Problems Deep as a Well
A widow lives alone with her daughter and stepdaughter. However, though she has two daughters, she favors her own lazy, ugly daughter over her beautiful, industrious stepdaughter.Because of this favoritism, the widow and her ugly daughter make the stepdaughter into their own Cinderella. The beautiful stepdaughter is made to do all of the work at home, and each day she sits at the well with the spindle and spins until her hands bleed.
One day, the stepdaughter sees blood on the spindle and dips it into the well to wash it off. However, the spindle slips from her hands and sinks to the bottom of the well.
Devastated by this unfortunate outcome, the stepdaughter hurries back to the widow and informs her of the accident. But the widow proves merciless. She reprimands the poor stepdaughter and says, “As you have let the spindle fall into the well you may go yourself and fetch it out.”
Magic Made
The next thing she remembers is waking in a beautiful, unknown meadow. Unhindered by the strangeness of the place and her situation, the stepdaughter journeys through the meadow until she comes to an oven full of a baker’s loaves.Seeing her pass by, the loaves cry out to her for help: “Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder.” The stepdaughter hears their cries and comes to their aid, pulling them out of the oven before it’s too late.
She continues on and discovers an apple tree, who also calls out to her: “Shake me, shake me, I pray ... my apples, one and all, are ripe.” Again the stepdaughter refuses to pass by without helping the poor tree. She shakes it until all of its apples fall.
Finally, the stepdaughter comes upon a house with an old woman peering out at her. Alarmed by the woman’s appearance, the stepdaughter is about to move on when the old woman suddenly addresses her: “What are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my house properly for me, I will make you very happy.”
She considers the tiring work for her stepmother and sister and must now decide if she will stay with and help this strange old woman.
This teaches children that when they work hard, they become a blessing not only to others but to themselves as well. As Christina Rossetti wrote in “Goblin Market and Other Poems”: “There is no friend like a sister/ In calm or stormy weather ... To lift one if one totters down/ To strengthen whilst one stands.”
Thus, by being industrious and helpful, children can make their own magic. Industrious, good work showers blessings and grace on the worker and the recipient, making both lives better and all the more golden.
