Once upon a time, in a little cottage deep in the dark forest, there lived two orphans. Their names were Johnny and Annie. Having lost their parents, they had to take care of themselves. They learned how to wash their clothes, sew, and do house chores. The forest, despite being dark and mysterious, wouldn't have dared to let the siblings starve. It offered them sweet forest berries. But then winter came and the forest was suddenly bare. There were no sweet fruits anymore, but only a strong wind blowing and shaking all the trees. Johnny was worried about their food supplies for the winter.
One day, when he went to gather wood, he heard a voice: “Help, help! Please, help me!”
Johnny at once ran towards the desperate voice, deeper and deeper into the forest, until he found an old swamp. The forest path faded into the swamp and then came out on the other side. Crossing a swamp like that was clearly no easy task, and in fact an old woman had got stuck in the middle of the mud and was screaming for help. She was carrying a bag on her back. It was so big that it had dragged her down and she couldn’t move an inch in the muddy swamp. Not hesitating for a second, Johnny broke off a very long branch from a nearby tree, passed one end to the old woman and told her to hold on. Then he pulled and pulled and pulled with all his strength. Finally, he managed to free the old woman from the swamp.
“Where were you going, ma’m?” asked Johnny, when her feet were safely back on the ground. “Well, I wanted to sell my clay pots at the market in town. My husband…
