Long ago in a cold land where the winters were very harsh, there lived a young boy with his parents. They had a very small and humble home on a small plot of land near a very large forest. Most of the people they knew lived the same way they did: In a very small and humble home on a small plot of land near a very large forest. The houses were sparsely located with a great deal of space in between them, and the village was very small and quaint and almost forgotten.
For as long as anyone could remember, life had always been
lived the same way. The villagers were
all farmers and grew a great deal of their own food, and what they did not grow
they hunted. Their part of the world was
too cold to grow very much grain, and so that was the main thing they relied upon
from the outside world--grain, along with spices and sugar. Twice a year, once in the summer and once in
the winter, a large caravan would come to their tiny village, and the villagers
would buy or trade for all the supplies they needed until the next caravan
came.
It was a very cold part of the world, but this particular
winter seemed especially cold and snowy.
All the villagers had gotten their wood cut and stacked early because
they could tell that it was going to be a long winter. None of them had a very good crop that summer
because it had been so cool, and the boy and his family had fared quite badly
with their harvest. They did what they
could to gather mushrooms and nuts from the forest, and the father hunted
almost daily. Usually, there was plenty
of game, but this year was hard on the animals as well, and there wasn’t nearly
as much as usual.
The day finally came when the caravan arrived for its
one-day winter stop in their village.
The mother took every penny she had and gave it to the boy, telling him
to buy two sacks of wheat, which might just barely get them through the
winter. The boy’s father lay sick in bed
and the mother tended him daily, so neither could accompany the boy on his
first trip alone to the caravan. He
dressed warmly in two old wool coats, kissed his mother goodbye, and headed off
with an old sled to get the two sacks of wheat.
After trudging several miles through the snow, pulling his
sled behind him, the boy came to the caravan.
What a sight to see! Colorful wagons! Beautiful horses! Food and beverages and trinkets of all
kinds! But the best thing, the best
thing by far, were the fine smells that came from the caravan from all sorts of
delicious foods, some familiar and some oddly exotic. The boy could smell the caravan long before
he could see it, and he was already very hungry, having had a very small
breakfast of porridge that morning.
He remembered his father’s stern and feverish warning: “Talk to no one! Do not delay.
Do not idle. Go straight to the grain
man and purchase the wheat. Do as I say,
and come home straight away!” He had
assured his father that he would do exactly as he was told.
But there were the delicious smells, and he didn’t think it
could hurt to just sniff each one as he passed by the wagons. So he did just that, sniffing appreciatively
everywhere he went. The merchants smiled
and waved and called him closer, but he just smiled and waved and walked on. At last he could see the old grain wagon at
the end of the caravan, and slowly he made his way toward it, savoring every
smell he could while his stomach growled terribly at him.
Just before he got to the grain wagon, he saw a small wagon
with beautifully-colored and shining ornaments hanging all around it. He had never seen anything so pretty before,
and he so longed to have some of those ornaments because his family had no
Christmas decorations at all at home.
Being only a boy, he did not realize just how poor his family was, but
one thing he knew for certain: He had
never seen such finery before!
He was about to continue on when a young girl came out of
the wagon and called to him. She had
such a dazzling smile, and the boy thought there could be no harm just in
greeting her. So off to her wagon he
went, towing his sled behind him. The
girl was even prettier up close, and she began to chat gaily, showing him this
ornament and that, asking him to buy some.
At last, he told her he could not buy any ornaments, and this seemed to
make her so sad. She explained that she
had made them all herself and that if she didn’t sell some, her father would
beat her.
He remembered his father’s words. He knew he shouldn’t do it. He knew he should go to the grain wagon, but
he just couldn’t help himself. Not only
did he long for these exquisite decorations, but he wanted to help the girl as
well. She looked at him with pleading,
beautiful eyes, and the boy tossed all caution to the wind. He bought nine of the ornaments, which the
girl happily wrapped for him, chatting and singing all the while. Then she waved goodbye to him and went into
the wagon. He stood staring at the place
where she had stood for a long time.
Then he remembered to get the grain. Off to the grain wagon he went, but the grain
man told him that he only had enough money for one sack of wheat. No matter how much the boy tried to bargain,
the grain man wouldn’t budge. He did
finally and grudgingly give the boy a small bag of nuts along with the sack of
wheat because he felt sorry him, as shabbily dressed as he was.
