Long ago, there was a girl who had lost her mother. She, just like her father, treated others with kindness. She saw the world for the beautiful wonder it was. She had a stepmother and an older stepsister, who were mean, cruel, and only ever caring for themselves.
The older sister and the mother took advantage of the timid kindness of the youngest daughter, making her do all the cleaning and cooking around the house, calling her horrible names all the while.
“Why don’t you do something useful for once!” The youngest daughter had heard her mother say more times than she could count.
One day, the mother said that exact phrase to the youngest daughter and then told her to go and fetch their water for the day at the stream that lay a mile off. The daughter shouldered the buckets for water and made her daily trek to get her family’s water.
Along the way, she noted the beauty of the woods and the songbirds who, she thought, seemed to sing just for her. When she got to the stream, she noticed an older woman struggling to get water into her own bucket.
“Would you like me to fetch some water,” she asked the older woman.
“That would be lovely, child,” the woman weakly responded. “Thank you very much.”
She dipped the woman’s bucket in the water and turned to give her the bucket.
“You are beautiful and kind,” the woman said. “For your kindness, I will repay you. For each word you say, flowers and precious jewels will flow out of your mouth.”
The young girl was surprised by what the woman said and walked back home with her own buckets filled.
“It took you long enough!” her sister screeched. “I have been waiting all morning for my bath! It better be clean this time.”
“Yes, here it is,” she said.
She was about to tell her sister and her mother about the old woman, but she had to stop, for diamonds and beautiful flowers beyond description flowed out of her mouth.
Astonished, her mother looked at her. “Where did these come from, my dear?” She had never been so kind to her before.
“I got water for an old woman, and she told me jewels and flowers would come out of my mouth,” the youngest daughter said.
“Give me those diamonds!” the older sister said, reaching for the jewels.
“Shut up, you idiotic girl” the mother shouted. “Don’t you see? If you go down and give that nasty little hag some water, she will bless you with jewels and flowers. We can be rich!”
After some bickering, the youngest daughter reluctantly agreed to go and fetch water for the old woman. As she walked, she grumbled the whole way, plotting and planning that she wouldn’t give any of the jewels to her family. She would keep them all herself and become rich, she thought.
As she approached the stream, she saw a young girl in a beautiful dress.
“What are you doing at this stupid, old stream?” the oldest daughter asked. “Where is that ugly old woman, anyway?”
Ignoring her unkind words, the girl asked the oldest daughter if she would fetch some water for her.
“Not for you! I am waiting for that old woman, so I can get diamonds and flowers to come out of my mouth.”
The girl, who was actually a fairy who had disguised herself as the old woman, and now the girl, looked at the oldest daughter. “Unlike your poor sister, you are very unkind. For this, you will now have toads and serpents slip from your mouth after every word you say.”
The oldest daughter, shocked, walked back home with her head hung down.
As she returned, her wicked mother asked her over and over if she had retrieved water for the old woman.
As she uttered her first word trying to slander the girl who was really a fairy, toads and snakes started slithering out of her mouth.
Her mother ran away horrified. From the upstairs window in their house, she called out “why on earth do you have those wretched creatures coming out of your mouth? Did you or did you not get the water for that ugly old woman?”
Through some tears, some angry words, and a whole lot of toads and snakes, the oldest daughter explained that the old woman wasn’t there and that the young girl had cursed her.
From that day on, the youngest daughter continued to speak kindly wherever she went with a trail of flowers and jewels behind her, and the oldest daughter continued in her wicked and nasty ways, leaving behind toads and serpents in her path.
