There was a beautiful young girl with a pure heart and good manners who lived in her step-mother’s home. Her step-mother was very mean to her, and made her do all of the work in the house, cooking and cleaning, gardening and fixing, laundry and wood chopping, for long hours, often until late at night.
One day a basket filled with seeds was sitting on the counter, and as the step-mother walked past, her elbow bumped the basket which spilled the seeds all over the floor. The step-mother became very angry and shouted at the girl: “you will pick up all of these seeds and put them back in the basket, even if you have to work all night long! In fact, you must pick up every last seed before sun up tomorrow, or you will be in serious trouble!”
The girl was frightened and began working immediately to pick up all the seeds. She worked and worked, non-stop, as night came, and the sky grew darker and darker.
She worked all night long, picking up seeds and placing them in the basket, but there always seemed to be more seeds to pick up, under tables and chairs, behind the doors.
She kept on working. In the early hours of the morning, the sky slowly began to become lighter. The girl worked harder. The sky brightened more. She worked even harder. Finally a sliver of sunlight began peeking around the side of the mountain in the far distance, shining through the window.
“Oh great Sun, please do not rise yet, I must finish picking up all the seeds and put them in the basket before sun up! Go back down for a while, I beg of you, so I may finish my task.”
The Sun heard her plea, felt sorry for the girl, and said, “as you wish,” and went back down.
The girl kept working for two more hours. Finally she completed her task – every last seed had been placed back in the basket. And the Sun rose.
The step-mother, seeing the sun rise, went to check on the girl. She found all the seeds had been returned to the basket. She checked thoroughly but not a single seed was left under the tables and chairs, or behind the doors. She has felt sure the girl would fail her task, and was furious to see the work had been completed perfectly. The step-mother could not punish the girl she had completed the task before sun up.
From that day on, the girl and the Sun were friends. At every sunrise after that, they smiled at each other with knowing joyful happiness.
I Am Dreamer 