Far away in a little Kandyan village(Sri Lanka),perched on a little hill,was a cottage whose only occupants were a poor widow and her daughter. Behind the house was a forest. Every morning after a scanty meal of cold rice and plain tea the old widow saw her daughter off to the village school and then set about tidying up the house and fetching firewood from the forest. Sometimes of an evening when the household work was done, Rohini would go to the edge of the forest, sit down under a shady cadju tree and read or learn her lessons. She was intelligent and fond of books, and her great desire was to attend a school like the big Convent which her rich cousins attended. But she knew that her hopes could not be realised because she was poor.
One evening, while she was sitting in her favourite place under the cadju tree, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder,and on turning round, she was amazed to see a stranger with a noble countenance.
He asked her the way to the neighbouring village and for some information about it. She answered him courteously and ,when he bade her goodbye he held out a little parcel to her. Rohini did not know whether to accept it or not, but seeing his kind and smiling face,she took it and ran home as it was getting dark.
Excitedly she unwrapped the parcel, but she was very disappointed for it was only a mirror. Something, however, attracted her attention. Round the edge of the mirror were the words "At the next sunset hasten to the cadju tree and look for me".
From that time onwards Rohini was restless and anxious.
She could not sleep that night thinking of the mirror. The following evening,at sunset, she hastened to the forest with the mirror clasped in her hand.She stood under the cadju tree and looked into it. She saw a very large building with a spacious lawn in front of it. In th midst of a great number of girls who who were playing a game she saw herself. She could hardly believe her eyes.At once she ran home and told her mother her story, but her mother gently chided her for letting her imagination run wild! So Rohini put away her mirror and did not think any more about it.
One day on her way to school Rohini was alarmed by a continuous cry of pain, and on tracing her footsteps to the spot from where it came, she saw a little girl of her own age lying in a small muddy ditch. No one was about the place, but Rohini had the sense to pull her out, and finding the child was covered with mud, asked her where she lived.
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The child replied that she lived with her uncle, not far off. On her way to school,she had chased a large butterfly and she had missed her footing and fallen into the ditch.
Rohini went with Isabel to her home which proved to be a large, well-furnished house.A kindly gentleman, Mr.Gary, uncle of Isabel,thanked Rohini for having been so helpful and showed his gratitude by inviting her to spend the next evening with Isabel.
Rohini was only too glad to accept the invitation. Rohini spent a delightful evening with her new friends. Mr Gary was so delighted with her simplicity and good nature that from that time Rohini became a freguent guest at Isabel's home.
Not long after, Rohinis mother died and there was no one to look after her.
Mr Gary,who had by now learnt to love Rohini as much as he loved Isabel, adopted her as his own child and sent her to the same school as Isabel.
On the first day, as they walked to school, Rohini wondered what sort of a place i was. She was excited and happy. At last they reached the school and Rohini
stood silent with amazement for there, before her, stood the same large grey building,with the spacious lawn before it, that she had seen in her magic mirror.
THE END
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