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In the long-ago times, when Naboo was just past her first blooming, there lived a loving family of a husband, a wife, and their young daughter. They were weavers by trade, and hard workers, but poor.

In the year that the daughter, whose name was Alw?, turned eight, the family moved from their longtime home in the warm lowlands of Naboo to a cooler climate in the northern hill country.

"For where it is cold," said Alw??s father, "there will be more need for our wares."

So they set up house in the hill country. Alw??s father repaired their motorized spinning wheel and loom and tended to making their little home snug and warm. Alw??s mother took wools and linens and cottons, and, with her skilled fingers to guide the loom, turned them into cloaks and shawls and blankets. Every market-day Alw? went into town with a bundle of her mother?s goods on her back. Most days she came home with nearly as many goods as she had brought, and just a bit of bread or a few credits in her pocket, but this was enough to provide simple meals for her family, and they were happy.

The months passed, and the days drew more swiftly to their close. When Alw? made her way home after a day at the market, stars dotted the sky.

One evening as she traveled home from the market with one of her schoolmates, the first snowflakes of winter began to fall.

"What is this?" cried Alw?, who had never seen snow. "Are the stars falling?"

"No," laughed her friend, "It is frozen water, called snow. In the wintertime it falls in place of rain."

"Ah," said Alw?, but privately she thought the snowflakes looked like stars, and would have stayed where she was just to watch them fall, but the wind grew chill and the sky dark, and she had to go home.

"Papa," she asked her father that night after the evening meal, "are the stars made of frozen water?"

Her father laughed heartily at that, and drew her onto his knee.

"No, my child," he said, "What do they teach you in that school of yours? No, the stars are quite the opposite of frozen water; they are made of fire, like the lights you see in a swamp, or in your mother?s neon lamp. They are much bigger than a lamp, though. Bigger than you or me, bigger than this town, bigger even than this planet." And he launched into a merry tale of the dancing of the stars.

Alw? listened intently, for she loved to hear her father?s stories, but privately she thought that perhaps snowflakes were little bits of stars that broke off and froze on their way to Naboo.

The next week, at the end of market-day, it began to snow again. Alw? had sold no wares that day, and traveled slowly and alone. She paused in her walking to look up at the sky and feel the fresh snow kissing her face. It was very pleasant, but she soon found that the snow fell much more thickly than it had the week before. In the time she had been standing there it had already blanketed the ground. So she hurried homeward.

It was slow going, and the snow fell faster and thicker as night clouds covered the sky. Alw? was only halfway home when she was obliged to stop and rest. She could not see more than a few feet in front of the place where she was.

There were no houses nearby, but by good fortune she had stopped at the base of a tall marble statue. It was a likeness of Queen Elsinor? den Tasia, the woman responsible for the colonization of the planet by the Naboo. The Queen held her arms outwards, as though in welcome, or in preparation for an embrace. The folds of her robes, white as the snow, hung down from her arms to her feet and created a little three-sided hollow; into this hollow crept Alw?, bundle and all, and pulled her cloak tight about her to wait out the storm.

She did not know how long she sat there, huddled in Queen Elsinor??s robes, but when the snow abated and the sky cleared it was still night. She stepped out and made a little curtsey to the statue.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," she said. Then she saw that if the statue were alive it could never have heard her, for its head and face and arms were covered in snow.

"N?, n?, this will never do," said Alw?, and taking a shawl from the pack on her back she carefully brushed every trace of snow from the statue. It was difficult to reach the top parts, but she was resolute, and when she had finished she tied the shawl round the statue?s head as a kerchief. Then she took a blanket from her pack and tied that round the statue?s shoulders as a shawl.

Satisfied with her work, Alw? bid the statue goodnight and ran home, the moon lighting her way.

When she arrived, her parents were most relieved to see her, and smothered her in hugs and kisses. Then her mother asked how the market-day had gone.

"I sold nothing," admitted Alw?, "But I gave a shawl and a blanket to the statue of Queen Elsinor?, to keep off the snow. I will repay you somehow, I promise."

"N?," said her father, "It is a good and a right thing you have done, to honor our ancestress. Knowing the work of our hands has been used for such a purpose is its own reward."

So Alw? went to bed tired but content, and her parents too slept soundly.

The next day, Alw? had to pass the statue on her way to school. As she drew near, she saw that the shawl and the blanket were gone, and she was distressed to think that someone must have taken them.

Then, it seemed out of nowhere, a woman appeared. On her head she wore a kerchief, and round her shoulders a shawl, and as Alw? looked from the face of the woman to the face of the statue she saw they were one and the same. In great wonder she curtseyed to the woman, her face to the ground.

"Do not be afraid, my child," said the woman. "For your kindness I wish to reward you. What is it your heart desires? Riches, wisdom, health and long life for you and your family? Only name it and it is yours."

Alw? considered her words carefully before she spoke.

"O Lady," she said, "I and my family are poor but happy, for we love one another. I do not believe that riches or wisdom or long life could make us happier. Therefore I desire that all the people of Naboo should share the love and happiness of my family."

The woman beamed.

"That is a good and noble request," she said, "And because you have done this, and not asked for blessings for yourself, I will grant your request for your people. Moreover, I will bless you and yours; you will know peace and prosperity, and from your line will come one who will be called the savior of her people ? and her children will be greater than she."

Alw? curtseyed again, and the woman held up one long white hand.

"I will also give you a gift, that all you meet may know you speak the truth when you tell of this day," she said. She extended her hand to Alw?. Resting on her palm was a small faceted stone, white as the snow. When Alw? touched it, it was cold as ice, but within it burned a flame bright as the sun.

"It is a piece of a star," said the woman, "that broke off from its home, and froze in the deeps of space on its way here."

Alw? accepted the gift silently, for her heart was too full for words. The woman smiled, and vanished. Alw? tucked the stone into her pocket, and hurried to school, full of the wonder of what she had seen and heard.

After that day, Alw? wore the stone close to her heart as a remembrance. It is said she was the kindest, gentlest, most generous soul that ever walked the earth of Naboo. And all the days of Alw??s life, the Naboo knew no sadness beyond what is common to man; indeed, they knew most uncommon happiness.