There once was a man whose name was Jacob. He lived with his wife Mary in a small cottage in the country. Jacob earned money by chopping down trees and selling the wood in the local market. They grew some of their own food but were poor and often a little hungry.
One day he was chopping down a large oak tree in the centre of the forest when he heard a voice. It seemed to come from the tree and said, “Please don’t chop me down”. Jacob stopped and looked puzzled. “Who said that?”, he said. “It was me” said the voice. “I am a magic tree and I don’t want to be chopped down”.
Jacob was a little scared. He had never heard of a magic tree. The tree said, “If you don’t chop me down, I will grant you three wishes.”
“OK” said Jacob. He dropped his axe and started to think what he should wish for.
He was very hungry, so he said, without thinking, “I wish I had a tasty sausage”. There was a bright flash and he found he had a sausage in his hand. Feeling very happy he ran home to tell Mary the good news.
When he told her what had happened she was very angry. “Why did you waste a wish asking for only a sausage”. She was so angry that she shouted, without thinking, “I wish that sausage was stuck to your nose”
Another bright flash and the sausage was stuck on the end of his nose. “Oh no. Now we have wasted 2 wishes,” Mary cried. “What can we ask for with our last wish?”
Jacob was very sad and sitting on the floor with the large sausage stuck to his nose. “I can only think of one thing”, he said. “What’s that”, said Mary who was thinking what to ask for with their last wish.
Jacob said, without thinking, “I only wish that this sausage wasn’t stuck to my nose”. Another bright flash and the sausage was lying on a plate on the table.
Jacob and Mary looked at each other and felt silly that they had wasted their wishes. But at least they had a nice sausage for dinner!
Three wishes – Questions
Where do Jacob and his wife live?
What did the magic tree say?
What did his wife think of his first wish?
What happened after each wish was made?
Why were they happy at the end of the story?
Practising English 