The Gift

Once many, many years ago there lived a humble woodcutter.  This woodcutter was well loved in his village.  He worked hard and always fulfilled his obligations.  His home was a handsome cottage in a forest clearing not far from the village.  He shared this cottage with his wife, Elbertha.

Elbertha the woodcutter’s wife was a lovely woman with dark brown hair and eyes, but she was vain with a cold heart.  No one who knew Jared, the woodsman, could explain why such a gentle man had chosen such a wife.  But he had, and in no time their union was blessed with a child.

Mara, daughter of Jared and Elbertha, entered the world quite dramatically one harsh fall day.  Jared was deep in the forest chopping wood and his mother was with Elbertha.  It was nearly a month before the child was due, but Elbertha began having pains just after breakfast.  By the time Jared returned that evening he was a father.  Mara had been named by her mother.  She had jet black hair and chestnut colored eyes.  She was beautiful and healthy but very small, as if she’d always be small.

The woodcutter was content.  His daughter became his joy.  As the weeks passed and winter set in, she grew only sweeter and lovelier.  Jared spent his spare time with Mara.  It helped him stave off the selfishness of his wife.

One morning Jared woke to another of Elbertha’s tantrums.  This time it was the rocking chair he had made for her when he learned Mara was coming.  Elbertha claimed his craftsmanship was inferior; that the chair hurt her when she would sit to rock the baby.  She further demanded he make her a new one right away.  So Jared bundled himself against the cold, kissed his 2 month old daughter on the forehead and trudged out into the snow.

Jared’s quest for the most superior wood led him deeper into the forest than he had ever been before.  He was surprised, therefore, when he came across a small cottage.  The ramshackle walls were nearly falling down, and no trace of smoke rose from the chimney.  Thinking to go in for a moment to escape the bitter wind, Jared walked up to the door and turned the handle.

A soft, pitiful wail made him stop in his tracks.  It sounded like the mewling of a sick kitten.  Slowly, he pushed the door open.  What met his eyes horrified him.

Across the one room shack lay a woman on an old bed.  She was quite frail, but very fair and even comely.  Next to her was a small baby.  The baby was making the pathetic sound Jared had heard.  The woman tried to lift her head to look at him, but did not have the strength.  She assumed he was a thief.

“Go ahead, take what you want.  Just do not hurt the child.”



Jared closed the door and slowly advanced.  “Madam, I would not harm either of you,” he said.  “I am only a woodcutter out to find wood to make a chair for my wife.  I thought your home was abandoned and came in to warm myself.”

At this a glimmer of light entered the woman’s eyes.  “I thought we would die alone,” she whispered.  “What is your name, Woodsman?”

“Jared.”

“I am Alaine and this is Channa, my daughter.  My husband left us months ago.  I have done my best, but I had no one.  Channa came a month ago and I was alone.  Now I am dying.  We are out of food, we have no wood and the cold has become too much for me.  I know I will die soon and I thought until now Channa would die with me.  Bur now you are here and you can help her.  You said you have a wife.  Is she a kind woman?  Would she take in another woman’s child?”

Jared did not know how to respond.  Already Elbertha treated Mara like an accomplishment, as though she was a badge and not a daughter.  How would she react if he brought a stranger’s child to her to raise?  But how could he refuse Alaine’s dying wish?

The woodcutter looked at the baby.  She was the frailest thing he had ever seen.  He doubted very much if she’d survive another day.  Then it came to him.  He would take Channa and give Alaine peace in her last moments.  She need never know her baby would die anyway.

Jared knelt down by Alaine and took her hand.  “Madam, I promise you that your daughter will never know another day’s suffering.  I will take her and care for her as best I can.”

“Thank you, Jared!  Oh, thank you!”  Tears came to the woman’s eyes and she squeezed his hand with all her might.

Jared hardly felt it.  She was so weak her strength had gone.

“I made some clothes for her before she was born.  They are in the chest at the foot of the bed.”

The woodsman knelt by the chest and opened it.  Alaine had been an artist with her needle.  The baby clothes, booties and blankets were exquisitely hand crafted; far superior to anything he’d seen in a shop.  He turned to tell her so, but stopped.  In the moments he’d been away from her side she had died.



The forest ground was frozen so Jared could not bury her, but it seemed wrong to just leave her on the bed.  He didn’t really know what to do.  So he used his axe and cut up a section of the floor, then dug a shallow grave in the dirt for Alaine’s body.  Even under the house the ground was nearly frozen, so it was hard work to fashion a fitting hole.  He then wrapped the corpse in a blanket from the bed and placed the bundle in the grave.  Jared said some quiet prayers as he covered the body and replaced the floorboards.  Then he turned his attention to the baby.

Channa had stopped crying the moment her mother died.  For a moment Jared had thought them both dead.  But she was yet alive, so after he buried her mother Jared bundled both Channa and her clothes and set off for home.

