Sylvain and Jocosa and The Yellow Bird: Classic Folk Stories and Traditional...

Sylvain and Jocosa and The Yellow Bird: Classic Folk Stories and Trad...

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful and intelligent little boy and girl named Syvain and Jocosa who lived in the same village. Although they were the best of friends, their parents refused to speak to each other, due to some old family argument, which had actually taken place so long ago, that nobody remembered what it was about.

Still Sylvain and Jocosa loved each other dearly and were always together. They fed their family's flocks of sheep together every day, and spent all their free time out in the meadows and by the freshwaters, playing and resting in the sunshine, talking and laughing, and telling each other made-up stories.

One day, in her invisible form, the Fairy of the Meadows came across them, and she stayed for awhile, watching and listening. The fairy was touched by how kind and lovely they were to each other, and she decided to befriend and take care of them.

Then, she went to them often, and seeing how much they loved to give each other little gifts and treats, she began to leave them little fairy gifts and treats too. Even though they could never see her, and had no idea where the gifts had come from, they received them with great excitement and wonder, accepting them as magical surprises, perhaps from the fairies; they were always overcome with joy, and so was she. And the older the children grew, the more the fairy loved them.

One day in the summer, when Sylvain and Jocosa were grown, the fairy decided to make herself known to them, and she chose a moment when they were sitting in the shade of a flowery hedgerow, sheltering from the midday sun. At first they were startled by the sudden appearance of this beautiful, slender fairy, dressed all in green, and crowned with a garland of flowers. But when she told them that she had always loved them and watched over them, and that it was she who had given them all the little fairy gifts, they greeted her with great excitement and happiness and the three chatted eagerly and warmly together for some time.

Until at last, when the fairy bade them goodbye, she asked them not to tell anyone else that they had seen her, but she said that, from now on, she would come to visit them more often in her physical form, and that she would also be with them at other times, even when they could not see her, and then, saying this, she vanished.

After this time, she did come to visit them more often in her visible form, and little by little, the Fairy of the Meadows blessed them more and more, as she began to teach and show them some of the many great secrets and wonders of the fairy kingdom.

Many years had passed, and the fairy was growing old, when at last she said to them one day, "You know that I have always loved you and taken care of you, and given you so much," and Sylvain and Jocosa agreed, very much so, that they were very grateful to her for everything she had done.

"Well, now I would really like you to do something special for me in return." she said, and they both said that they would like to do that very much.

She said, "You know the waterfall that I say is my very favorite?" and they said yes, "Please promise me that you will clear and tidy it every morning. Before the sun rises each day, and you go to work, you will clear it of any new leaves and all the debris and stones, that sully the waters and block its progress. And if you will do that for me every day, without fail or delay, and my waterfall is always the clearest and sweetest in all the meadows, I will take it as a sign of your sincere gratitude for everything I have done for you, and I will also grant you one more very special blessing."

"Because you have, all your lives, had such a close and loving bond," she continued, "and because there are so many things in a lifetime that can tear true friends and lovers apart, like the ancient and forgotten feud between your families, I would like to cast you with the spell, that under no circumstances shall you two ever be separated."