The Wooden Boy

Far, far away, there was a little wooden house by the edge of the forest. A skilled woodcarver lived there with his beloved wife. They had no children and they felt lonely in their house.

One night, the wife said to her husband: “Listen, you are truly skilled and your hands have made so many different things out of wood. What if you carve us a little baby?”

The idea appealed to the woodcarver, so the next morning he got up early. He wanted to start fulfilling his wife’s wishes right away. He sanded down a nice piece of wood, and in a few moments he had carved out a little baby boy. Having finished, he brought the baby to his wife, and even though it was made of wood, she treated it like a real live baby. She held him lovingly, rocked him in a little cradle and sang to him. And then, suddenly – a miracle! Something incredible happened – the song brought the little boy to life.

His parents decided to call him Woody – they thought this name suited him best.

The boy grew like a weed. Soon he had become a young man, and he asked his father to make him a fishing boat out of wood. His father dived into working on it right away and soon the boat was finished. With this boat, Woody would fish for his family and it helped them a lot. Every morning he’d go to the sea where the birds would sing to him, and his caring mother would bring him lunch every day, singing from the sea shore:

“Come, my Woody, my dear boy. Come to the shore and eat some more.”

And when Woody heard this tune, he would rush to meet…