A Christmas Tale

Once upon a time there were two children a brother and sister called Pronsel and Gratel They lived with their parents in a little village on the edge of a forestThe brother and sister were devoted to one another and rarely ventured out unless together They lived an idyllic childhood playing freely in the meadows around their house They were wellknown in the village too and were frequently to be found in the local shops and in their neighborsamp8217 housesTheir parents only imposed one rule The children were not to venture into the forest This was the Forest SoChal it was deep and dark and although there were paths and even some signposts it was all too easy to get lostThere were rumours of wolves and even talk of a witchThis witch so the story went used to live in the village where she ran a sweet shop But things had turned ugly when the sweet shop diversified and started creating and selling spells The villagers wary of the effects such things may have on them and their children objected and eventually drove her out Now she lived in the forest in a house made it was said of sweetsOne day Pronsel and Gratelamp8217s parents had to go to the nearby town on business This was nothing unusual they often left their children alone to play They had each other they knew their neighbors and everyone in the village knew themBut on this day the children decided it was time for an adventure They were going to venture into Forest SoChal and find the house of sweetsThey were though sensible children So they took with them various colored ribbons They would tie these to trees and signposts on their way in and thus be able to find their way out againThey set off and all went to plan They found the sweet house easily amp8211 it was even signposted amp8211 and the witch turned out to be a perfectly pleasant old lady who was delighted to have visitorsThey gorged themselves on sweets homemade cake and fizzy drinks These things were carefully rationed at home so this was a real treatEventually it came time to set off home and thatamp8217s when things started to go rather wrong First the children seemed to have lost their sense of direction Once they left the sweet house nothing looked familiar Nothing was where it should have been Second they had no memory of their careful preparation They couldnamp8217t find any ribbons the paths just seemed to go around in circles and the signposts which they thought were clear enough on the way in were incomprehensibleWas it possible that the legends of spells and potions were truePronsel and Gratel started to worry It was getting dark they had no idea where they were and Google Maps hadnamp8217t yet been inventedThere has to be a happy ending surely Well there is The villagers had noticed the childrenamp8217s absence guessed where they had gone and set up a search party This search party relied on tried and tested techniques The villagers were roped together with the backstop roped to the village treeThey took a megaphone and shouted for the children who eventually heard them and thus were saved The children werenamp8217t even scolded by their parents who were simply pleased to have them homePampampG itamp8217s getting tedious typing their names in full every time had learned their lesson They grew up became worthy councillors and introduced improvements to the Forest SoChal making it safe for all and protecting its wildlifeAnd what happened to the witch and the sweet house Visit your local high street and pick up a newspaper Look around you Youamp8217ll find outThe Cog Blog will be back for its 10th year early in 2023 In the meantime thanks for reading and indulging my many rants and may I wish you a Happy Christmas and a wonderful Festive SeasonClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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A Christmas Tale

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Brian Jacobs

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A Christmas Tale

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