3 Stone Soup

Stone Soup retold by Pam Holden illustrated by Kelvin Hawley

Once upon a time, a young man was lost in a thick forest. He walked along the forest path, trying to find the way home. He felt very hungry and thirsty. Suddenly he saw a small house through the trees. He hurried to the door and knocked loudly.

An old woman answered his knock. "What do you want, young man?" she asked. When he told her that he was lost and hungry, she said that she didn't have enough food for herself. The young man was very surprised because he could see plenty of vegetables in her garden.

"Would you like me to make you some soup?" he asked. "I love soup! How can you make soup for me?" she said. The young man showed her something that he carried in his pocket. "I will use this," he told her. "But that's just a stone!" she said in surprise. "No, it's a special stone called a soup stone," he told her. "If you put a pot of water on your stove, I'll cook you some delicious soup."

As soon as the stone was rattling in the pot of boiling water, the young man got a spoon to taste the soup. "Is it ready yet?" asked the old woman. "It's very nice, but I wish I had a carrot to put in it," he said. "I have a few carrots," said the old woman, and she hurried to the garden to get them. Soon they were boiling in the pot with the stone.

When the young man tasted the soup again, he said, "It's delicious, but it would be even better if only we had a little bit of meat to put in it." "I've got a tasty piece of meat in the kitchen," said the old woman. Soon the meat was boiling in the pot. After trying the soup again, he told her, "It tastes very nice, but some milk would make it nicer still." The old woman gave him a jug full of milk. "Here's some milk, and here's a little bit of salt, too," she said.