the Rose

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Once there was a poor woman who had two children. The youngest one had to go into the forest every day to fetch wood. Once when he had gone a very long way to find wood， a child who was very little but very strong came to him and helped him gather the wood and carried it up to his house， but then in the wink of an eye he disappeared. The child told his mother about this， but she did not believe him. Finally the child brought a rose and said that the beautiful child had given it to him and that when the rose was in full blossom he would come again. The mother placed the rose into water. One morning the child did not get up； the mother went to his bed and found him lying there dead. On that same morning the rose came into full blossom.