A TALE ABOUT WORDS


Boys and girls like fairy-tales. So my sermon to-day is to be in that
form. This fairy-tale comes from France, and it is told by Katherine
Pyle in her book, "Fairy-Tales from Many Lands."

A widow had two daughters. One was coarse and slovenly, with an ugly
disposition, but because she resembled her mother the woman loved her
and thought her beautiful. The other daughter had hair like gold and a
complexion like a pink rose, while her eyes were as blue as the sky. She
was sweet-tempered and kind, but her mother hated her, and gave her all
the hardest work to do and the poorest food to eat.

One day she gave her a heavy jug and sent her into the forest to bring
water for her sister. When the girl reached the spring she was tired and
sad, and sat weeping on the stone. Presently a voice behind her asked
for a drink, and she turned and saw a withered old woman sitting there.
So she gently raised the jug to the woman's lips, and then refilled it
and started home.

But the old woman called her back and said: "Daughter, you have helped
one who is able to repay you for your kindness. Every word you speak
shall be a pearl or a rose." The girl hastened home. Her mother met her
with scolding words, asking her why she had been so long. And when her
daughter explained to her, lo! every word she spoke was a pearl or a
rose. The greedy old woman snatched up the pearls and left the roses.