The Importance of Lore
Once upon a time there lived a maid whose job it was to clean a castle from top to bottom. But she felt cleaning was a fair trade; for, after all, she lived in a castle, and that made her feel very fancy. One day a old wise woman arrived at the king's behest. She was given a modest room, for she was not so important a guest as to warrant anything of particular splendor. But she was not so unimportant that the maid wasn’t sent to set the fire and to dust. The wise woman thought nothing of ‘importance’ or ‘unimportance,’ and sought a friendship with the maid, telling her of wisdom’s crafts and of its lore. In a few days’ time the wise woman left, having imparted what answers she could to the king’s queries; just enough time for the maid to have begun to learn the beginnings of the wise woman's trade. Which is why the maid went with her. For it will always be better to learn lore than to live in a castle.