Delmar Lemming's Tale of The Three Travellers

(Here is a tale we used in class recently. It is my version of a longer story told by my friend Batya Podos of El Paso, Texas. Please note that this tale is for sharing so pass it along. I provide just the basic story sketch. Use your own imagination to embellish and develop the tale. Make it your own!)

Three friends, a carpenter, a tailor and a holy man, were travelling together through the countryside. They grew tired as night approached and decided to camp in the woods for the night. They built a fire for warmth and agreed to take turns keeping watch. First the carpenter was on guard while his friends slept. As he sat by the fire, he spied a log of wood on the ground nearby and decided to carve it. He worked for three hours until it was his time to give up watch. He had carved a beautiful woman. The tailor woke and took his place beside the fire. He spied the beautiful wooden woman and thought it was a great pity she had no clothes. From his rucksack, he pulled out satin, velvet, cotton, lace and other materials. In three hours he fashioned a gorgeous dress which he put on the wooden figure. She looked like a real live woman. When he finished, he went to sleep and the holy man took watch. He saw the wooden woman and decides to call on the great spirits to breathe a soul into her so she can be a real flesh and blood woman. He prays until dawn and nods off to sleep as the morning birds greet the dawn. At dawn, the woman stands before the three sleepy friends as they wake. She greets them with the news that she is love and she wants to marry one of the three men, the man who has captured her heart. But I can’t remember which one he was! Let me know what you think.