Week 9 Story: The Sparrow

 Once upon a time, there lived a young couple named Wesley and Lesley. Wesley was a kind hearted man who showed compassion towards every living being while Lesley was a wretched woman who fussed over the littlest of things. 

On one evening, while Wesley was cleaning around the house he noticed a small sparrow being chased around by a large raven outside the window. He opened his window to get a better look of what was going on. The small sparrow, seeing the window as an opportunity to escape, quickly flew in the house. The raven tried flying in to chase it, but Wesley swatted the raven away before he could enter. 

The sparrow was absolutely terrified. It quickly flew into a corner not knowing whether it could trust Wesley or not. Wesley picked it up and gently pet the sparrow's head. The sparrow soon realized that Wesley was trustworthy. 

Wesley and the sparrow got along quite well for some weeks. He named the sparrow Lucy and tied a red ribbon with her name embroidered on it around her neck. She would fly around the house freely. Lesley allowed Lucy to stay in the house because it kept Wesley occupied. Often times, Wesley would try to get Lesley to go on walks with him or engage in small talk with her. Leslie despised this. So, she was glad that he now had a distraction. 

However, as the weeks grew on Lesley began to grew jealous of all the attention Wesley was giving to Lucy. Furthermore, Lucy was not a quiet one. She often chirped obnoxiously all day long. Lesley decided that it was time for things to go back to normal. She devised a plan to get rid of Lucy. 

Wesley was gone in the evenings for work every day. Lesley used this opportunity to capture Lucy. Lucy started chirping loudly as she never trusted Lesley and so she knew being trapped in Lesley's clutches would not end well. Lesley had intended to just kill the bird, but decided on the spot a better punishment would be to cut her tongue off. She slit Lucy's tongue and let her go.  

When Wesley came home, Lesley told him that Lucy flew away. He waited all night long for her to come back but she never did. For days, Wesley would roam around the forest looking for her. One day, Wesley stumbled upon a small cottage in the forest. A beautiful woman came walking out. She immediately recognized Wesley. She waved over her hand and embraced him. 

Wesley was alarmed. He felt a familiar presence about the woman but could not recognize her. The woman saw the confusion on Wesley's face. She wanted to talk and tell him that she was Lucy, his sparrow, but she couldn't because of her tongue being cut off. Then, she remembered of the old red ribbon that Wesley had tied to her. She quickly ran into her cottage and grabbed the small ribbon and ran out to show Wesley. 

Wesley looked from the ribbon to the woman. Tears started to well up in his eyes. He asked if she was Lucy. She nodded and then they embraced each other once more. She brought him into her cottage and offered him gifts for all he did for her. He was to choose from a large or a small chest. He chose the small and parted ways with Lucy. 

It was late and he knew that at home his wife would be awaiting him ready to question and bicker him on his whereabouts. When he came home, she scolded him endlessly. He blocked her nagging off though. His mind returned to the small chest in his pocket. He opened the chest and lo and behold there were jewels and gold coins in them. 

When Lesley saw this, she stopped nagging. She questioned Wesley how he got a hold of this. When he told her about the larger chest she smacked him on the head and called him a fool for not choosing the bigger one. She decided the next day that she would go to the cottage and get the larger one. 

Lucy was terrified to see Lesley on her doorstep. She had a feeling this would happen though. She quickly gave Lesley the chest. Lesley walked home dragging the chest behind her. When she came home she quickly opened it. But to her surprise, there were no jewels or gold coins. There was a serpent. She opened her mouth wide and screamed. The serpent quickly bit Lesley's tongue off. 

The End. 

Author's Note: 

I kept the plot mostly the same in this story. A change I added was adding names to the characters. I also added the detail about the red ribbon around the sparrow's neck. This would act as a means for Wesley to be able to recognize the lady as Lucy later on in the story. 

In the original story, the sparrow did have her tongue cut off. However, when she was in human form she was able to talk to the husband in the story and tell him who she was. I changed this detail and decided to make the woman mute because of her tongue. That is why I added the red ribbon detail in the story. 

In the ending of the original story, Lesley was killed by the serpent. I decided to change this and have the serpent bite her tongue off so she gets a taste of her own medicine. 

Image Information: 

The Sparrow Clipart (creazilla)

The Serpent (pixabay)

Bibliography 

"The Sparrow with the Split Tongue" from the "Pink Fairy Book" by Andrew Lang (weblink)