THE STAR CHILD (STAR MONEY)

Star Child

Brothers Grimm

(From Repetitive Stories: A collection for young and old, Hella Coenen, 1997)

Once upon a time there was a little girl whose father and mother were dead. She was so poor that she no longer had a room to live in or bed to sleep in. And at last she had nothing else but the clothes she was wearing and a little bit of bread in her hand which some charitable soul had given her.

However she was good and pious. And as she was thus forsaken by all the world she went forth into the open country, trusting in the good God.

Then a poor man met her and said: “Ah, give me something to eat, I am so hungry.”

She handed him the whole of her piece of bread, and said, “May God bless you,” and went onwards.

Then came a child who moaned and said, “My head is so cold, give me something to cover it with.”

So she took off her hood and gave it to him, when she had walked a little farther, she met another child who had no jacket and was frozen with cold. Then she gave it her own, and a little farther on one begged for a frock, and she gave that away also.

At length she got into a forest and it had already become dark. There came yet another child and asked for a shirt. The good little girl though to herself, “It is a dark night and no one sees you, you can very well give your shirt away,” and took it off and gave that away too.

As she so stood and had not one single thing left, suddenly some stars from heaven fell down and they were nothing else but smooth hard pieces of gold. Although she had just given away her shirt, she had a new one which was of the very finest linen. Then she put the money into it, and was rich all the days of her life.