Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-01-31
DAILY SHORT STORY
The Task of Flax.

There was once Il mother who had
very ugly and bad daughter of her own
that she was very fond of and very
beautiful and good stepdaughter that
she hated and wanted to get rid of, but
she didn't know how in the world she
could get rid of her, so she went and
asked the hen wife's advice.
The hen wife says: "I'll tell you how
you can get rid of her. There's an old
church below, and no one ever yet
spent the night in it and came out of it
alive. You order your stepdaughter to
go and sit up in it all night, working
fax, and she'll surely be dead in the
morning"
Home the mother went, and she or
dered her stepdaughter to get ready
and go off that night TO work task of
fax in the old church, and for fear that
she might escape whatever should hap
pen to her in the church during the
night she put n very great task of fax
before her that fifty women couldn't
do in one night and threatened to have
her life in the morning if she did not
have it done.
The poor girl took her wheel and all
with her that night and went off to the
church and sat down and began her
work.
But she wasn't long sitting at her
work when she heard a great noise, and
in there came a great, wild looking
ghost, and he sat down on the seat be-
side her and said that he wanted his
feet washed and his hair combed, for
they hadn't been washed or it hadn't
been combed for 700 years.
''Oh, then, poor fellow" she says.
I'm sorry for you, and I'll surely help
you all l can"
So she laid her fax aside, and she
washed his feet and combed his hair
very, very nicely indeed.
And when she had finished the ghost
said: ''In 100 years I've never met as
good girl as you. Can do anything
for you?"
Well said she, 'Fve stepmother
who isn't good to me and has put be-
fore me this night task that fifty
women couldn't do, but 1 don't know
whether or not you can help me. I've
all that flax you see there to work and
have woven into cloth before morning"
"Sit down at your ease there" says
the ghost. says he. land I'll soon do
this task for you"
So he took a breaker that was seven
miles long and broke the flax; he then
took a scratching handle seven miles
long and a block seven miles wide and
scutched ii; he then took Glove that
was seven miles long and cloved it, and
he took a hacker that was seven miles
long and hacked it. and a wheel that
was seven miles high and spun it, and
reel that was seven miles round and
reeled it. and a loom that was seven
miles wide and wove it into cloth.
And when he had all this done he
gave her a comb that every time she
should put it into her hair would comb
bag of gold dust out of it.
In the morning early, when the moth
er came to the church to see if she was
dead, she was astonished to find her
there alive and well, with all of her
task done and all the flax made into
cloth, and to see her with this comb,
combing a bag of gold dust out of her
hair.
She asked her how she had worked
all the fax and how she had come by
the comb, and she told the stepmother
that q ghost came and worked the fax
for her and presented her with the
comb.
When the Stepmother heard and saw
this. she said she would give her own
daughter a chance in the church that
night, so that she might get such val
liable comb too. So on the next night
she sent her own daughter to the
church with a task of flax.
The daughter hadn't been long sit
ting at her work when tie wild big
ghost came in and sat down beside her
and asked her to wash his feet and
comb his hair. for it hadn't been done
for 700 years before.
But she told him that she was no
scullion to wash his feet or comb his
hair and that she would be very sorry
to do it, and the ghost struck her down
with his hand, and she was dead.
When the mother came before day
had dawned in the morning to find If
she had done her work and got the
golden comb, the ghost was there wait
ing for her and struck her down with
his hand and left her dead beside her
daughter.
But the good girl who had been kind
to him thrived and prospered from that
day, and it wasn't long till she married
a handsome and beautiful young prince
and lived happy ever after.
SEUMAS MACMANUS.