This happened log long ago Norway. There lived a poor woman who had seven children. She worked day and night but she did not have enough to feed all of them. One day she sent her oldest daughter Katrinele to the forest to collect mushrooms.
Katrinele came back with only half a basket and she said “Mamelle, don’t get upset, I did not spend all my time in the forest but instead I went to the village to find some work. I got a job in the Hendrick’s farm”
The woman said “Why?!! That man is a miser”. Katrinele said “But he was the only one who was willing to give me a job. He promised 3 gulden at the end of the year”.
The mother was upset. She said “Oh Karinele, why did you do that. Now he will make you work very hard and will cheat you in the end and not give you the money”. But Karinele said “Oh Mother, even if he does not pay me, he will still give me food as long as I work for him”.
Oh what a horrible job it was! Such fussing and hard work and not a drop of praise! Katrinele and a milkmaid called Liese had to milk a very mean cow called Grumble every single day. What were the girls to do? But they thought about what their moms said. Their mom had told them, "drink milk everyday without fussing. Then you will become strong" That kept the girls strength up and kept them strong.
So every day, they would
work work work , milk the cow and drink the milk,
work work work , milk the cow and drink the milk,
work work work , milk the cow and drink the milk,
One day Katrinele went to the forest and heard a strange sound “meow”.
She looked around “meow, meow”.
What do you think it was? She looked again “meow’. And what do you think she saw? … a tiny little kitten. It was all white and small and soft.
She took it home secretly, crept up to her room which she shared with Liese. Every day she would get a tiny scrap of food that nobody could eat and sneak to her room to feed kitty.
But one day, she forgot and left the door open and kitty walked down the stairs.
Oh No!! Hendricks was just coming into the house when he saw the kitten. “How dare you keep a kitten and give it a lot of food? You are fired. I will not give you the 3 gulden that I promised”.
“But, Sir, she cried, that food was only scraps. Nobody could eat it!”. But No….. Mr Hendricks would not listen and Ketrinele had to pick up her cat and all her clothes and walk, walk, walk sadly all the way home. She was very sad because now her mother would have to give her food as well as to all her sisters and brothers.
She came home and her sisters and brothers and mom all hugged her tight and said “We are so glad you are back”. They named the cat Runaway and tried to hug her too. The cat moved back, back, back and all of a sudden there was a knock on the door.
Katrinele opened the door and whom did she see? It was a tiny old woman who was as tall as a two year old and dressed in a brown cloak. That was Mother Holdra! “I am looking for my tiny white cat. Do you have it”. “Yes I do” cried Katrinele “Come in Come in”.
(Do you know who Mother Holdra is? I will tell you at the end of the story)
“How did you run away, little cat? I searched and searched and searched for you!”
Mother made tea for the old woman and made her sit in front of the warm fire while Katrinele told her the whole story. “Oh poor Katrinele, you lost your job because of Runaway” said the old woman. “Look in your window when you wake up tomorrow. I may have something in return for you”. The children woke up the next morning and there was a recipe for an elderberry tonic on a piece of tree bark. They made a lot of it and sold it in the market every single day and never went hungry again.
They have a lot of stories about Mother Holdra in Norway. They say she lives in the clouds. When it snows, they say that Mother Holdra is shaking her bed linens. Shake Shake shake, so the snow flakes come down to earth. Have you seen what is above the clouds? On the plane to India? ..... I dont know, but that is what they say.
