THE GIRL AND THE OLD WOMAN
Long ago, in a small village in Chester, in the west of England, there lived a poor widow and her beautiful daughter. The girl was kind and cheerful, but she loved playing in the green meadows more than doing household work.
Her mother often asked her to learn spinning, an important skill in those days. Girls were expected to spin linen into thread before marriage, and a good spinner was believed to make a good wife. The mother pleaded, scolded, and even punished her daughter, but nothing changed. The girl still disliked spinning.
One morning, the worried mother handed her daughter seven bundles of linen fibre.
“You have three days to spin all of this into thread,” she said firmly.
The girl tried her best, but by the end of the second day she had finished only a small part of the work. Feeling frightened and hopeless, she cried herself to sleep.
At dawn on the third day, she wandered out into the fields sparkling with dew. Soon she reached a little hill beside a gentle stream. Sitting on a stone, she buried her face in her hands and wept.
Suddenly, she noticed an old woman sitting nearby. The woman had unusually long, thick lips. Curious, the girl asked why her lips looked that way.
The old woman smiled and replied, “Years of spinning did this. I wet my fingers with my lips while drawing thread from the distaff.”
When the girl told her about the unfinished linen, the old woman kindly said, “Bring it to me. I will help you.”
Filled with hope, the girl fetched the linen and gave it to the old woman. Without another word, the old woman disappeared into the trees.
Tired from crying, the girl fell asleep beside the stream.
When she awoke, evening had fallen and the first star shone in the sky. Then she heard a voice coming from a small hole beneath the stone. Looking inside, she saw the old woman in a cave with many young women. They were spinning busily with distaffs and spindles, and all of them had the same long, thick lips.
The old woman told them to bundle the spun thread and give it to the girl. She also warned her not to tell her mother who had done the work.
The grateful girl carried the bundle home. It contained seven long coils of perfectly spun linen thread.
The next morning, her mother was amazed. She believed her daughter had performed a miracle and proudly told everyone in the village.
A young man passing through the village heard the news. He was so impressed that he asked for the girl's hand in marriage.
Later, the girl told him the truth about the mysterious old woman and the cave. Curious, they visited the cave together. When the young man saw the women whose lips had become disfigured from years of spinning, he felt sorry for them.
He turned to his wife and said, “I never want your beautiful lips to suffer like theirs. You shall never spin again.”
The young couple returned home and lived together happily for the rest of their lives.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Kindness often comes when we least expect it, but the story also reminds us that hard work has its price. True happiness comes from caring for one another and valuing people more than appearances or perfection.
