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Dust For Gold.

The creaking of the rocking chair as it swung to and fro made delightful background music. In the chair sat a white haired elderly woman. The room was dirty and needed a fresh coat of paint. Dust is everywhere; on the table and chairs even the floor is covered in dust. One could see the marks that the woman made as she went around the room. Imprints of her feet were everywhere to be found and the room had definitely not seen a duster or broom for a very long time. Light came in from the low window that showed signs of neglect and needed cleaning badly.

In the hearth burnt a small fire. By the side of the fire cut logs ready for burning. All in all, the room was, apart from the neglect comfortable enough. A wooden Welsh dresser stood against one wall and was filled with china plates and cups and saucers. In one corner was the woman’s bed; untidy it had not been made up ready for the night. The woman is humming some old song that she had been taught as a young girl. Standing in the other corner was a very old spinning wheel. The spinning wheel is well looked after and the wooden frame is highly polished. This spinning wheel is used every day.

The women stood up and stretched and her bent back straightened and her face became young. Golden strands of long lovely hair replaced her grey hair. The change was something that I have never seen before. This woman had a secret and I am determined to find out what the secret is. If you look for me in the room you will only see the items that I have mentioned and a large copper bowl. I am the copper bowl. I was sent here to this cottage to find out what went on by day the women sat and rocked in her chair she was old and untidy.

As soon as it becomes dark there is a change; the woman turns into a young lovely girl. Going to the spinning wheel she turned the wheel and started spinning dust. Yes dust. I myself could hardly believe it but as she sat and spun the dust turned into a golden thread that she caught on the spindle. The woman was spinning gold from dust. As the night wore on she had a huge pile of spun gold thread. I heard the noise of a horse outside of the cottage. A man entered and without a word he gathered up the gold and left as silently as he had come.

As soon as the man had left the girl washed herself in the copper bowl and left the cottage. I changed myself back into a shadow and followed her. She went to the nearby woods. Here she changed yet again from the lovely young woman to a beautiful Fairy complete with wings that could have been made from the gold thread spun from dust. The Fairy played with the other Fairies until dawn then she changed back into a young woman and went back to her cottage here she changed again back to the elderly woman. Sitting in the rocking chair and humming the age old tune that she had learned as a girl.

I now knew what went on inside of the house but I had yet to find the reason for her Changes and for the gold that she spun. I decided that on this night when the man came to collect the gold thread I would follow him perhaps then I could find out the secrets of the house and the two people involved I stayed the whole day as a copper bowl and waited for the man to appear. All happened as it had done the day before. The old woman rocked in her chair and then as it got dark she changed into a young girl and started spinning dust into gold.

I heard the horse gallop up to the house and the man picked up the spun gold. I slipped out of the house and as the man came out with the spun gold I followed him. Luckily for me the man’s horse trotted slowly enough for me to follow. Through the woods to a house that had seen better days here he dismounted from his horse who trotted off to a shack which was its housing. I followed the man into the house I wore my invisible cloak and he placed the spun gold into a small furnace and melted the gold into a bar. The bar of gold he placed in a box under his bed.

Taking some hair from a comb that was laying on a table I left the house and went to Her Majesty Queen Feeana. I explained my story to her and gave her the hair from the comb. Her Majesty placed the hair on to her magic mirror and we saw the following pictures. The man had caught a Fairy and because she would not tell him any of the Fairy secrets he cast a spell. The Fairy would by day become an old woman sitting in a rocking chair by night if she spun enough gold she could go back into the woods and be with the other Fairies.

The gold she must spin from dust. The Fairy of course had to use magic to get the dust to become gold thread and it was this gold that the greedy man was storing in a box under his bed. Both Her Majesty and I said that this must stop at once and the man who was a Wizard should lose all of the gold and become a poor man without his knowledge of working spells. In this way all Fairies in future would be safe and the man being poor would have to work hard for his living. Her Majesty waved her wand and the Fairy appeared before us. She thanked Her Majesty for setting her free and me for my help.

The wizard was now a very poor man and he had to chop down trees and cut it into firewood to make a living. He was a very lucky man Her Majesty could have turned him into a stone block. The cottage with the spinning wheel burnt down. A spark that flew from the fire touched the logs of wood to the side of the fire. The cottage burned down with all of its contents. The fire destroyed the spinning wheel and no more gold could be spun from dust.