Page 86 - Viva Real English 3 : Ebook
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12 The Fairy at the Spring
Once upon a time there lived a widow with two daughters. People often used
to mistake the elder girl for her mother, because she looked like the mother.
The mother and the elder daughter were so arrogant and ill-behaved that no
one could live with them.
The younger girl was gentle
and sweet. No other girl of
that country was prettier
than her. The mother loved
only the elder daughter who
resembled her so closely. The
younger girl had to live in the
kitchen and work hard from
morning till night.
One of the poor child’s jobs
was to go twice a day and draw
water from a spring half a
mile away and bring it back in
a large pitcher. One day when
she was at the spring, an old
woman came up and begged
for a drink.
‘Why, certainly, good mother,’ the pretty girl replied. She rinsed her pitcher,
drew some water from the cleanest part of the spring and handed it to the
old woman, lifting up the jug so that she might drink more easily.
Now this old woman was a fairy, who had taken the form of a poor village
woman to test the girl’s good nature. ‘You are so pretty,’ she said, when she
mistake the elder girl for her mother: resembled : looked like
think the elder girl was her pitcher : a large jug
mother rinsed : cleaned with water
arrogant : proud
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