Story Time

The plot is set in motion when a king finds that golden apples that grow on a tree in his garden are going missing. It is found out that the apples are being taken by a golden bird. A single feather from the bird is worth a fortune. The kings three sons each go out in turn to search for the golden bird.

Hans has been working hard for seven years but wishes to return to see his poor mother. His master pays him his wages which amounts to a lump of gold the size of his head. Hans puts the gold in a handkerchief and starts out on his journey jogging but soon becomes tired. He spots a rider on horseback and seeing the ease at which the horse travels he offers to exchange his lump of gold for the horse. Happy with the exchange, the man gives him the horse and Hans rides off. The horse bolts and Hans gets bucked off, whereupon he meets a shepherd who convinces Hans to trade his horse for a cow.

Jorinda and Joringel, two lovers engaged to be married, went for a walk in the forest. They came too near to the witch's lair. She turned Jorinda into a nightingale and petrified Joringel to the ground. Once she had carried away the bird, she freed Joringel, laughing that he would never see Jorinda again.

In a sometimes meandering, intermittently rhyming narrative, Page retells the Brothers Grimm tale about four animals who set out to make a new life for themselves after their masters reject them.