The boy headed back home with a heavy heart, towing the
grain and ornaments behind him. He knew
his father would be furious and his mother would cry, wondering how they would
get through the winter with just one sack of wheat. He tried to think of all the wonderful things
he could tell them about the ornaments, of how beautiful they would make their
home, but in the end, he knew they wouldn’t care. They didn’t love beautiful things like he
did. Silently he trudged, munching on
some of the nuts as he went.
At last he arrived home, just as it was starting to get
dark. His mother breathed a sigh of
relief when she saw him and brought him in quickly to stand by the fire because
he was half frozen. Then she went out to
get the sacks of grain and bring them in.
The boy waited, full of fear. She
came back in, her face pale and angry, dragging behind her one sack of wheat
and carrying a bag full of ornaments.
She yelled angrily at him, and it was loud enough to wake his father,
who came into the room to see what was happening. The rage in his eyes when he realized what
had happened was unmistakable. He
grabbed the boy furiously, shook him and screamed at him, and then beat him.
The boy was full of fear and self-hatred. He grabbed the bag of ornaments and ran out
into the darkening night. On and on he
ran, not caring in which direction he went, until he could not hear his parents
yelling for him anymore. At last he
stopped and went to a small stand of trees where the snow seemed a little less
deep. He sat down there under a tree,
crying bitterly in agony and despair. He
could hear his parents’ words over and over in his head: Stupid!
Selfish! Foolish! He cried and cried until he had no tears left
and had cried out all of his tension. Then
he very calmly made the decision that he would stay there under the tree and
allow himself to die that night in the forest.
There he sat, quiet and freezing but with his mind made
up. He munched a few of his nuts, and
when he did, a couple of squirrels ventured closer, eying the nuts. They looked hungry and puny and the boy
pitied them, so he threw them some of the nuts.
They ate them quickly, and then more squirrels came and other tiny
creatures, which made the boy smile a bit.
What did it matter now? he thought.
So he tossed all of his nuts to the forest creatures, who devoured them
and ran away. He watched them scampering
off in the moonlight.
Since he was going to die, he decided he would decorate a
small tree with the nine ornaments he had bought. It would be his first Christmas tree. He and his family always celebrated the
holiday, but they never had any decorations.
So he decided he would have his first and last Christmas tree. He picked out a tiny tree and placed his
ornaments on it. He could see them
gleaming in the moonlight. They were so
beautiful. He didn’t think he had any
tears left, but he surprised himself with a few more as he stared at his
Christmas tree. Then he sat down again
and waited for the night to continue its task, as he watched his shiny
ornaments swaying in a slight breeze, twinkling here and there amid the snow
that had begun falling heavily.
Now, the Good Folk of the woods had seen all that had
happened, and while they don’t usually intervene in human affairs, they decided
they would give the boy a gift for having been so generous in giving his nuts
to the forest creatures. So they
magicked the ornaments as only faeries can do, and when they were completely
magicked, how they shone and glimmered like beacons in the night! They were so fabulously beautiful that the boy
just sat and stared, wondering if he had already died and was approaching
heaven. He blinked and blinked at the
brilliant display of lights before him, and he cried with joy and sorrow all at
the same time. He stared at the lit
ornaments for a very long time, and then began to nod off to sleep.
He hadn’t nodded long when he heard a terrible crashing
sound in the woods. He stood up quickly
and who should come up to him but the grain man himself! “Thank goodness I found your lights!” the man
shouted. “My wagon separated from the
rest of the caravan by accident and I couldn’t find them in this blasted snow!” Only then did the man give a second
suspicious look at the ornaments, never having seen ornaments shine so
brilliantly. High in the trees, the
faeries laughed good-naturedly at him.
“We must get to shelter,” the man said. “Where is your home?” The boy pointed in the direction where he
thought his home was, although he really wasn’t quite sure because he had left
in such anguish and now it was dark out.
He hoped it was the right direction because if it wasn’t, the grain man
could easily die out here in the cold night as well, and the boy didn’t want
that to happen.
Well, you can bet that the boy’s parents felt pretty
terrible about what had happened. They
were not bad people but they were very frightened people, and sometimes
frightened people do terrible things out of fear, things they would never
ordinarily do. They loved their son very
much and they had run out into the night, searching for him. Imagine their surprise when they came upon
the brilliant scene of their son, the grain man, and the ornaments! They were so overwhelmed with joy and relief
at finding their son that they fell to their knees at his feet and wept. The three of them cried together for a while,
so happy they were to be reunited.