Night had set in.  The cold was intense.  As he walked the woodcutter continually checked the baby for signs of life.  He had convinced himself she’d be dead before he sighted his chimney, but the air seemed to revive her somewhat.  Miraculously she had not gotten her mother’s illness, but was poorly nourished and still very small.  But for the first time that day hope mingled with fear in Jared’s heart.  Hope for the baby girl who might just survive, and fear for how his wife will react to their new daughter.

Elbertha was waiting when he came home.  “Where have you been?” she demanded at once.  “You should have been back hours ago with the wood.  You shouldn’t make me worry about you so.  And what is that you’re carrying?”

“I did not cut wood for your chair,” her husband began.  “I went very deep into the forest today.  I was looking for the best wood for your rocker, but I found a run-down cottage instead.  Inside were a woman and her baby.  The woman was dying, and she begged me to take the baby.  I promised her I would care for the child, though in truth I did not expect the baby to live.  I still don’t know what to expect.”  And with that he showed Channa to his wife.

Elbertha’s nose wrinkled with disdain.  “So you just promised a stranger you would raise her child?  Jared, how could you?  We have a baby of our own.  And that baby is so puny, smaller than even Mara was when she was born.  I don’t think it’ll live through the week.  Mark my words; you should have buried it with its mother.”

“But she was still alive!” protested the woodsman.  “I could not bury a child alive.”

“Look at her!  She’s as good as dead now.  Did you even think how you would feed her now that her mother is gone?  I certainly have no milk to spare.”

Jared had to admit he had not considered that problem.  “But I have to try, Elbertha.  I gave that woman my promise.  If God intends this child to live, I will do my best to see that she does.”

At that, Elbertha threw up her hands in disgust, snatched Mara from her cradle and went into the bedroom.

Nothing could be done for Channa until the next day, but as soon as dawn broke Jared carried her into the village.  First he sought out the minister and told him of poor Alaine.  Then he bought a goat to milk for the baby’s meals.  After that he spoke to several friends and their wives to gain helpful advice.



All knew Jared as an honest man.  No one questioned his story of the dying mother in her dilapidated cottage and his promise to care for the baby.  Women cooed and fussed over Channa’s fair blonde wisps of hair and her bright blue eyes.  One woman, Joan the butcher’s wife, offered to care for the baby while Jared worked.  Though she did not say so, Joan knew of Elbertha’s vanity and suspected she would not welcome Channa if Jared was not around.

It was decided that in the spring Jared would lead a group of men back to Alaine’s cottage so they could clear it away to make her a proper grave.  Until then, with the help of Joan and her husband, Jared fed Channa goat’s milk and watched her grow stronger and healthier every day.  Elbertha preferred to disapprove in silence, particularly after seeing how readily all her husband’s friends and family accepted Channa’s presence.

When the spring thaw had passed and Alaine had a proper grave in the woods, Jared took baby Channa to the site and planted a sapling to mark Alaine’s resting place.  He thought it only right Channa know of her mother and promised her then he would tell her everything he remembered about Alaine.  The baby smiled up at him as if in understanding.

Eight years passed and the small village watched Mara and Channa grow up as sisters.  Under their father’s gentle guidance they grew kind and lovely.  Elbertha, however, grew to disdain Channa venomously.  She begrudged the child her presence in the home, her friendship with Mara and her love for Jared.  From a very early age, Channa understood from Elbertha that Mara was Jared’s true daughter and Channa had no claim to his affections.

It did not matter to the girls, however.  They adored one another.  They were as precocious as any young girls could be.  Every year, hands clasped together, they would follow their father into the woods to Alaine’s tree where Jared would sit with the girls and relate to them the story of how Channa came to be part of their family.  Mara would throw her arms around her sister and cry with her as Channa mourned the mother she would never know.

But it was not to last.  Every day that passed saw Elbertha become increasingly bitter and cruel to Channa.  She would treat Mara like a princess, but would treat Channa like a servant.  Channa was given only Mara’s cast off clothing to wear and was never allowed to wear a new dress even if it had been given to her as a gift.  And since Mara was only slightly taller than Channa, the blonde sister had practically outgrown any clothes before they were given to her.

As if that were not bad enough, the moment Jared left in the mornings would begin Channa’s day of chores.  It fell on her to do the sweeping, mopping, straightening, dusting, and laundry while Mara was allowed and even sometimes ordered to go outside and play.  Mara’s gentle heart could not bear watching her sister work so very hard without wanting to help, but mostly she feared disappointing her mother too much to interfere.



Jared was not blind to Elbertha’s cruelty to Channa.  For him it was simple--Elbertha was his wife and Mara and Channa were his daughters.  Although he dismayed over his wife’s behavior, he did not know just how to resolve the problem.  Channa was invited to spend many of her days with Joan’s children, but she would miss her sister.  And then Elbertha would complain to Jared that he did not trust her, and how can he make her look so unfavorable to their friends?

