Stone Soup

Tom Russell had just arrived at the edge of a small village. He looked at the neat little houses and the vegetable gardens that circled the town square.

“Maybe folks here will have work,” he told himself. “Perhaps they will even share a scrap of food.”

Tom knocked at the first house. “I don’t need your help,” an old man said angrily.

“Sir, then perhaps you could spare a carrot or a few beans from your garden,” Tom asked.

“I have no food to spare,” said the man. He slammed the door shut.

Tom looked towards the house across the road. A woman quickly closed her shutters.

And the others in the village refused to even open their doors.

No one wanted to help poor Tom.