Writing composition

The Three Gifts

My parents were godparents to an orphan, who lived with her mother in a cottage under the mountain. When the Easter and the time of offerings were drawing nearer, in our house was a lot of conversation going on about the size of the offering for the orphan. By the side of the gift belongs a flat cake filled with raisins. However, my mother opposed currant cake and thought that it was sufficient for a cake to be filled up with nuts. But that was not all. There was a custom that with gift goes also along some money. And this was also wrong as in the case of raisins. Meanwhile mother was stingier with the cake, while father was tighter when it came to money. Mother thought that she might stick one crown in the cake. At that time we fall under Austria. ‘A crown!’ shouted my angry father. ‘For silver coin I have to hew wood for entire day. A crown is too much. We are paupers, we cannot brag. Even the rich do not all give the crowns away. I got a penny, though my godfather was a wealthy man. But I am just a cottager. Add two pennies with the cake, it is quite enough.’ ‘I will not give two pennies away,’ objected my mother. ‘In that case we will be truly ashamed. We are not so poor in our house, though. Something has to be for infant’s joy. Look how happy is ours if he gets anything.’ And so, eventually it happened that two pennies were added to a flat cake. Solely of egg there was no objection, whether it should be red or uncoloured. At our house there is such a custom that gifts/offerings are dispersed on Easter Monday. At that period children are full of great expectations. The gift itself meant a great deal for a child, for a poor one it meant even more. In every house there were flat cakes, better or worse, for kids foreign stuff was far more appealing, though worse. That is why all children were very fond of Easter Monday. On Monday afternoon my mother tied up a bundle with a fine red egg. On the top of the flat cake there were two pennies. ‘Carry it cautiously that you will not lose that money;’ she inculcated before my departure. I set off towards a shack underneath the mountain. It took more than one hour to get there. Owing to poor gift/offering I was ashamed of carrying the bundle. In the middle of a path there was a great intersection where five different trails went crosswise in every direction. This particular crossing was not well written in the hearts of children all around. Old people kept saying that this intersection was haunted. I was approaching to this intersection with a heavy heart and I was glad indeed, when I noticed another boy, my schoolmate, who was also carrying gifts in a bundle and he was heading (towards) my way. Likewise I, this boy was also holding bundle pretty tight to him. When we looked into each other’s eyes our anguish entirely decreased. We became even light-hearted. I utterly forgot that that my cake contained solely two pennies. ‘Whom are you carrying to?’ I asked the boy whose bundle was bigger than mine. ‘I am taking it to Oto, to the vicinity of your place.’ ‘What about you?’ He asked me (with his inquiring eyes). ‘I’m taking it to the hut beneath the mountain.’ Then we sat at the edge of the road which was overgrown with dry heath. Clearing in the middle of the wood, where the paths traversed to every directions of the world, was bright and sunny. In the vicinity was a great wooden cross, which was already overgrown with moss. The boy, whom I previously met, lived in a well-to-do family. He wearied nice clothing, meanwhile my sleeves were already much too short. We sat for a while when suddenly a glimpse of a figure appeared in the clearing. It was a maiden and she came with the bundle in her hands. I was stunned at the glance of her. The maiden was a daughter of my godfather and she was carrying/carried a nice bundle which was meant for me. That meant she was going towards my home. The bundle in her hands was large. After she caught the sight of us, she lowered her eyes in such a manner as she was ashamed. The girl pretended as she hadn’t seen me in the first place. Besides, she wanted to carry on past us. I did not dare to speak but my comrade held her back. ‘Come here and sit down with us. Do you carry offerings/gifts? Now the three of us are all alike. Is not that nice?’ ‘I am going to your place,’ said the girl shyly and looked at me. She placed her bundle next to ours. ‘Then we will begin to eat,’ said the boy who was with me and smiled. ‘But this is your gift. It belongs to you. I object to this!’ said the girl and wished to collect the bundle. ‘I have to give away entire gift.’ I admired her decisiveness and accurateness. The three of us sat completely quiet, and we warmed ourselves which was very pleasant at the time. Later on we slowly thawed and began laughing at each other. The girl had beautiful white teeth, and she had the prettiest smile. The boy, who was with me, was a trifle taller than us two, and he started to behave goofy, that is why the girl always laughed at him. But I wanted that the girl would laugh at me. Unfortunately, that never occurred, since I did not know to say anything to make her laugh. All of a sudden the boy recommended, ‘let’s have a look inside the bundles.’ His suggestion immediately changed my mood, since I had previously noticed that my bundle was the smallest of the three. That also meant that I was carrying the smallest gift. As I looked forward to my gift, which was carried by the girl, so I was also ashamed of our poverty. Also the girl full of eager curiosity said: ‘Let’s have a look!’ Because they both wanted to see what is inside the bundles, especially as the girl also agreed, I did not dare to contradict. Firstly, the girl untied her bundle, which was very wealthy. Big yellow and nicely baked cake from which jotted out soft black raisins, shinned in front of me. On the top of the cake stuck out a bright coin which was made of pure silver. The egg, which was besides, was as gently coloured as someone had breathed into fine delicate colours. Yes, my godfather was a rich peasant and he always proved himself at the gifts. I saw that my comrade was green with envy. I proudly looked at such charming gift and forgot my own. The girl had a luxurious smile on her face. Then she had tightened it up and started to unbind my comrade’s bundle. As well as previous gift, also this one was not to scant. The cake was truly somewhat smaller from the girl’s, also less raisins jotted out but a cake was beautiful white and almost sumptuous and yellow. The top of the cake was decorated with bright crown. The offering was coloured with beautifully mottled flowers. When the girl bound up this gift the turn came to mine. I started to feel hot, and quietly I regretted that I had yielded to temptation to this rest at the crossing. The girl’s hands unfolded kerchief of my bundle. In front of my eyes lightened a small bleary cake that my mother had bound a while ago with care into a bundle. It had overdone darkish crust and it was badly risen and pretty much too low. Other two cakes were at least twice as high as mine. In addition, no raisin’s eyes jotted out. The worst of it was that on the top of the cake there was not any money glowing. On the contrary, there were only poor pennies. Afterwards the girl took the egg in her tiny hand, which was coated with heavy black red colour. The girl probably sensed my embarrassment and started to bind up the bundle with haste and she had not spoken a word. Just the boy said: There were only two pennies. Hardly two pennies, whispered I angry at humiliation. ‘That is why because we are poor.’ The boy and the girl had nothing to say about that. We had scarcely sat on the heath when I suddenly asked the girl to give me the money which was in her bundle. ‘I am not allowed to give it to you. It has to be on the cake until I come to your house and I give it to you,’ answered the girl. ‘Give me that money, this is my gift and at home they will not object.’ I asked her further. ‘What for?’ She asked with surprised eyes. Because I want it and I need it. It is so fine and bright, I almost begged her. ‘Here you are,’ said the girl, and pulled the money out of the cake and she gave it to me. ‘Only, I will tell your parents,’ that you took it on the way. I took the money and I put it with the fist into my pocket. Then we went our respective ways. The girl went to our place, my home. The boy took his way. I went towards the mountain. In the middle of the opening remained just a lonely cross. When I was in the middle of the wood, I looked around in order to convince myself that there was no one watching. When I did not notice anybody, I kneeled in front of the bundle, I pulled out two pennies out of the bundle and instead I put in that shining silver coin which gave me the girl. I felt such relief and I was light at heart when I had made this swap. I had not done anything bad with it, because that silver coin was my gift and with that money I restored the disgrace and poverty of our house. By that I did not think mostly about the poverty in the house beneath the mountain or about the joy, which that poor girl would have. I thought more of the reputation of our house and my parents as godfathers. Above the all, I thought of our misery. I neither thought of that silver coin, on which we had been counting on the entire year. Now it will be missed and I probably will not get a hat or a pair of shoes. At that time we were children, who had the sun in their eyes.

It is a lovely story. I sure/ hope that anyone would read it and correct it.

Many thanks,