Diamonds and Toads
A kind word drops jewels, an unkind word drops toads, and the same spring tests two sisters
Page 1
Once there lived a widow who had two daughters. The elder daughter was exactly like her mother, both in looks and in temper, and whoever met the one might have thought they were meeting the other. The younger daughter was the very picture of her late father, and she was as good and sweet-natured as her sister was proud and disagreeable. Because people naturally love what looks like themselves, the mother doted on her elder daughter beyond all reason, and could hardly bear the sight of the younger one. She made the younger daughter eat in the kitchen and work without stopping, and among her hardest tasks was walking more than a mile every day to fetch water from a spring, and carrying it home again in a great heavy pitcher.
Page 2
So the younger daughter set off, as she did every day, carrying the big pitcher down the winding path that led away from the village and into the trees. It was a long walk to the spring, more than a mile each way over roots and stones, and the pitcher was heavy even empty, heavier still once it was full. Other girls her age might have grumbled all the way, but she had grown used to the walk, and she went along steadily, humming a little to herself, stopping now and then to shift the pitcher to her other arm or to watch a bird cross the path ahead of her. She never once thought of turning back, even though the sun was already climbing high and there was still a long way to go before she reached the water.
Page 3
At last she reached the spring, a clear little pool where water bubbled up cold and bright between mossy stones. As she was filling her pitcher, a poor old woman came out of the trees and begged her for a drink, saying she had walked a long way and was very thirsty. The younger daughter said of course, and more than that — she rinsed the pitcher carefully first, then went to the cleanest part of the spring to draw the freshest water, and held the pitcher up so the old woman could drink without stooping. The old woman drank, then said, "You are so pretty, and so good and kind, that I cannot help giving you a gift." For this was no beggar at all, but a fairy who had taken the shape of a poor woman to see just how far the younger daughter's good nature truly went. "With every word you speak," the fairy said, "a flower or a jewel shall fall from your mouth."
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The younger daughter hurried home as fast as the heavy pitcher allowed, but the sun was already low by the time she reached the lane, and her mother was waiting outside the cottage, arms crossed, in a temper. "Where have you been all this time?" the mother demanded, before her daughter had even set the pitcher down. "I'm so sorry I was late, Mother," the younger daughter began — and as she spoke, two roses, two pearls, and two large diamonds dropped out of her mouth and landed in the dust at her feet. The mother stared, so astonished that for a moment she forgot to be angry at all. She had never in her life seen anything like it, and she could not look away from the little heap of jewels and flowers lying there in the lane.
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Inside, by firelight, the mother made her younger daughter tell the whole story again — the spring, the poor old woman, the kind words, the gift — gathering up every flower and jewel that fell as she spoke. The mother's mind turned at once to her favorite daughter. If one spring and one fairy could make a poor girl rich with every word, why should her elder daughter not have the very same fortune, and doubled? She took down the good silver tankard, the best one in the house, and pressed it into the elder daughter's hands. "Go to that same spring," she said, "and mind you speak sweetly to anyone you find there, whoever they may be." The elder daughter took the tankard without much interest, more because her mother insisted than because she cared to walk so far.
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The elder daughter reached the spring in no very good temper, tired from the walk and annoyed at having been sent. There she found a splendidly dressed lady, who came forward and asked, very politely, if she might have a drink of water. "Do you think I came all this way just to serve you?" the elder daughter snapped. "I suppose you expect me to go to the trouble of fetching water for you, with my good silver tankard too? Fetch it yourself if you're so thirsty." The fine lady did not argue. "You are not very obliging," she said quietly. "Well, since you are so unkind, I give you this gift in return — with every word you speak from now on, a snake or a toad shall fall from your mouth." And with that, the fine lady was simply gone, as if she had never stood there at all.
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The moment the elder daughter reached home, her mother ran out to hear all about it. "Well, daughter, how did it go?" she asked — and as the elder daughter opened her mouth to answer, two snakes and two toads dropped out onto the doorstep. "Heavens above!" cried the mother, leaping back. "What is this? It must be your sister's doing — she has brought this curse on us!" In her horror and fury she turned on the younger daughter, who was standing nearby, and ordered her out of the house that very minute, telling her never to come back. The younger daughter, frightened and not understanding what she had done wrong, gathered nothing but the clothes she was wearing and ran from the cottage into the gathering dark, too afraid even to argue.
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The younger daughter ran until she could run no further, deep into a part of the forest she had never walked before, where the trees grew close together and the path had long since disappeared. There she sank down at the foot of a big old tree and wept, not knowing where to go or what would become of her, with no home to return to and no one to help her. The night was coming on, cold and unfamiliar, and every rustle in the undergrowth made her flinch. She had done nothing wrong at all — only been kind to a stranger at a spring — and yet here she was, alone in the dark with nothing but the clothes on her back. She pulled her knees up and cried quietly, too tired and too frightened to go any further that night.
Page 9
In the morning, a king's son came riding through the forest on a hunt, and finding the path ahead blocked by brambles, he rode on alone into a sunlit clearing — where he found the younger daughter, still sitting by herself and crying. "What are you doing here all alone, and why are you crying?" he asked gently, dismounting beside her. She told him everything, from the spring to the fairy to her mother turning her out of the house, and as she spoke, flowers and diamonds fell from her lips with every word, scattering in the grass at her feet. The prince, already moved by her gentle manner, was astonished at the sight of the jewels, and fell completely in love with her on the spot. "Come with me," he said. "I will bring you to my father's palace, where you will want for nothing ever again."
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The prince brought the younger daughter home to the king his father, and told him all that had happened. The king was charmed by her gentle manner and amazed at the sight of the flowers and diamonds that fell from her lips, and before long the prince married her, and they lived happily together in the palace from that day on. As for the elder daughter, her manner grew so unpleasant, and the snakes and toads so constant, that in time even her own mother could no longer bear to have her in the house, and she was sent away for good. She lived out the rest of her days quite alone, with no home and no welcome anywhere, for no village would have her and no family would take her in. So it was that kindness at a spring was repaid a hundredfold, and unkindness was repaid in exactly the same coin.
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)
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