Autumn Gold or ‘Honesty Is the Best Policy’

There once was a girl named Autumn Gold; a poor, unfortunate girl who was always blamed for
everything.

Her parents called her Autumn Gold because, when she was born, a golden Autumn leaf blew
in through a window of their house and landed in her cot and, seeing it, her mother thought,
“Why that’s a fitting name for such a pretty child”.

But then her parents died, sadly, when she was very young, from eating poisoned figs sold to them by a mysterious street peddler and she might have gone to an orphanage had it not been for her wicked aunt and her three wicked cousins who moved into her house soon after, taking legal guardianship of her and all the property that
had belonged to her parents.

Her Aunt hated her, though. She hated her so much that she would treat her very badly; dress her in dirty rags, make her eat scraps not fit for pig slop and make her do all of the housework and,
whenever her three cousins got into trouble, they always blamed her and her Aunt would punish her instead of them, beating her with a broom and locking her in a dingy, dark cupboard under the stairs.

One day, however, when she and her cousins were walking through the forest, they happened upon an enormous grizzly bear who was fast asleep beneath a tall oak tree and which had a golden chain around its neck and, eyeing up the golden chain greedily, the three cousins decided, “We can steal that chain while that brute is sleeping and he won’t even know it’s gone”.

But, because they were too cowardly to steal the chain, they said to Autumn Gold, “You do it. Do it or else we’ll make up some terrible lie about you and mother will beat you and lock you in a dark cupboard with the rats and the spiders”.

Autumn Gold didn’t like the thought of stealing, even from a bear, because she was more honest than her cousins but, because she was afraid of being beaten and locked up, she did as she was told, tip-toeing up to the sleeping creature and carefully slipping off its golden chain before running back to give it to her greedy cousins.

But then, as they were passing further through the forest, they came to a place where a beautiful woman was sleeping beside a lake and she had a golden ring upon one of her fingers with an enormous, dazzling blue gemstone set in it.

And, seeing the ring, Autumn Gold’s greedy cousins wanted it too and, poking Autumn Gold forward with twigs, they said, “Go on, Autumn Gold. Take that woman’s ring off her finger and give it to us. If you don’t, remember what will happen to you”.

And so, sighing, Autumn Gold reluctantly did this as well, creeping up to the beautiful sleeping
woman and slipping her ring gently from her finger before running back to give it to her cousins.

Then, happy with their thievery, the three wicked cousins sang proudly about it, skipping all the way home.

“We’re rich! We’re rich!”, they sang.

But then, later that day, while Autumn Gold was busy mopping the kitchen floor, a man dressed like a nobleman came and knocked upon their door and, when her Aunt answered the door, the man asked her,

“Earlier today, one of your daughters, I believe, took a golden chain from round the neck of a bear that was sleeping. Can you tell me which one it was?”.

Autumn Gold’s Aunt looked annoyed but, noting how the man was dressed, took him to be someone of importance and didn’t want to upset him and so she welcomed him into her house and allowed him to question her daughters.

And each one he asked, “Did you take the golden chain from round the neck of the bear?” gave the same reply.

“No”, they said, fearing that they might be punished, “It was Autumn Gold that did it, not us”.

Then, stopping Autumn Gold as she was doing her chores, he asked her the same question he had asked her cousins but, because she was more honest than them, she nodded and confessed to him,
“Yes, it was me. I took the golden chain off while it slept”.

Now, hearing this, Autumn Gold’s Aunt got furious and, taking hold of her broom and raising it was about to beat her but then the man stopped her.

“No. Don’t hit her. She has done a good thing. Years ago, an old witch placed that chain upon me and I was put under a curse; cursed 'to be a bear forever until the day someone would remove my chain' and your Autumn Gold has done that. She has lifted my curse and given me my life back”.

Then, revealing himself to be a prince, the man offered to marry Autumn Gold and she, happily,
accepted and he took her away to his golden palace in the biggest, most beautiful royal carriage that either the Aunt or the cousins had ever seen, drawn by six white horses.

But then, someone else turned up at the door of the house only, this time, it was an old woman
with a walking stick.

“What do you want?”, asked the Aunt, very irked that Autumn Gold had become a princess and not her or one of her three daughters.

“Earlier today”, said the old woman, “I believe that one of your daughters took a ring from the finger of a beautiful young maiden who was sleeping beside a lake. Can you tell me which one it was?”.

Hearing this, all of the wicked cousins rushed forward, pointing to themselves and shouting, “It was me! It was me!” because, seeing what happened to Autumn Gold, they thought they might get some kind of reward.

But then, to their shock and surprise, the old woman said, “All of you was it? That ring was a magic ring that kept me young and beautiful and now, because you stole it, I’ll be old and ugly forever. Well, I’ll teach you to go stealing from witches”.

And raising up her walking stick, the old woman turned the three wicked cousins and their wicked mother into four fat pumpkins which she then put in a sack and took away with her, singing, “Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin Pie. I’ll have some pumpkin pie”.