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The
Giant Heart
Once upon a time there
was a poor farmer who lived with his daughter, Elizabeth, on
a small farm outside a village. They worked hard day and night,
and the farmer saved every penny he could until he had enough
money to send Elizabeth off to study medicine. For
years Elizabeth trained to be a family doctor; then she returned
and asked the villagers for a job. The villagers laughed at the
idea that the farmer's daughter could be a doctor and mocked
her when she showed them her medical license. After receiving
the same treatment at other villages, she returned to the farm
disheartened.
Elizabeth worked on
the farm still dreaming about becoming a doctor, and with any
spare money she had, she sent away for medical books to study.
Unfortunately, her father became ill and could no longer work. For
months Elizabeth worked all day and took care of her father at
night. One evening, after eating blueberry pie for dessert, the
farmer died in his sleep. Elizabeth buried her father's body,
but she saved his organs in glass jars and stored them in the
cellar.
After a period of mourning,
Elizabeth began to study her father's organs. She studied and
studied, learning everything she could about the human body,
until one day, she knocked over the jar that contained her father's
heart. When the heart hit the floor, it doubled in size. Then
it rolled and hit the cellar wall- making it triple in size.
Elizabeth picked up the heart and examined it; the heart then
expanded until it filled the entire cellar.
Elizabeth worried for
days; she feared the heart would grow if she touched it again.
Eventually, the heart began to beat. At first it beat slowly,
and then it beat so fast the sound was unbearable. Elizabeth
went down to the cellar and poked the heart with a rod. The heart
shook violently, making Elizabeth run outside. As she stood in
the pasture and watched, the heart grew until it destroyed the
entire house.
Then the giant heart
embraced the rays of the sun and stopped beating.
Elizabeth had no choice
but to move into the chambers of the heart and continue farming.
She lived in the heart for weeks, but the labor was very difficult.
One day she broke down in the field and cried.
"What's the matter?"
a voice asked.
Elizabeth looked up
and saw an elderly man carrying a gun. "I've lost my house
and I no longer wish to farm," she said, wiping tears from
her eyes. "I have nothing left but a giant heart."
"Well, you can
go a long way in this world with a giant heart!" the man
exclaimed. The man sat down next to Elizabeth and
looked around the farm. "Wow! Where did you get that humungous
tomato?" he asked.
"It's a heart.
It's not a toma...." Elizabeth replied.
"You should take
this to the village," the man interrupted. "It will
make you famous."
Elizabeth put her head
in her lap and sat quietly for a minute. Then she asked, "What
are you doing with the gun?"
"Oh, I almost
forgot. I'm tracking a giant that looted the village last night,"
the man replied. "The villagers plan to kill him with poison
arrows, but I volunteered to find him first."
Elizabeth rolled her
eyes and shook her head as the man went on about the giant; she
didn't believe in giants and wished the man would go away. Eventually,
the man looked to the sky and said, "I have to go. There's
not much daylight left. Don't worry. With the talent you have
for growing tomatoes, you will become rich some day."
Elizabeth spent the
next few days isolated in the heart. One morning she woke up
and went for a walk. While climbing over a small hill, she saw
a giant with two arrows in his heart. "Please help me,"
the giant said. "The villagers have shot me."
Elizabeth felt sympathy
for the giant and pulled the two arrows out of his heart. She
realized the giant was going to die, so she went home and found
the largest knife she could find. Then she rolled her father's
heart back to the giant. With all her might, she cut open the
giant's chest and replaced his heart with her father's heart. For
several days Elizabeth nursed the giant back to health. She offered
him different types of food, but the giant only craved blueberry
pie.
After the giant recovered,
he gathered food from the countryside and carried Elizabeth back
to the village. When the villagers saw the
giant coming, they hid and took up arms. However, the giant fixed
the damage he caused and left tons of food by the village hall.
"What's going on?" a villager asked Elizabeth. "Tell
the giant to leave or we will shoot him again."
"I gave the giant
a new heart," Elizabeth replied. "He won't give you
any more trouble."
The villagers didn't
believe her and were still afraid of the giant. That night a
violent storm blew through the area. Heavy rain and strong winds
ravaged the countryside, but the giant protected the village
from any harm. The villagers saw this, and they went into the
public square to thank the giant.
"It's all because
of Elizabeth," the giant said. "She replaced my bad
heart with a good one."
The villagers were
confused and didn't understand how a farmer's daughter could
replace a giant's heart. Then the elderly man recognized Elizabeth
and shouted, "There's the woman I was telling you about!
She must have fed the giant her tomato and made him healthy and
good!"
The villagers were
delighted with the story and took turns thanking Elizabeth. The
giant and Elizabeth tried telling everyone the truth, but nobody
would listen.
The giant lived for
many more years, protecting the village from harm in exchange
for tons of blueberry pies. The villagers hired Elizabeth to
grow tomatoes for them, but they soon realized her talent for
treating their illnesses. She lived happily the rest of her life,
working as a doctor and teaching the village children the wonders
of medicine.
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