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I cut off my own hands for the promise of a cherry tree. My father never taught us better, and my mother– she was so deep in worry, keeping the world turning like the stream under a great millstone...

Seven swans flew down from heaven each evening at sunset. They flew to the stubbled cornfield to eat, and each swan had a silver star on its forehead. One day, the youngest swan took off her star and hung it on a tall stalk of corn, or was it on the branch of a reaching oak tree?Anyway, she set it down… and when the time came to leave and fly back up into the sky with the others, she could not find it again.

He wasn’t afraid to go alone, because he wasn’t alone, not at first. His shadow stretched long in front of him and led the way. Any time the young horse doubted his path, he only had to look at Shadow leaning, leaping forward. Shadow rippled and skipped over the brush and bushes. Shadow flowed across the rocks and down into valleys, disappearing and merging with the soft, dim pocket of earth before hurdling up over the ridge on the other side...

Once, there was a poor wretch whose eyes and hair and even skin were often gray. Who ‘went to sleep in her dirt’ night after night for lack of a bathtub, for want of the ease of hauling water, or extra wood for heating the fire. And she was all the more sorrowful for thinking she was to blame for it...

I would like to know why this is hard , said the prince. I would like to know why the hedge is so thick and the thorns are so sharp, and why, after I have come all this way and done so many brave deeds, I can’t take this last step. What does Valor do, at its best? How do I learn to be the prince? And… is the final task to wait? * My life is stable now. Out of the great upheaval of the pandemic came incomparable goodness: independence, kinship, love. It would seem I shouldn’t

Here is my 'Simple Story' retelling of a folktale. You can also read about my process, including making a list of Plot Points for oral storytelling, looking for symbolism or links to other stories, and considering what, if anything, I'd like to change. A boy played so many tricks on his sister that she grew to fear nothing, always guessing any loud noise or spooky figure or bump in the night was his doing. Their family lived near the church yard, and often spread their washin