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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.
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