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Woodchopper's Luck
Folder:
Bern's Fairy Tales.
- Woodchopper’s luck.
- Long, long ago a woodchopper whose work was to chop down trees and peel the bark off of them ready to sell to the carpenter that made furniture. He made a discovery that was one day to bring him immense luck and wealth. The bark that he left on the forest floor stopped weeds and grass from growing. This at first did not seem worthwhile to worry his head about and he forgot what he had seen. Later he remembered this and was able to help the Fairies.
- Some years on a witch was so jealous of the Fairies because they could perform magic; that she thought of ways and means to upset the Fairies and their good way of life. Many a terrible plan she thought out and then discarded because her powers of magic were not strong enough to carry out her evilness. As she was going through the woods collecting herbs and grasses to make her medicines she had an Idea. Going quickly back to her cottage on the edge of the woods she placed a large cauldron on the fire and began placing herbs and grasses and the bark of some trees into it. She stirred and stirred the mixture all of the time muttering some chants that only she knew of.
- After a couple of hours the evil smelling mixture was finished and letting it cool down the witch poured it carefully into some old green glass bottles. When she was finished she walked back into the woods where she knew the fairies lived and pored the mixture drop by drop on all of the plants and grasses that she saw. For a while nothing seemed to be happening. Then all that she dropped the mixture on started to grow. It just grew and grew. The mushrooms were the size of a large cow and the grass was a tall as a small tree. The bushes were like trees and there was no way to go through the woods. The Fairies of course could fly and it at first did no bother them, but for the wild life it was a disaster the animals could not get through grass and bush work.
- An Owl that had seen what the old witch was up to reported what he had seen to the Fairy Queen Feeanna. Feeanna tried all kinds of magic to put things back to what they were before the witch had spread her mixture. It was all to no avail. The Fairies were asked to tell everyone about this terrible happening. One day a Fairy came to where the woodchopper lived and told him about the terrible things going on in the woods.
- The woodchopper suddenly remembered the bark of the trees and what he had seen so long ago. He asked the Fairy to take him to the Fairy Queen. The Fairy transported him with a wave of her wand and they were both in the Queen Feeanna’s beautiful old house. The woodchopper told the Queen his tale of the bark of the trees that he had chopped down and what happened to the grasses and weeds when the bark fell on to them.
- The Queen then gave orders that every second tree should be stripped of its bark and the bark was to be cut up small and strewn everywhere where the old witch had spread her mixture. This soon got rid of the grass and the weeds and all of the bushes that had grown out of all proportion. The fairy Queen was told of the success of the woodchoppers plan. The woodchopper was given a house and much fairy gold and the Queen told him that he could always rely on the Fairies if he needed help.
- This story is I know a true one nowadays one can buy chopped bark for the garden to stop the weeds and grass growing in a flowerbed. We can thank that first woodchopper of long ago for this information.
