Peasantry and Pleasantry: A Fractured Fairy Tale
The following is a short story I wrote for my English 287 (Creative Writing) class at NC State University in the spring of 2010. Rupert Windelbaum was a fine young man, poor but proud. Not that he was proud of being poor, but he was determined to provide for himself. He wasn't going to be one of those beggars on the side of the road. Rupert was what they call a subsistence farmer – that is, he grew enough food to feed himself. He lived on a small plot of land on the western edge of Hackenshire, in a small thatched-roof cottage he had built himself nearly three years earlier. He would have liked to have a family, but that would mean he'd have to make more money to take care of them. The only money he made was from scrounging together some leftover crops and taking them to market in Hackenshire every Saturday, and most of that money went to paying homeowner's taxes and market booth rent. It was a simple life, but Rupert didn't mind. He had his panflute to keep him oc...