Learning English

Darren
Hello again. I'm Darren. Let's find out if turning a roomful of straw into gold will impress the king – and why a little man is so keen to help a girl perform this incredible trick…

Next morning, the king is overjoyed by what he sees but still thinks he can get even more gold. He's been crying out for a woman who can make him this rich, so he promises her that this time, if she succeeds, she will be his wife. You know what happens next?! The little man appears offering to help her – but this time, in return, he makes her promise that if she becomes queen, she is to give him her first child. Creepy! Reluctantly, she agrees.

Now the king is very impressed and he marries the girl and she becomes queen. But a year later, when she gives birth, the little man arrives demanding the baby. When the baby starts to cry he says "if you can find out my name within three days, you can keep your child."

The challenge is on and she asks everyone across the land if they know the man's name but nobody knows.  It's not until the third day that a messenger reports finding a little house in the mountain where a ridiculous little man was dancing round a fire singing about having the queen's child and being called Rumplestiltskin.

'Aha!' the queen thinks. That's it – and she asks the little man. He's furious because she is right. "Oh, for crying out loud" he shouts and in his rage he pushes his right foot hard into the ground creating a big deep hole which he falls down, down, down into, crying out...and is never seen again. Wow, he was angry!

So the queen keeps her child – but I'm not sure she really wanted to marry the king. I blame her father! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story and will join me for a very different one very soon. Bye for now.