There was a man called Jacob. He lived with his wife Mary in a small cottage.
Jacob chopped down trees and sold the wood in the local market. Jacob and Mary were poor and often a little hungry.
One day he was chopping down a tree when he heard a voice. The tree said, “I am a magic tree. Please don’t chop me down”.
Jacob was scared. The tree said, “If you don’t chop me down, I will give you three wishes.”
“OK” said Jacob.
He was very hungry, so he said “I wish I had a tasty sausage”.
There was a flash and he had a sausage in his hand. He was happy and ran home to tell Mary.
He told her and she was angry. “Why did you ask for only a sausage. Now we have only 2 wishes left”.
She shouted, without thinking, “I wish that sausage was stuck to your nose”
Another flash and the sausage was stuck on his nose. “Oh no. We have wasted 2 wishes,” Mary cried. “What will we ask for with our last wish?”
Jacob was sad with the large sausage stuck to his nose. “I can only think of one thing”, he said. “I only wish that this sausage wasn’t stuck to my nose”. Another flash and the sausage was lying on the table.
Jacob and Mary looked at each other and felt silly that they 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 