back / next / The Black Walnut Tree 33
People shunned the Tailor’s children, as if the Devil’s progeny. The girls and their little brother were turned out of the cottage and made to be beggars, allowed to keep the clothes they wore and the walnut shells in their pockets.
The eldest daughter, clever like her mother, knew more than she let on. She managed by stealth to take the Golden Bone and the Magic Mirror. She hid Grandmamma’s rib inside her own walnut shell, and Grandpapa’s mirror inside that of her sister. For her brother, she was able to obtain nothing, so his shell remained empty.
The children walked away from the city and into the north country, entering the endless roads of the wide world.