Tell Me a Story (21 traditional stories from the British Isles dramatised by J.D.Graham), страница 2

2. THE STORY OF THE TWO SISTERS

This story is about two sisters.   Their names were Kate and Clarissa.   Now, the younger sister, Kate, was very kind and good-tempered, but the older sister, Clarissa, was not.   Kate and Clarissa lived with their parents in a nice little house and they would all have been very happy except for one problem:  they had no money and no work.   So Kate decided go to and look for work.   She said goodbye to her parents and sister and set off.   She walked a long way and then came to an apple tree.   The apple tree spoke to her.

“I need someone to help me”, it said.   “I’ve been waiting for a long time and I need someone to shake my branches and let the apples fall off.   The apples are so heavy that I can’t stand up straight.   If the apples don’t fall off my branches will break.”   Kate felt sorry for the apple tree

and so she shook the branches and the apples fell off and the tree stood up straight.   “There you are,” she said.   “That’s sorted that out.”   The tree was very grateful and thanked Kate and she replied “Don’t mention it.”

Kate walked on until she came to a house.   In the house lived a witch.   “I need someone to work in my house”, she said.   Well, Kate needed someone to pay her wages so she agreed to work for the witch.   The witch told her what she had to do - and what she must not do.   “You have to cook and sweep and clean”, she said, “but there is one thing that you must not do.   You must never look up the chimney.”   “Why not?”, asked Kate.   “Because if you look up the chimney something will fall down on you and you will come to a bad end,” replied the witch.

So Kate promised not to look up the chimney and she started work.   She worked very hard in the witch’s house and she worked for a long time.   She wanted her wages but the witch wouldn’t give them to her - not yet.   Then one day the witch went out and Kate continued to work.   She was cleaning the fireplace when some soot fell down the chimney and Kate forgot what she had promised and looked up it.   To her astonishment a bag of gold fell down the chimney.   “My wages,” she said, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”   And Kate left the house and ran away as fast as she could.   Soon the witch came back to the house and realised at once that the gold had gone - and that Kate had gone with it!   “I need that gold and I’m going to get it back”, she cried.   And she set off to follow Kate.

Kate had not gone very far when she heard the witch coming after her on her broomstick.   She ran to the apple tree and called out:  “Help me!   Apple tree hide me so the witch can’t find me.”   The apple tree agreed immediately.   “You shook my branches and helped me to stand up straight”, it said.   “One good turn deserves another.   Hide in my branches.”

Then the witch flew down and asked the apple tree if he had seen a girl.   It told her it hadn’t seen Kate and the witch flew away.   Kate got down from the tree, thanked the tree and then set off for home once more.

When she got back with the bag of gold, everyone was surprised.   Her parents were very pleased but her sister Clarissa was rather annoyed.   “How did she get a bag of gold?   I want a bag of gold too,” she said.   Kate told Clarissa that they didn’t need another bag of gold - they had enough.   But Clarissa wanted a bag of gold and as soon as she had heard Kate’s story, she said goodbye to her parents and sister and set off.

Clarissa walked a long way and at last came to the apple tree.   “I need someone to help me,” it said.   “I’ve been waiting for a long time.   Please shake my branches and let the apples fall off.   If the apples don’t fall off, my branches will break.”   But Clarissa wouldn’t shake the branches of the apple tree.   “One apple’s enough for me.”   And so saying, she picked an apple off the tree and ate it.   Then she walked along until she came to the witch’s house.  The witch needed someone to help her.   So, just like her sister Kate, Clarissa agreed to work for the witch.   “You have to cook and sweep and clean”, she instructed “but there’s one thing you must not do.   You must never look up the chimney.   If you look up the chimney something will fall down on you and you’ll come to a bad end.”