Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin Read Online Free PDF Page B

fluttered around my hands and the straw and the bobbin.
    “Gold! Gold! Gold!”
    I fed the straw into the wheel.
    Whir, whir, whir .
    I spun the straw.
    My breath caught in my chest. I stopped, unable to believe what I was seeing. In my hand were bits of straw, but around the bobbin were glowing, shimmering threads. I brushed my fingers over the threads, smooth and warm. Gold . I had just spun straw into gold.
    I let my breath out and my whole chest swelled. Straw! More straw! I scrounged for more straw on the ground, all the little bits I could pick up. I fed them through the wheel. More gold! I ripped open my mattress and pulled out the straw. Who needed a straw mattress when you could sleep on gold?
    I laughed and chanted rhymes as I spun.
                     One gold thread
                     Will buy me bread
                     A pile of thread
                     Makes a crown for my head
    Whir, whir, whir .
    I fed the straw into the wheel, rhythmically pulling and twisting it, and it made the most beautiful sound as it transformed into gold. A tinkling song, soft yet vibrant. More pixies burst from the crevices, and they all danced on the gold, twittering and screeching, “Gold, gold, gold!”
    I laughed. I loved the pixies! I slid the silky gold off the bobbin and onto the floor to make room for more. I spun all the straw in my mattress. I spun until morning broke through the little window and sunlight made the gold glimmer. I stood and admired the fruits of my labor. A fortune lay at my feet. Enough to feed me and Gran for the rest of our lives!
    Gran was still sound asleep, though the sky was lightening. Lately she slept until after I left for the mines, but I was so excited, I wanted to wake her and show her our fortune. This was my destiny, to be rich and fat and happy!
    A shadowy movement caught the corner of my eye. I jerked around and saw a figure ducking beneath the window. I ran to the door and stepped outside. Two people were running down the street. Against the rising sun they were just two black shapes, but I knew those hulking outlines well. Frederick and Bruno.
    I started to shake. All the excitement drained from me. I didn’t care why they had come here or what trick they had been waiting to play. I was only worried about one thing.
    Had they seen the gold?

CHAPTER SEVEN
Gold Means Food
    I tucked the gold beneath my blankets. The warm happiness I had felt at seeing all that gold fizzled as fast as snow on a hot griddle. Now I had a weighty, guilty, heart-pounding, sick-to-my-stomach dread.
    I didn’t leave for the mines when I should have. I sat on top of the gold and thought of all the things that could happen. Frederick and Bruno might think I stole the gold. If they told, I could be arrested. I could go to the dungeons for the rest of my life, or even lose my life.
    I had to tell Gran. Gran would know what to do. But when she rose from her bed, she looked so old and tired, so pale and stooped. I couldn’t tell her. Any more weight on those shoulders and Gran would crumple to the ground. And I remembered the way she had reacted when I first found the spinning wheel. She did not want me to spin, and now I realized it wasn’t because I couldn’tdo it, but because I could spin more than thread or yarn. I could spin straw into gold. And Gran had tried to keep me from doing it. What kind of magic was this?
    No, I could not tell Gran. But I needed to tell someone because I felt heavy with worry, and I wouldn’t know whether my worry was real or not until I said it out loud to someone. The only person I could think of to tell was Red.
    When Gran wasn’t looking, I removed the bobbin from the spinning wheel, wrapped it in a rag, and tied it to my waist.

    I didn’t see Frederick or Bruno in the mines. Any other day this would have made me happy, but today it made me anxious.
    The pixies swarmed around me more than ever. When I threw dirt