The boy and little great lady.
From Very Short Stories by W K
Clifford.
Age Rating 8 Plus.
Start of Story
She was always called the "little great lady," for she
lived in a grand house, and was very rich. He was a
strange boy; the little great lady never knew whence he
came, or whither he went. She only saw him when the
snow lay deep upon the ground. Then in the early
morning he swept a pathway to the stable in which she
had once kept a white rabbit. When it was quite
finished, she came down the steps in her white dress
and little thin shoes, with bows on them, and walked
slowly along the pathway. It was always swept so dry
she might have worn paper shoes without getting them
wet. At the far end he always stood waiting till she
came, and smiled and said, "Thank you, little boy," and
passed on. Then he was no more seen till the next
snowy morning, when again he swept the pathway; and
again the little great lady came down the steps in her
dainty shoes, and went on her way to the stable. But at
last, one morning when the snow lay white and thick,
and she came down the steps as usual, there was no
pathway. The little boy stood leaning on a spade, his
feet buried deep in the snow. "Where is your broom?
and where is the pathway to the rabbit house?" she
asked. "The rabbit is dead, and the broom is worn out,"
he answered; "and I am tired of making pathways that
lead to empty houses."
"But why have you done it so long?" she asked. "You
have bows on your shoes," he said; "and they are so
thin you could not walk over the snow in them--why,
you would catch your death of cold," he added,
scornfully. "What would you do if I wore boots?" "I
should go and learn how to build ships, or paint
pictures, or write books. But I should not think of you
so much," he said. The little great lady answered
eagerly, "Go and learn how to do all those things; I will
wait till you come back and tell me what you have
done," and she turned and went into the house. "Goodbye," the boy said, as he stood watching for a moment
the closed door; "dear little great lady, good-bye." And
he went along the unmade pathway beyond the empty
rabbit house.