A fairy tale I read when I was in elementary school. My memory is a bit vague, though.
There was a girl living in a poor town. She was the kind of person who always put others before herself. Not only was she kind to her own younger brother, but to all the children in the town as well. Once, she received a rare allowance, and even then, she bought sweets and shared them with the other children. Everyone scrambled to eat the sweets, so she only got a tiny crumb for herself, but even so, she just smiled brightly.
After Christmas one year, the girl saw a wealthy-looking woman holding a Christmas tree made of glass. Both the tree and the ornaments were made entirely of glass, but among the decorations, the girl was especially fond of a peacock ornament. As she stared longingly at the glass tree, the woman noticed and gave it to the girl, saying, "I was just going to throw it away anyway." When the girl rejoiced, the other children gathered around and envied the tree. Then the girl told them, "I'll share the ornaments with you." The older children had noticed that the girl liked the peacock best. Thinking that if another child asked for it, the girl would end up giving it away, they praised the other ornaments to steer the younger kids away from wanting the peacock. Thanks to their efforts, only the peacock ornament was left on the tree in the end. The girl smiled happily.
That night, the girl woke up to the sound of her younger brother crying. When she asked what was wrong, he said he had been sleeping while holding an ornament he'd been given, but dropped and broke it. The girl hesitated for just a moment, but in the end, she smiled and gave him her peacock. Her brother immediately stopped crying and fell asleep holding the peacock, but a little while later, in the darkness, the girl heard the sound of the glass peacock breaking.
And that's where it ends. The fact that she hesitates for just a brief second at the very end is heartbreaking, and the peacock breaking leaves such a bad aftertaste.
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