The Glass Hill

Once upon a time, there were two brothers. The older brother, Martin, had so much money he could buy anything he ever wanted. He was rich, but he wasn’t at all generous. His heart was as cold and hard as stone and his mind was dark.

His younger brother, Albert, was the exact opposite of Martin. He was always kind and helpful to everyone, no matter who they were. He gave to others even though he was so poor he sometimes didn’t even have food to eat himself. He always saw the good in things.

On one particularly freezing night, Albert went to his older brother’s house to ask him for help. It was in the middle of the winter. Poor Albert had no coal for heat and no food to eat, so he asked his brother if he could borrow a small bag of coal and a little food.

He hadn’t eaten in three days, he told his brother, but Martin didn’t care that Albert was cold and hungry, and he laughed at him cruelly and slammed the door shut. “Starve or freeze, it’s nothing to me!” he called through the door as he locked it.

Albert decided to go to the forest to look for food. He only had his thin wool coat and trousers, and his boots had large holes in the bottom. But he was hungry, so he began walking. He wandered around the woods for what felt like hours. He searched helplessly for anything he could eat, his teeth chattering, until it started to get dark and night fell.

It was completely quiet except for the lonely hooting of an owl. Hungry and shivering, he sat huddled on the cold, hard ground. His boots were nearly in pieces now from the long walk.…