The Orange Tree

17 The Orange Tree Long ago, a child's mother died giving birth to her little girl, leaving the father all alone with the baby. He decided to take a new wife. Unluckily for the girl, the new wife did not accept the young child. As the girl grew up, the stepmother treated her badly. The girl was not given much food to eat and was always hungry. One day, she came into the house to find three orange fruits on the table. No one had ever seen fruits such as these. The girl, being starved, ate one of the oranges. It was good, so she ate another, and then another. The stepmother came home to find the special orange fruits gone. “ Someone will pay for this! " she shrieked. “ I will beat this person and make her suffer. " The young girl ran away to her birth mother's grave. She was frightened. She prayed to her mother to help her. She finally cried herself to sleep.

Unknown to her, a seed from the strange orange fruit fell from her apron. A beautiful tree grew in the night. When the girl awoke, she discovered a tree filled with the wonderful orange fruits. But it had grown too tall. The girl asked the tree to get smaller, and it did, allowing her to pick the fruits and return home. Her stepmother saw the beautiful fruits, took them from the girl, and ate them all. She ordered the girl to show her this special tree. When they arrived, it had grown again, stretching all the way to the clouds. The stepmother jumped into the tree and began to climb, pulling the fruits off and eating them as she climbed. The girl was afraid. She told the tree to keep growing. It rose all the way to the sky, then cracked and broke, sending the stepmother to her death. The girl asked the tree to come back to earth. It did as she requested, returning to the size of a normal fruit tree. She picked some of the sweet fruits and took them to the market. From that day on, she never worried about food or her evil stepmother again.