Excerpt

Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who were poor and very old. They had never had any children, and this was a great trouble to them, for they foresaw that in a few years more they would not be able to grow their beans and take them to market.

One day while they were weeding in their field (that with a little cabin was all they possessed—I wish I owned as much!)—one day, I say, while they were getting rid of the weeds the old woman spied in a corner, where they grew thickest, a small bundle very carefully tied up; and what should she find in it but a lovely boy, eight or ten months old to look at, but quite two years in intelligence!

He had been weaned; at all events he needed no pressing to partake of boiled beans, which he raised to his mouth very prettily.