GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES - online book

130 Fairy Stories Adapted & Arranged for young people

Share page

	THE SHOWER OF GOLD.
	little shivering child with them, and went away. This pious child had now nothing left in the world at all, and she was turning to go into the wood and cover herself with the fallen leaves, when all at once a golden shower fell around her from heaven. At first she thought that the stars, which look like golden money in the heavens, were falling, but when the drops reached the ground they were real golden dollars, and as she stood still under the golden shower she found herself covered from head to foot with warm and beautifully fine clothes. She gathered up the golden dollars, carried them away, and was rich instead of poor all the rest of her life.
	A young girl who had lost both parents in her infancy, lived in a little cottage at the end of the village with an old woman who took care of her and brought her up to be industrious and pious. The maiden earned enough by spinning to support herself and the old woman. When she was in her fifteenth year the old woman fell sick, and one day called her to her bedside and said to her, " Dear daughter, I feel that my end is approaching, so I will leave you this cottage and all that is in it; here you will have shelter from wind and weather, and with the needle, the spindle, and the shuttle, you can easily earn your bread." Then laying her hand on the maiden's head she blessed her, and said : " Keep God always in your heart, and you will never go wrong" Not many days after this, the old woman closed her eyes and died, and the poor girl followed her to the grave behind the coffin weeping bitterly. After this the maiden lived in the little cottage quite alone, working diligently at her spinning and weaving, and the blessing of the old woman seemed to rest upon all she did. It was as if the flax in the room would never be exhausted; and no sooner had she finished weaving a piece of cloth or carpet, or had made a shirt, than a purchaser was quickly found who paid her