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.
The woman looked in wonder with tears brimming her eyes as she looked up at the Fairy at last.
"Who did this?" she asked. "Every page was white and fair as I opened to it; and it has been forgotten for so many years, there must have been pages I didnt mark on yet now there is not a single blank place in the whole book!"
"Shall I explain some of the pictures to you?" said the Fairy, smiling gently at the woman. "See,the spray of roses blossomed on this page when you let the baby have your playthings; and this pretty bird, that looks as if it were singing with all its might, would never have been on this page if you had not tried to be kind and pleasant the other day, instead of quarreling."
"But what makes this blot and scratches?" asked the woman.
"That," said the Fairy sadly; "that came when you did not mind mamma many years ago, and this scratch came when you told an untruth one day, All these blots and scratches that look so ugly, were made when you were naughty, unfair, uniust or unkind and uncaring. Each beautiful thing in your book came on its page when you were good, fair, just, kind,and gracious."
"Oh, if I could only have the book again!" said the old woman.
"That cannot be," said the Fairy. "See! The book is dated for the year in which I first came to you, and it must now go back into Father Time's bookcase, but I have brought you a new one. Perhaps you can make this more beautiful than the other."
“But I am so old and tired now” weeped the lady “What can I possibly do?”
“It's never to late,your still alive” So saying, the fairy vanished, and the woman was left alone, but held in her hand a new book exactly the same as the first, open at the first page. On the back of this book was written in letters of gold, "a most precious gift few are given, a second chance use it wisely”.
By: Deja