Once upon a time, not so long ago, in a small house in a small village in the east of a big country, there lived a widow with lots of children. She was young and quite beautiful, and she lived in a small house with her mother and father and all of her children.

The family were very poor and were always hungry because there was a war on and their country had been invaded by a foreign army. They grew cabbages and carrots in their back yard. They also had a chicken, which provided the family with eggs, but still they were hungry.

The children did not go to school because all the schools were closed. They were even banned from learning their own language! However, the children were lucky because their mother had been the cleverest girl in her class when she was younger, and so she was able to teach them everything they needed to know. At night, she taught them to read and write. And every day she took the eldest children into the forest to show them where the edible mushrooms grew. She showed them which plants were poisonous and which roots you could eat, and even which plants had juicy leaves which could be chewed. But still the children went hungry.

One day, early in the morning, while everyone was upstairs in bed, there was a knock-knocking sound at the door.

‘Don't answer it!’ said Grandma. ‘It might be soldiers coming to take us away!’

‘Don't answer it!’ said Grandpa. ‘You might be arrested for teaching the children!’

‘Don't answer it!’ cried the children. ‘We're scared!’

‘Don't be silly. Soldiers don't knock! It might be a neighbour who needs our help,’ said the widow, and she went downstairs to open the door.

But the widow was wrong. When she opened the door there were indeed two soldiers. One fair and one dark, both dressed in grey uniforms, both with guns thrown across their shoulders. The fair-haired soldier held up a big, dirty sack.

‘Oh!’ gasped the widow.

‘We are working in the fields today and we want chips for lunch. Here, cook these!’ he said, and pushed the dirty sack into her hands.

‘And we'll be back at twelve noon,’ said the dark haired soldier. ‘Have those chips ready by then.’ And with that, the soldiers turned around and headed off towards the neighbouring farm.

‘Chips,’ thought the widow. ‘What are chips?’

By this time the entire family had come scurrying down the stairs to see what was happening.

‘What are chips?’ she asked them. But none of the family had ever heard of such a thing, not even her Grandma and Grandpa.

‘What's in the sack?’ asked the children.

‘Is it a cat?’ enquired the youngest.

‘Or flour?’ suggested the eldest.

‘Or a present from Father Christmas!’ exclaimed the greediest.

But it was none of those things. When the widow opened up the sack, she revealed big, lovely, muddy, white-fleshed new potatoes. The family all gasped in amazement. They had not seen so many potatoes since before their father went to war.