The Stolen Farthings

by The Brothers Grimm

　　

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A father was one day sitting at dinner with his wife and his children,and a good friend who had come on a visit was with them. And as theythus sat, and it was striking twelve o'clock, the stranger saw the dooropen, and a very pale child dressed in snow-white clothes came in. Itdid not look around, and it did not speak; but went straight intothe next room. Soon afterwards it came back, and went out at the dooragain in the same quiet manner. On the second and on the third day,it came also exactly in the same way. At last the stranger asked thefather to whom the beautiful child that went into the next room everyday at noon belonged? "I have never seen it," said he, neither didhe know to whom it could belong. The next day when it again came, thestranger pointed it out to the father, who however did not see it, andthe mother and the children also all saw nothing. On this the strangergot up, went to the room door, opened it a little, and peeped in. Thenhe saw the child sitting on the ground, and digging and seeking aboutindustriously amongst the crevices between the boards of the floor,but when it saw the stranger, it disappeared. He now told what he hadseen and described the child exactly, and the mother recognized it, andsaid, "Ah, it is my dear child who died a month ago." They took up theboards and found two farthings which the child had once received from itsmother that it might give them to a poor man; it, however, had thought,"Thou canst buy thyself a biscuit for that," and had kept the farthings,and hidden them in the openings between the boards; and therefore ithad had no rest in its grave, and had come every day at noon to seekfor these farthings. The parents gave the money at once to a poor man,and after that the child was never seen again.

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