It was the grain man who urged them on and nudged them back
to reality. “We have to get to shelter!”
he said. “This storm looks like it’s
going to be pretty bad!” And so the four
of them got into the wagon and the two horses sped silently into the
night. It did not take long to reach
their tiny home, as the horses were strong and able. The grain man put the horses in a shed for
the night, giving them some grain to eat and then went back to the house.
There the four of them sat and had a very meager Christmas
Eve dinner, but it was dinner nevertheless and it was warm inside the
house. The mother had built the fire
much larger than she normally would have to keep their guest comfortable and
warm. Even though the meal was meager,
it was larger than what she would have made but she did so for her guest. Hospitality was very important in those days
because you never knew when you would need it from a stranger yourself, and you
never ever asked for payment back. The
grain man looked around at this exceedingly poor family, and he realized that
they were giving him a huge gift of food even if it didn’t seem that way.
The next day when everyone awoke, the storm had stopped and
the sun was shining brilliantly. The
grain man packed up and got ready to go, bowing and thanking his hosts for
their hospitality, who returned the gesture with bows and smiles of their own. He went outside to get his horses ready and
found the boy in the shed with them. The
boy smiled and thanked him for his help, and the grain man smiled and thanked
him as well. He gave the boy a small bag
of nuts, and the boy was thrilled with this delicious gift. It seemed he would have some nuts to eat
after all!
The boy helped the grain man get the horses and wagon
ready. Then he ran alongside the wagon
as the horses began to pull it, smiling and waving at the grain man, who smiled
and waved back. The horses picked up the
pace, though, and soon outran the boy, who stopped running and waved and
watched the wagon leave, shouting goodbye and Merry Christmas.
Just as the wagon was about to round a bend, it looked as
though some things had fallen from it.
The boy ran and ran to get to the spot where he had thought he had seen
the fallen items so he could hail the grain man, but when he got there the
wagon was nowhere in sight and long since gone.
However, there was a large lump on the ground. Upon further inspection of this lump, he realized
there were four bags: Three large bags
and one small bag. He was dying to know
what was in those bags, but he resisted the temptation to open them. Instead, he ran back to his house as fast as
he could and grabbed his sled. Then off he
sped once again to the bags in the field.
The three bags were very heavy, indeed. It was very difficult for him to load them on
his sled, but eventually he did. The
fourth bag was light, and he tossed it over his shoulder onto the sled. Then he trudged very carefully and very
slowly back home, weighed down heavily with his load. When he got back, his parents were outside,
having seen him from the window with the sled laden with bags. They asked him what was going on and he told
them he had no idea. He explained how
these bags had fallen off the grain man’s wagon, but by the time he got to them
to let the grain man know, the wagon was nowhere in sight.
His mother opened the three large bags, and each was full
right to the brim with wheat! She cried
out in joy and relief when she saw them, quickly dragging them inside the
house. The boy and his father could hear
her singing inside and laughed at her antics.
Then the father went to the small bag and opened it up. Inside were nine exquisitely beautiful
ornaments. The grain man must have taken
them off the tree last night when the boy and his parents were crying at their
reunion. He smiled a very broad smile
and handed the bag to the boy, who exclaimed with happiness when he saw the
contents.
Together the two of them found a small tree and brought it
inside. They had to wait a couple of
hours for the tree to warm up a bit so the limbs could fall open. Then the boy took his nine ornaments out of
the bag and placed them very carefully and thoughtfully on the tree. They didn’t shine like they had the night
before because the magic and worn off, but it didn’t matter because the boy
thought he had never seen such a beautiful sight. His mother brought a surprise from the
kitchen. She had ground some wheat extra
fine and made some gingerbread cookies, which she had fashioned into a garland
with some old ribbon.
She gave the garland to her son and told him to decorate his
first Christmas tree. He told her
couldn’t do that, and she stared at him confusedly.
Then he laughed and said, “This is my second Christmas tree!” Quickly he placed the garland around the
tree, sneaking a cookie off it, which his parents pretended not to notice. It was easily the second-best Christmas tree
the boy had ever seen. And in any event, it was the tastiest one by far.
