Mother Holly
by Jera
Somewhere down South, there lived an old widow who had two teen-age daughters. One of the daughters, Susan, was homely and lazy, and the other one, Lily, was a pretty girl, and a hard worker. Nonetheless, the old widow loved Susan more than Lily, because Susan was her own daughter and Lily was only her stepdaughter. The old widow made Lily do all the chores around the house: she cooked, cleaned, did laundry, tended the yard, grew plants in the garden, and tended to all the animals. Susan just sat around the house all day, watching TV and eating Doritos.
One day, Lily was out in the front yard, mending some torn clothes. She had been sewing from early morning until late afternoon. All of the sudden, her hand slipped and she pricked herself! She dropped the clothes she was sewing and went to the well to wash the blood off of her hands. When she leaned over the rim, she dropped her thimble in the well! Lily started crying. Her father had given her that thimble when she was a little girl, and she didn't want to lose it in the water. She leaned over the edge of the well, further and further, and when she almost had the thimble -- she dropped head over heels into the well!
Instead of hitting the water, however, she kept falling, and falling further down the well. To her surprise, she eventually came to land with a thump upon a little haystack in a lush, green meadow! Lily climbed off the haystack, dusted herself off, and started walking until she found a road to follow. Soon enough, she heard voices. "Help! Help! Pretty girl, pretty girl, rescue us!" Alarmed, Lily looked around, but she noticed only a brick oven, standing along the side of the road. She peered inside, and saw that the little rolls inside it were screaming! "The baker forgot all about us! We're going to burn to death if someone doesn't take us out of the oven soon!" Lily sized up the situation quickly and saw that the baker had left his paddle by the side of the oven. She opened the oven door quickly and scooped the little rolls out of the oven with the paddle. Then she piled them all up. "Thank you, pretty girl! We'll pay back your generosity someday!" Lily smiled at them and continued walking down the road.
Lily walked and walked until she reached an apple tree. The apple tree cried out to her: "Help! Help! Pretty girl, pretty girl, shake me! All my apples are ripe, and they are weighing me down! I can't take the strain any more; my branches will break!" Lily agreeably shook the little apple tree until all the apples had showered down from its branches. Not only that, but she even took the time to pile them up neatly in little pyramids. Only then did she continue walking down the road.
Finally, Lily came to a little cottage. A little old lady peered out from a window at her, but her teeth were so long and yellow that Lily was frightened and wanted to run off. But the little old lady had already seen Lily and cried out to her: "Don't be frightened, pretty child," the lady said. "My name is Mother Holly, and I won't hurt you. Come inside! Stay with me a while! I'm too old to take care of the household by myself anymore. If you help me out with a few things, I'll take care of you!" Lily didn't know what else to do, so she agreed to live with Mother Holly.
Lily's most important job was to make Mother Holly's bed every morning. The bedding was made of goose down, and Lily's job was to shake up the pillows and the comforter every day. Lily put her heart into it and shook the bedding until the feathers flew around her like snowflakes! Little did she know how special the bedding was: Whenever it was shaken, snow fell above the ground! Lily did such a good job shaking the bedding that there were snowstorms every day that winter. The children could go sledding, build snowmen, and have snow fights.
Pretty Lily had to work hard to earn her keep at the old lady's house, but she did so cheerfully, and Mother Holly rewarded her with kind words and good food. She was never treated harshly or yelled at as she had been with her step-mother and step-sister. Yet sure enough, eventually Lily became more and more subdued and homesick. One day, after a whole year had passed since her arrival, Lily gathered up the courage to speak to the old lady. "Mother Holly, I know you have treated me a thousand times better here than I was treated back home. But yet I have a feeling inside me that longs to be back with my family. Please forgive me, but I must try and find my way home!"
Mother Holly smiled at the girl's earnestly. "I am pleased with you, my child. It speaks well for you that your heart yearns for home. I will keep you no longer. Come, I will personally show you the way to your house." And so Mother Holly led Lily to the back of her garden and to a little gate hidden under some vines. From there, Lily could see the road that led to her own house! Mother Holly hugged Lily and bid her goodbye, and the girl thanked her profusely.
Finally, Lily stepped through the gate. But as crossed the threshold, the entire gate and even Mother Holly disappeared! And what was even more incredible was that gold rain started falling on the girl until her clothes were covered in it and shining! Lily was so happy that she skipped all the way back to her house. Their rooster called out, "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Our golden girl has come back to us!" and all the animals ran out to meet her happily. Lily's step-mother and step-sister finally came outside to find out what all the commotion was about and found the long-lost child, standing in the middle of their front yard, covered in shining gold!
After Lily had told her whole story, she went to her little coarse bed under the stairs, but her step-mother sat up half the night, thinking. In the morning, she called her other daughter, Susan, aside, and spoke to her in conspiratorial whispers. "Now, my darling child, if that good-for-nothing sister of yours had such good luck, imagine how well your fortune might turn out! I want you to do everything she did. Jump into the well, find Mother Holly, work for her for a year, and then see what she gives you in return!" Then her mother handed Susan a thimble and sent her on her way. Susan quickly set to work. She stuck her hand into a thorn bush, and dipped the thimble into the blood. She ran to the well's edge and threw the thimble in the water, and boldly jumped after it. When she landed on the haystack in the meadow, she jumped off and took off running down the path, hoping to reach Mother Holly's cottage by nightfall. Along the way, she passed the brick oven by the side of the road. "Help! Help!" cried the rolls in it. "Please take us out of the oven, or we will burn!" Susan shrugged. "I'm sorry, I'm in a hurry and I don't want to get dirty. Best of luck to you all!" she said over her shoulder as she jogged past. Soon Susan reached the apple tree. "Help! Help! Shake me, child, or else my branches will break from the weight of the apples!" it cried. "I'm sorry, but that's really not my problem. I have no time to waste on shaking trees, and one could fall on my head!" Susan replied haughtily, and ran on.
Finally, Susan reached Mother Holly's cottage. The old lady frowned out at the girl. "Hello, I'm Susan. I heard you're too old and weak and can't do anything anymore. I'll help you if you will reward me after a year!" Susan said breathlessly. Mother Holly studied the girl up and down, displeased with her unkempt appearance, but agreed to hire the child. The first day, Susan worked diligently and shook the bedding vigorously, thinking of the gold she would receive. The next day, she shook the bed a little less strongly, and the third day she barely shook the bedding at all. After a week, she just tapped the bedding randomly and went to sit in the garden instead. That year, there was no snow above the ground, and all the children were sad and cranky.
Mother Holly saw that Susan was not doing any work, and decided to tell Susan to get her things together and go home. Susan didn't argue; she was thinking of the gold she was about to receive. When Mother Holly sent her through the gate, she didn't even so much as thank her or say goodbye! She just looked straight into the sky, hoping that the golden rain would come. Instead, what came down was a smelly green ooze that turned Susan and her clothes green! She sobbed all the way home, and when she entered their yard, the rooster cried out, "Cock-a-doodle-doo! That dirty girl is back!" And the rest of the animals scattered, running away from the foul-smelling child. And Susan and her mother tried and tried to scrub the foul-smelling ooze off of her, but it turned her hair permanently green, and they could never completely get rid of the smell!
Jera, Copyright 2001. Reprinted with permission.
