The Stone Child (A Christmas Fairytale)

Once there was a little girl called Agnetha who lived with her wicked aunt Hezabel and her two horrid and very ugly cousins.

 

Agnethas wicked aunt was so horrible to her that she never gave her any toys to play with. In fact, all she gave her was a dirty old stone.

 

“That stone is all a bad girl like you deserves”, her aunt told her.

 

But Agnetha was a resourceful little girl and she tore a small scrap from her ragged dress and, wrapping up the stone made a shawl for it and she drew a pair of eyes and a nose and mouth upon it too and gave it a name. She called it “Sonya”.

 

Then, one Christmas Eve, when it was very cold and Agnetha was lying on her little bed of straw in a corner of the kitchen without even a blanket to keep her warm because her aunt was too mean to give her one, a Christmas angel came into the house looking for a good child to bless.

 

The angel went into the bedroom of Agnetha’s cousins first where she saw them lying in two small beds.

 

And first she went to the bed of Agnetha’s eldest cousin and looked into her heart but she saw that her heart was as black as a lump of coal and so she said, “I cannot bless that child, that is a bad child”.

 

So then she went to the bed of the younger cousin and looked into her heart but her heart was as black as a deep, dark hole and the angel said, “I cannot bless that child either because she is even worse”.

 

But then the angel went down into the kitchen where she saw Agnetha sleeping on the floor, clutching her stone doll tightly and looking into Agnetha’s heart she saw that it shone brightly like a star.

 

“Ahhh!”, sighed the angel smiling, “Now that child is a very good child. She is the one I shall bless”.

 

Then the angel touched the sleeping Agnetha upon the nose with her wand and the wand glowed brightly.

 

“Upon this blessed Christmas Eve, this time of wonder and joy”, said the angel, “May all your dreams and wishes come true”.

 

Then, her work done, the angel flew away back up to a land amidst the stars.

 

And, when the little girl awoke, on Christmas day, much to her surprise she saw that the stone child had come to life and was dancing around on the kitchen floor and laughing happily.

 

But then Agnethas two horrid cousins came down stairs, giggling, to unwrap their Christmas gifts that were under the tree in the living room and Agnetha’s wicked aunt came into the kitchen and, in a stern voice said,

 

“Now while my good little nieces are playing with their Christmas toys, you Agnetha, because you are a bad little girl will clean up the kitchen and it better be spotless, understand or I shall beat you soundly with the end of my broomstick”.

 

“Oh no”, said Agnetha to the little stone child, “Clean up the whole kitchen. What a miserable Christmas this is!”.

 

But the Stone child smiled broadly and, twirling round said, “Tish-Tosh! I shall clean up this kitchen in no time at all”.

 

And then, whizzing round about the kitchen at an enormous speed, so that she was almost like a whirlwind, the stone child started to clean up; washing and drying all the dishes; mopping the floor and

putting away everything in its correct and proper place until; in almost the wink of an eye, the entire kitchen was neat and spotless from top to bottom.

 

“Oh wow”, said Agnetha jumping about excitedly and laughing, “You’ve done it all”.

 

But then Agnetha’s wicked Aunt came back into the kitchen to see why her neice was laughing and she saw that the kitchen was all neat and clean and was very angry.

 

“I don’t know what tricks you are up to, miss”, she said, “But since you’ve done such a good job cleaning up the kitchen you can cook the Christmas dinner as well and have it laid out on the table and I mean everything; the turkey; the pudding; everything or you’ll get that beating I promised”.

 

Then her wicked aunt went out chuckling to herself.

 

“Oh, now what am I going to do?”, asked Agnetha, despairingly, “I don’t even know how to cook and a Christmas dinner is an awfully big thing to have to cook”.

 

“Tish-Tosh!”, said the stone child, “I shall have the whole dinner cooked and laid out in no time”.

 

And, just as before, the stone child went whizzing round the kitchen faster than a hurricaine, stuffing and roasting the turkey with potatoes; chipolatas and rashers of bacon; making all the vegetables and the gravy and breadsauce; boiling the pudding and even placing a table cloth on the table and laying out all the plates and knives and forks, crackers and green and red candles in silver candlesticks until, in almost the wink of an eye, Christmas dinner was prepared and ready to eat.

 

“Oh, Wow!”, said Agnetha, jumping up and down excitedly and laughing, “You’ve done it all”.

 

But then Agnetha’s wicked Aunt came back into the kitchen to see why her neice was laughing and she saw that the Christmas dinner was all prepared and the table all laid and she was very angry.

 

"That’s the second time you’ve played a trick on me, you evil child”, said her Aunt, “And I don’t know how you did it but I won’t stand for it, you hear? Now, I’m going to get my broom and give you the beating of your life”.

 

But then, just as the wicked aunt was about to pick up the broom the stone child blinked both its eyes and, by some strange magic, the broom leapt up and began to hit the wicked aunt and the wicked aunt went running out of the kitchen screaming.

 

But the broom didn’t stop there, it chased the wicked aunt and the horrid cousins right out of the house and down the road and it didn’t stop chasing them until they were far, far away.

 

“Oh wow!”, said Agnetha, hugging the stone child tightly, “You’ve gotten rid  of my wicked Aunt and my horrid cousins too”.

 

“Tish-Tosh!”, said the stone child boastfully, “That was nothing. You haven’t even seen the best bit yet”.

 

Then suddenly there was a knock at the door of the house and, running to see who it could be, Agnetha saw that it was a handsome prince.

 

“I beg your pardon miss”, he asked Agnetha, “But I have travelled a long way and I wondered if I might ask for some food; just a simple crust of bread and a bowl of soup would do”.

 

“Come in! Come in and join us”, said the Stone child, beaming broadly, “We were just about to have Christmas dinner”.

 

And then Agnetha, the Prince and the Stone child all had the most wonderful Christmas dinner and the Prince even invited Agnetha to come and stay with him in his Royal palace where she lived happily ever after.