Christopher, The Witch and The Wise Worm In The Wooden Apple

Once upon a time there was a poor boy named Christopher after the saint who, because his mother and father had died, had no one to care for him and had been forced to fend for himself.

One day however, the boy was walking in the woods when he met an old lady who seemed to take pity on him and invited him to come and live with her.

"As I have no children of my own", she said, "I'll take care of you. I'll cook for you and make you clothes to wear. Oh it will be joyful having some company".

And the boy was happy for the first time in a long time because he was sure that the old woman really did care about him.

Unfortunately for Christopher, however, the old woman was really a witch who ate children and she only wanted totake him home with her so that she could fatten him up to eat him.

Luckily, however, Christopher, because he was so poor, was very malnourished; just skin and bone and so the witch decided she would wait; feed him every day and wait until he had grown into a fat boy before she ate him.

Day after day, the old woman prepared the boy the most equisite meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner with pudding for desert, giving him double helpings and becoming anxious if he didn't eat up all his food and Christopher, because he was a growing boy, ate up all the food happily.

But something troubled the boy.

You see, whenever Christopher offered to do any work to help the old woman, the woman wouldn't let him do anything, infact she discouraged him from playing and running about aswell, saying that "He would only tire himself out" and that he should rest more.

The reason why the woman didn't want Christopher to work or play however was because she was afraid that excercise would stop the boy from getting fat and she wanted him to become as fat as a hog.

One day, however, when the witch was out of the house, the boy, because he was bored, went into her room and started to look amongst her private things and, on a mantlepiece he found a wooden apple and in the wooden apple lived a worm which, when he picked up the apple, poked out its head saying,

"I am the wise worm who can answer all things. Ask me a question and I will tell you the answer".

And so the boy asked the worm,

"Tell me why the old woman who owns this house is being so kind to me. Does she really love me as she says?".

Then, to the boys horror, the worm told him the truth about the witch, that she was just fattening him up and that, when he became fat, she intended to eat him.

"Well then what should I do?", asked the boy, "For I do not want to be eaten".

The worm told the boy that above the witches bed there was the door to a secret cupboard and in that cupboard was a jar filled with the ashes of elves that gave the witch her power, he told the boy to jump upon her bed so that he could reach the cupboard and when he did this and got the jar down from the cupboard, the worm told him to throw the jar down the well near the house that the witch drew water from and then run to the house of the woodcutter who lived in the forest.

So the boy, putting the wooden apple and worm in his pocket, took the jar and threw it down the well, then he ran into the forest.

Soon afterwards, however, the witch came back to her house and seeing that the boy had run off and had taken the wooden apple with him got onto her broom and flew into the forest after him and, catching up with him before he had reached the woodcutters house, she took off her tall conical hat and grabbing hold of the boy with one hand threw him into the hat, tying up the brim so that he couldn't escape.

Then, carrying him back to her house, she said to him,

"I was going to wait until you were nice and fat like a farm hog but now I'm going to cook you up and eat you like you are".

Then she made the boy sit upon a magic wooden chair that he stuck to so that he couldn't get up and she started to boil her cauldron, adding the ingredients, she said, for "Little boy soup".

Desperate now, Christopher struggled with all the strength a boy can muster but it was no good; no matter how much he struggled, he just couldn't unstick himself from the witches magic chair.

Just then, however, as the witch was cackling with glee and stirring her pot there was a knock at the front door.

"Now who can that be?", said the witch, irritably, going to answer the door.

But then, the moment the witch opened the door, a little band of laughing skeletons rushed into the room and grabbed hold of her by her arms and legs, carrying her out of the house.

They were the bones of all the little boys that she had thrown down the well and the ashes of elves had brought them back to life so that they could take revenge upon their murderer, so they dragged the witch screaming down the well with them and, after that, she was never heard of again.

The little boy, Christopher, fared much better however for he went to stay with the woodcutter who lived in the forest and then, with the help of the wise worm in the wooden apple, they made a fortune and both lived happily ever after.