The Magic Veil


A young farmer lived an impoverished existence in his little hut, but he never complained because the beauty of nature was more precious to his sensitive soul than any wealth.

One day his attention was caught by a lovely smell coming from the woods. He followed the sweet fragrance with until he reached a pine tree and saw, caught in the branches, an unbelievably beautiful veil, woven from rays of sunshine, beams of moonlight, and studded all over with stars. The young man had just disentangled the veil from the tree, when there appeared a young maiden who asked for it back. At first the young man refused, at which the unknown girl burst into tears.

'I am a nymph,' she explained, 'and without my veil I will never again be able to rejoin my sisters.'

"If you really are a nymph, then you can prove it,' said the young man, 'by dancing for me as only nymphs know how to dance.' So the maiden began to dance in mid-air, her veil flying round and round the farmer, and from the veil there fell thousands and thousands of flowers.

Later, the farmer never could tell if he had dreamt it all, or if it had really happened, but from that day on the young man rejoiced even more in the beauty of nature.

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