Fairy Tale I Wrote For Writing Class

Fable or Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there lived two sisters named Mary and Anna. They lived with their mother and father in a cottage by a little, winding, dirt road. They were not poor, but they were not rich either.
They grew their own food during the spring and summer and they preserved what was left for the freezing, cold winters.
The eldest daughter, Mary had long, beautiful, blonde, curly hair and sparkling, sapphire eyes. Tonight was the night of her seventeenth birthday and after dinner her mother and father took her aside and talked to her about marriage.
“Now that you are seventeen young men will want to court you and ask for your hand in marriage.” Her mother had told her.
“ Be sure you think carefully before you give it to them. Don’t be too hasty. We want you to find someone with a kind heart that will be able to make you happy for the rest of your life.” Her father said.
“Don’t worry.” She assured them. “I will be sure to find someone that will make me happy.”
One day a handsome young man on a pure white horse galloped down the road toward the cottage. When he spotted the cottage he stopped so he could water his horse.
When he rode up the girl’s father was outside chopping wood for the fire.
“ Good e’en to you, sir.” He said cheerfully. “Could you spare some water for a tired horse and rider?”
“ Sure. Help yourself.”
“Thank you, sir.”

“Father, dinners ready.” Mar said coming out of the cottage. She stopped abruptly when she noticed the young man standing at the well watering his horse.
Their eyes met and he approached her and said, “ I am very fortunate that I should stop here to water my horse.” Taking her hand he kissed it. She blushed deeply.
“I’ll be there as soon as I’m finished chopin’ this wood.” Her father said.
Noticing the way they looked at each other he asked, “Yong man, what be your name?”
“I’m sorry forgive me for being so rude as to not introduce myself. My name is Harold Stoner.”
“ Is your father by chance, Sir Harold Stoner of Braintree? Their father asked.
“Yes. You know him?”
“ There are not many who don’t. He is very fondly spoken of in the village.”
After they were all introduced their father asked Harold if he would stay for dinner. Of course he readily accepted it. He wanted to become more acquainted with Mary.

Four weeks went by and Harold came by at least three times a week to call upon the eldest daughter. Each time he brought her wonderful gifts flowers a silk dress and even a gold necklace. When they were together he always complimented her and told her how much he loved her and she too told him.
One day he arrived wearing his best clothes and went to her father.
“ Sir, I want to ask your daughter to marry me.”
“Yes I’m sure you do. She is very pretty, but are you sure you love her?”
“Yes sir, I would do anything for her.”
Her father thought for a while and said, “ I will give you permission to ask my daughter, but only if you know you will love and cherish her all the days of your life.”
“Oh, Thank you, sir!”
“ But I want a word alone with her first.”

He called her to him and he took her hand in his and asked, “ Mary, do you love Harold?
“Yes, father, with all my heart.”
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life with him?”
“Yes.” She said.
“I want to ask you one more question before I let you alone with Harold.”
“What’s that?”
“Why do you love him?
She thought about this a moment and finally answered, “He’s handsome, young, rich and he is very nice towards me.”
“If that is all than I don’t think you should marry him. He will not always be young and handsome. Everyone weather they want to or not grows old. What if he lost all his money? Would you still love him?”
She became very angry and said she would do what she thought would make her happy and in the end she married Harold Stoner.

She had the wedding she had always dreamed of and they went to live in a big stone house with lots of nice furniture and paintings from all over the world. They were happy for a time, but then they began to notice they didn’t have hardly anything in common and they bickered and quarreled. One day while they were staying in town a great storm destroyed everything they had.
Mary realized the wisdom in what her father had told her. She wished she had listened to him.

A year later Anna had her seventeenth birthday. Again their mother and father talked to her about marriage.

One day in the mist of a storm there came a knock upon their door.
When they answered it there stood in the doorway a young man in tattered clothes and he was drenched from head to foot. He was not the handsomest man in the world, but he was not ugly.
“ I am very sorry to intrude, but would you mind giving me shelter until the storm passes?”
“But of course.” Said their father.
Anna brought him a bowl of hot soup and a warm blanket.
“Thank you for your kindness. I’m sorry I don’t have any money to give you, but the least I can do for you is to tell you my name. My name is Adam and I have been traveling for a long time.”
“Where do you come from, Adam?” their father asked.
“Bridgeport, sir”
“You are a very long way from home.”
“Yes, sir. I’ve been traveling for four months now. I stop at every town and stay for about a week before moving on again.”
They all sat around the hearth and exchanged stories, laughed and had a great time.
When the storm passed he rose and gathered his very few belongings, thanked them for their generosity and rode off on his brown mare.
A few days went by and their mother noticed they were very low on corn meal.

I am going into town for some corn meal. Do you want to come with me, Anna?”
Anna said that she would and together they started off on the road to town.

But along the way her mother stepped into a pothole in the road and twisted her ankle.
“Wait here mother. I will go into town and find someone to help us.”
She raced into town and looked for someone that would assist them, but no one would. She started to cry.

Then a young man in tattered clothing came up to her.
“ What’s wrong?”
It was Adam.
“Adam, I am so happy to see you. My mother has hurt her ankle on the road and no one will help me get her home.”
“ Don’t worry. I will help.”
She led him to her mother waiting on the side of the road leaning against a tree.
He picked her up in his strong arms and carried her back to their cottage.

“Thank you so much, Adam.”
“Anytime. It’s the least I could do after you fed me and sheltered me from that storm.”
He left but he came back the next day with some flowers and a sack of corn meal for her mother.
He came back almost everyday for a two months. He said it was to make sure their mother was all right, but it only took her a couple of weeks to be able to walk around again.
Anna had grown very fond of him and he of her. And one day he was helping her father fix one of the fences around the cottage when he said, “ I have been praying and thinking very hard about this,” he paused and took a deep breath, “ I want your permission to ask Anna to marry me?”
Her father smiled and patted Adam on the back.
“I don’t think I could find a better son in law, but I am worried at how you will provide for her. You have no job.”
“If you give me permission to ask her to marry me I promise she will be as wealth as a princess.”
“You can not promise me that when you have no money.”
“ I am one of the richest men in the country. For I am Prince Adam.”
Their father was taken aback.
“If what you say is true than you have my permission and my blessing. Good luck, son.”

They were married in the castle and remain today one of the happiest couples that ever lived.
The end.