A Winter's Tale: The Story of The Farmer's Family

once upon a time …

In a small village, there was a poor farmer living with his small family in a tiny house.

He had two lovely children. After his wife gave birth to their first child, she passed away.

Two years later, he married another woman and the second child was born.

When the winter came, the stepmother worried about her dear child, so she immediately sewed him a coat and stuffed it full of cotton. She gave her child the warmest coat she had ever made.

However, she was scared of being scolded by the farmer, so she made another coat for the other child. The first child received the coat and wore it immediately. On the next day, the whole family went to the town nearby.

The two children both wore their new coats. The farmer was so satisfied. However, when they were on their way, the farmer noticed that his first child was shaking. Then he looked at his second child, his cheeks were ruddy and showed no sign of being cold. He shouted : “why do you keep shaking while wearing a warm coat ? If other people look at you, what will they think about your stepmother ? Stop shaking !”

He used a big rod and whipped his child's back with anger. After the first whip, the whole coat became tattered. What fell out of the coat was not the warm cotton but it was hard and long straw.

The father was shocked. He couldn't believe his eyes. He stared at the stepmother. she trembled and couldn't even look at the farmer. The farmer couldn't believe his wife would treat his poor son in this way. He angrily announced that the stepmother would no longer live in their house.

However, the first child immediately went down on his knees and begged : “Father please! don't evict her! If you do, then my brother will not have a mother to live with! i don't have a warm coat but i can put more clothes on. But my brother, he would lose his mom forever!”

The farmer was amazed and he was very pleased. He rubbed his son's head and consented. The stepmother was shocked, she couldn't believe the child she hated the most, would care about both her and her dear child. She hugged the kind child and from then on, she treated the two children the same.

One cotton coat for the second child, and one cotton coat for the first child. And in the end, their family lived happily together throughout the cold winter.