The Magic Cloth

Tucked away deep in the woods beside an emerald green meadow, there lived a poor lady and her daughter, Mary. They were so poor they could hardly afford to eat. The cupboards were often bare and no appetizing smell came from their kitchen.

Mary would often roam around the edge of the woods looking for mushrooms and tubers that she could take home. Her mother would walk to the village to do odd jobs that would fetch her some money or food. The villagers did not think well of them because they had no money. They did not treat Mary and her mother with respect and would often deny them money and food.

One day when it was cold and freezing, Mary and her mother opened the cupboards to find it bare and empty of food. "What!" exclaimed her mother, "I just left some leftover bread last night and now it's gone!" "Oh no, I am so hungry", cried Mary.

"Who could have taken away our last morsel?" Mary said "Mother, don't fret, I will go and look for some mushrooms". "Don't go near Farmer William's field, it is full of rats", said her mother. So Mary clad in her threadbare shawl and with her shoes full of holes, made her way to the woods.

She was so hungry that she did not even know where she was going. She just walked and walked. Mary felt so dizzy with hunger and her stomach gnawed and knotted up. At last she collapsed in a pathetic heap on the huge roots of an ancient tree. "What am I going to do?" she asked herself.

Suddenly Mary heard a tinkling sound. "What could that be", she wondered as she tried to fight the waves of dizziness. She looked around hazily and close by she saw a white patch on the ground. "I must be tired and dizzy", she thought. But she pushed herself up and walked to the white patch.

"Ah! Mushrooms, just what we need". But as she got closer, she found that the white patch was just a piece of cloth. "Oh no, it's just some cloth that the wind must have blown from the village". Mary was so disappointed that she almost cried.

"Oh, it does'nt matter", she said, "I'll just go and look for mushrooms". She cheered herself by swinging the cloth around and singing to herself. Suddenly just as she thought how nice it would be to eat cakes, a strong gust of wind swung the cloth away from her thin little fingers.

The white cloth danced merrily as the winter's sun filtered blearily through the snow-clad branches of the bare trees. "My cloth!" cried Mary as she raced towards a small pond in the middle of the woods. "My cloth is going to fall in the water", she thought.

But the white cloth just settled smoothly on a flat rock. She heard the crunch of paper and said, "Oh no! It's gone". But to her amazement, Mary saw with her own eyes, the most delicious spread of different kinds of cakes. Some with pink sugar icing, some with chocolate drops, some with silver and gold dust and even some with little dolls standing on them.

"What is this? Is this some kind of dream?" She walked to the delectable spread and her mouth watered. She gazed in delight at the cakes and thought, "Just what I wanted". But she still did not realize how these cakes could have just appeared as if by magic out of thin air.

She fell to her knees and started eating the cakes. At last she fell back when her hunger had settled. "I must take some cakes back for Mother", she thought. "But how I wish I could find the way back home". Twilight had fallen and the air grew cold as Mary shivered in the last rays of the sun.

"I must go home", she thought. But that was all she knew for she fell asleep holding the white magic cloth. Mary could hear her mother calling to her through a thick blanket of darkness. "Mama, where are you?" she cried.

She felt warm hands carrying her and found herself in bed clutching the white cloth that was filled with cakes. "Mary, what have you got in that cloth? Where did you get it from?" asked her mother. "Mama, I don't know, I just found this white cloth and it was filled with cakes". "Mary, please, did someone give you the cakes?" her mother demanded.

Mary sat up, her eyes wide with awe as she remembered that she had actually wished for cakes. "Mother", she whispered, "This is a magic cloth. I found the cloth in the middle of the woods and I was so hungry that I wished for cakes.

The cakes just appeared like magic!" Her mother stood silently and both of them stared at the white cloth. Then they sat together at the table and devoured the delicious cakes with the cloth lying on the table. "I wish we had a big warm house", said her mother, "I can't bear this cold".

The air clouded over and the poor little cottage was transformed into a beautiful house with a warm fire crackling in the fireplace. Mary and her mother found themselves sitting in big comfortable chairs. They stretched eagerly towards the fireplace to warm their chilled hands.

"This indeed is magic", they told each other. "This white cloth is given to us by the good fairies of the woods". Both mother and daughter wished for many fine things and soon they had a grand carriage, a beautiful house, lovely clothes and lots of money.

They did not tell anyone about their precious white cloth. It was their secret gift from the fairies. They knew that the fairies had seen them suffering and had given them this amazing treasure of the magic cloth.

The villagers came and visited with them and were shocked to find the table full of goodies every time they came. Mary and her mother never turned anyone away from their house. They fed the poor and were generous with their money.

They forgave the villagers for treating them badly and would always be there to help them. The villagers felt bad that they treated these kind people in a rough manner.

Mary and her mother were so happy and they visited many lands around them. They always took their magic cloth with them for they just knew that they could always help someone the way they were helped.

Written By Yasmine Jesudasen