One particular night, the girls clung to one another in Mara’s big bed and listened while their parents argued.

“How can you be so unreasonable to her?” Jared was saying.  “She’s only a little girl.”

“She’s not my daughter!” exclaimed Elbertha.  “Or yours for that matter!  How can you expect me to warmly accept an interloper into our home?  And think of the time you spend with her.  That is Mara’s time with her father!  How can I love anyone who insists on taking my daughter’s father away from her?”

“What if Mara had not been the only child you bore?” Jared protested.  “I hardly think you would have treated another child the way you treat Channa.  But it doesn’t matter to me how she came to be part of our lives!  I am the only father she has ever had and you her only mother!  She is my daughter every bit as much as Mara.  I love them both.  Why can’t you?”

“How can you ask me that?  She is not our child.  She is a stranger’s child!”

“I love her!” the woodcutter repeated.  “And you are my wife.  Can you not at least try to accept her?”

Mara jumped as she heard her parents’ bedroom door slam.  Elbertha must have stormed off into her room.  Channa clung to her sister, too afraid for a moment to speak.  She hated to be the source of such contention within her family.  Sometimes, she wished her father had never found the shack in the woods.

After a time, Channa slipped out of Mara’s arms and padded across the room to her chest of clothes.  Without speaking she laid out a blanket and began piling her clothes in the center.  Mara watched as Channa put her baby clothes at the top of the pile, tied the ends together, and stood up.

“What are you doing?” whispered Mara.

“I’m going away,” Channa replied.  “I can’t stand Papa being so unhappy.  Everyone will be better off with me gone.”

Mara thought about that.  Perhaps Mother would be happy, but she and Papa would be very sad without Channa.  She scooted off the bed and began packing her own clothes in a bundle.

Now it was Channa’s turn to ask.  “What are you doing?”



“I’m going with you.

“Why?”

Mara didn’t really know how to say what she felt.  “Because I want to.  Now, we have to wait until Papa goes to sleep.”

As it turned out, both girls fell asleep waiting for their father to go to bed and did not wake until just before dawn.  It was Mara who woke first.  She roused her sister and hand in hand they snatched up their bundles of clothes and disappeared into the darkness.

Jared was the first to notice the girls were gone.  Elbertha was still sleeping when he stormed back into the bedroom and woke her.

“Channa is gone,” he said.

Elbertha rolled over.  “And?” she questioned grumpily.  “She probably went out to pick flowers or something.”

Jared stopped, as if seeing his wife for the first time.  “No, their clothes are gone.”

The woman bolted up in bed.  “Their?”  Panic edged her voice.

“Yes.”  Jared paused at the door.  “Mara is gone, too.”

“My baby!”  His wife flew after him.

The woodcutter rounded on her.  “No!” he shouted.  “You gave up that right.  It’s because of your selfishness our daughters had to run away to be together.”

Elbertha watched him go, silent for once.

Jared first went to the village to get help looking for the girls and then he led the way into the woods, for he had a good idea which path they had taken.

Channa wanted to say goodbye to her mother so the girls first went to Alaine’s grave.  They stayed for almost an hour, eating yesterday’s biscuits for breakfast.  It had been Mara’s idea to grab food from the kitchen before they left.  After that they continued deeper into the woods. 

As best as Jared and his friends could figure, they weren’t too far behind the girls.  Hopefully, Mara and Channa would make frequent stops.  With any luck the men would catch up to them sometime that afternoon.

The woodcutter’s daughters proved resourceful, though.  Night had fallen, and they were cuddled together in their blankets making plans when Jared saw their campfire.  He began to run; all the while shouting their names.

“Mara!  Channa!”

At first the girls were frightened by the sounds, but soon recognized their papa’s voice.  The day alone in the woods had made both girls long for him, so when he appeared they threw their arms around his neck and cried tears of joy.  Overcome with relief he hugged them both over and over.

When he found his voice, Jared looked at his girls.  “Why did you go?  Why couldn’t you talk to me?”

“Mama was so upset, Papa,” Mara said, “and Channa was going to go alone.  I didn’t want her to be alone.”

Their father sighed.  “My charming daughters, I love you so very much.  I am sorry I could not protect you from every pain.  Mara, your mother loves you, but she has not been able to welcome Channa into her heart as you and I have.  She is often unkind and unpleasant because she feels I wronged her by bringing Channa home.”

He looked at them closely.  “But it must stop.  It hurts us all too much to let this coldness continue.  I cannot bear to lose either of you.  I promise you girls I will do everything in my power to show your mother the error of her thinking.  We will work something out.  I cannot say how, right now, so don’t ask me.  But I promise you both we will have a safe, loving home.”

Channa said very softly, “Why doesn’t Elbertha love me, Papa?”

“I don’t know,” responded Jared as he hugged both girls fiercely.  “I don’t know if I’ll ever understand how anyone could not love you as Mara and I love you.”