A Fairy's Christmas Gift
Many years ago a very young girl, snuggled deeply in her blankets one cold December night, was thinking of all the things she wanted to ask for at
Christmas when she was startled by a Fairy who suddenly appeared before her and said: "Shhhh! I have been sent by Father Time to give you a very special Christmas present. It is a present for you and you alone."
The fairy handed the surprised young girl a package, and in an instant was gone.
The young girl opened the package immediately and found in it a beautiful book, covered in leather with her name in gold, with pages as pure and white as the snow when it first falls. “Surely it must be a very special book” she thought as she drifted off to sleep quite puzzled.
Many years passed and the book, long since forgotten, sat on a shelf in the young woman's bookcase. Occasionally the young woman would think about the night long ago and the mysterious fairy who had delivered it in passing, but she had not picked up the book in years. Time passed and life went on and in what seemed like a blink the once young woman found herself pausing to look in the mirror as she got ready for bed. Her hair no longer golden had now turned grey, and her face once so youthful and smooth was wrinkled and old.
That night, the Fairy came again to the now old woman. "I have brought you another book," she said, "and will take the first one back to Father Time who sent it to you."
"The book? I haven't thought about it in years.” The old lady said as she climbed slowly from her bed. She searched through her closet for quite some time before finding a dusty old box in the top of her closet. “I'd like to write something on the last page if I may before it is returned” said the woman.
"No," said the Fairy; "I must take it just as it is."
" May I look through mine just once more," said the tired old woman; “As a young girl I drew pictures and wrote on the pages in the book but I could only see one page at a time, for when each page turns over it sticks fast, and I can never open the book at more than one page each day. I would love to see those things again. "
"You shall look at your book," said the Fairy, And she lit for her a very old silver lamp, by the light of which the woman saw the pages as she turned them.
The old woman looked in wonder. Could it be that this was the same fair book she had been given so many years ago? She remembered so vividly the clean, white pages, as pure and beautiful as the snow when it first falls, Here was a page with ugly, black spots and scratches upon it; while the very next page showed a lovely little picture. Some pages were decorated with gold and silver and gorgeous colors, others with beautiful flowers, and still others with a rainbow of softest, most delicate brightness. Yet even on the most beautiful of the pages there were ugly blots and scratches.