair to keep from dwelling on it. When the bread had risen he brought it out to the old tree as promised, its rich smell drawing a small flock of birds. He left it anyway thinking that the birds might as well eat it for all he was getting out of it. After all it was the wood wife’s fault for choosing such a bad spot for him to lay the bread. He then delivered the remainder of his bread to paying customers before going to bed.
Early the next evening before the sun had faded into the sea the baker walked out to see if the birds had indeed eaten the loaf of bread he’d left under the tree, but he was surprised to see a pile of sawdust the size of the bread he’d given to the wood wife in its place. Deciding that he may as well have kindling for his fire he took the dust back to his bakery. When he walked in the door of his home he collapsed under the weight of the dust, for it had turned to so much gold that he never wanted for money again and never again did the wood wife have to ask for bread, for everyday from that to this large loaves were left under that old yew tree before the cock’s crow.




Previous     Next
Sponsors