The Quiet Witch

    Once upon a time there was a little witch named Rebekah. She was very quiet. She liked to read books and play with her toys. She didn't want to fly on her broomstick or say spells like her friends.

      Her parents thought she should be noisy and fly outside and play with her friends more. One day they told her, "You are too quiet! Go outside and play."

      So Rebekah went outside. She held her broomstick in her hand and sighed. She didn't like to fly; it made her dizzy. But she flew up anyway and joined her laughing friends playing broom tag in the air.

      She played with them for a while, then stopped. "I don't want to fly and be noisy. I want to be a quiet witch!"

      She sat on a bench by a small stream, and soon she was all alone. Her friends had all flown away. Then she heard a sound. It was very quiet. Every time she moved, she couldn't hear it anymore. So she sat very still and listened very carefully.

    "Help!" she heard someone say. "Help!"

    Rebekah looked around. She didn't see anyone.

    "Help me!" the voice called again.

    "I can't see you!" Rebekah said. "Where are you?"

    "By your shoe!" the voice said.

    Rebekah looked by her shoe. She saw a little fairy. She was stuck! Her dress had twisted around a sharp point on a stick and wouldn't come off. She was trying to get loose, but she couldn't reach behind herself.

    "Please, help me!" she begged.

    Rebekah reached down and took the stick in one hand and the fairy's dress in her other hand and pulled carefully. She didn't want to rip the dress because it was so shiny and soft. After a little while she had the dress free.

    The fairy jumped into the air and shouted. It was only a little shout, because the fairy was so little, but Rebekah could tell she was happy.

    "Thank you, thank you!" the fairy said.

    "You're welcome!" Rebekah replied.

    The fairy flew off and Rebekah went back to her house, eager to tell her mother and father what had happened.

    "I am happy I was quiet," she said. "When I was noisy with my friends, I couldn't hear the fairy."

    Her mother smiled. "I guess you're right. We don't have to be noisy all the time."

    So, Rebekah learned to be noisy sometimes, and she even stopped being dizzy when she rode her broom. But she still liked to be quiet: just in case she needed to hear someone even quieter than she was.