Great story about how ego will always kill my windows of opportunity. This is an excellent to read to students because it gives them a chance to the importance taking the windows. ( )

1. The plot begins as the three brothers set off to seek their fortune they encounter an elderly beggar women who tells them their fortune lies only three days away in a castle on the top of a mountain. In this castle there lives a king who is upset because a great oak tree blocks the light from his windows. The king would also like a well filled with water as there is no water source on the mountain. For all of this he has promised to pay that person his weight in gold. Peter and Paul are very rude to the woman and scoff at her request for help. Boots on the other hand stays behind, gives the old woman a coin and helps her with the load of sticks she is carrying. Boots was rewarded for his kindness, patience and generosity. The women shares the secrete to cutting down the tree and digging the well. There is a secrete to these tasks. Not one man has been successful at cutting down the tree or digging the well and when they fail the king sets his dogs on them. “Whenever you ask a question, do not rest until you find the answer”, this is the advice the women gives to Boots. As the brothers go on to the castle there are several sounds that are heard. Boots ponders what those sounds might be and diligently seeks out the answers. His brothers on the other hand sit lazily assuming they will complete the tasks of cutting down the tree and digging the well with little effort. Boots however, remembers the advice of the old woman. His efforts to find the answers to his questions are rewarded by finding the only tools that can complete the two feats. This I felt was the hyperbole in the story, Boots seeking the answer to his questions and in turn finding magic tiny tools that enable him to cut down the tree, dig the hole and fill it with water. Just because we seek the answers to our questions does not mean we will immediately find a magical answer. In the end the two oafish brothers are chased off by the king’s dogs and Boots is awarded the gold and half of the kingdom. Kind boy that Boots is he insists his brothers be made keepers of the king’s dogs.

An excellent story with a 'good samaritan' type storyline. Boots was the only one to stay and help and in turn was the only one to receive the advice that untimately led to his fortune. The illustrations were wonderful and fit with the Norwegian ancestry of the tale.