A Cinderella tale with a moral

Another great story… besides the punchline, I like how the animals are incorporated.
By Donyale Grant
Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl called Cinderella. She led a horrible life with her Nasty Evil Stepmother and 2 Ugly Stepsisters who made her work night and day, with only the midnight hours for herself.
Her days were filled with cooking, cleaning, dusting and polishing, washing clothes, washing floors, tending to the every whim of her Step Family. Only very late in the evening was she allowed to go to her room, an awful drafty garret high up in a tower, with only her animal friends to keep her company…including some mice, a few hungry sparrows and spiders to chat to.
She would throw herself onto her bed at night, and look up into the night sky, through a hole in her roof….and wish and hope for some magic to come her way. Her ultimate dream was to run far far away from her horrible life, to meet the Prince, sweep him off his feet live happily ever after.
Her animal friends knew this wish and in hope to make her life a little easier they hatched a plan. The Mice scavenged around and found some old kindling used to make the fire in the morning for the Ugly Sisters.
The Sparrows darted around; flying to the latest balls in the Area, looking at all the latest fashions and at night time they would fly home and chirp the details to Cinderella.
Her Spider Friend supplied her with the softest finest web it could so that she could use the kindling to create a beautiful light wrap, in the simplest yet most elegant style of the day.
They wanted to help her knit the finest lightest thing she could use to help keep her warm yet transport her so far away in her imagination from her awful life, something so sheer and light that when she put it on it would seem as though the moonlight had wrapped itself around her shoulders. Something so light and ethereal, yet so small and easy to hide quickly under her mattress should the Evil Step-mother ever venture into her room and discover it.
Yet, when she tried to knit it with the sticks and the web, it snagged and broke. No matter how many times she tried to fix it, it was not to be. The simplest pattern, and the simplest idea was useless.
Until, one evening, after working so hard, when she thought she could take no more, a star seemed to fall from the sky down towards the hole in her roof.
It burst through the hole in a cloud of shimmering silver, and she found herself holding the softest yarn, the most beautiful knitting needles and with a soft touch on her head, her Fairy Godmother planted the softest
kiss on her forehead, and disappeared. She worked on the wrap, nothing difficult, a simple pattern, useful if she
could only snatch a few moments each day, and soon it was ready. She tried it on, and couldn’t believe how soft and light it was, yet how warm she felt and she soon fell asleep, cocooned in its warmth.
The next day she was awoken by the sound of a messenger’s horse, delivering an invitation to every eligible maiden in the Country to come to the Princes birthday party that evening. The Evil Stepmother thwarted
her every move to get to the party and after the Stepmother and Ugly Sisters had left, she was once again filled with despair.
The Fairy Godmother appeared and gifted her with the most beautiful dress and shoes, but ran out of time to find the perfect wrap to help complete her outfit. Cinderella reached under her pillow, pulled out her
Wrap, and the outfit was complete. The warning was issued to be home by 12 midnight and off she went to the ball. The Prince was absolutely smitten by Cinderella, a girl so beautiful, and seemingly swathed in glittering moonlight that his breath was taken away. When she had to dash away, sadly, her wrap snagged on a rose
bush and she left without it.
When the Prince came seeking the owner of the Wrap, no-one else could produce the yarn that matched the Wrap, except, of course, Cinderella, who was able to produce a swatch that she had made, and the Ball Band.
And they lived happily every after.
The Moral to the Story is
ALWAYS SWATCH
You never know when it will save you from a Disaster of Epic Proportions.