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Long ago, a poor farmer and his wife had many sons. When a daughter was finally born to them, the farmer rejoiced but his wife was troubled.

"Look at her," she said. "Our daughter is so plain."

"She will become beautiful as she grows," the farmer comforted his wife. "Let us name her Shayndel, the pretty one."

But Shayndel did not become beautiful and her brothers taunted her.

"Poor Shayndel," they said. "Her nose is long. She has one blue eye and one brown one. And her hair is a mixture of red, black and blond."

They howled with laughter.

Shayndel cried when her brothers brought a mirror and forced her to look at herself. She knew she was different from the other girls.

But Shayndel was sweet and gentle and kind to everyone. She was a fine cook and could sew and sing. Her voice was so beautiful that birds in the trees stopped their own singing whenever they heard her. When the day's work was done, Shayndel hid in the pantry and cried. She could not endure the teasing of her brothers. Her mother and father thought it best that Shayndel go to work in the kitchen of the rabbi. The rabbi and his family would treat her kindly and she would be free of the taunts of her brothers.

"Perhaps you will find happiness in another place, my child," said Shayndel's mother. So the girl packed her meager belongings and rode away on the back of a donkey.

In the rabbi's house, nobody cared about Shayndel's appearance. She worked as a cook and every day the kitchen was filled with the mouth-watering smells of cholent and knaidlach, roasted chickens and latkes. She also fed the dog and was kind to the rabbi's elderly mother and his son, Yussel, a handsome young man who had been blind since birth.

In the morning, as she baked bread and strudel, Shayndel sang. In the afternoon, she led Yussel through the countryside and talked to him of the flowers and birds, the trees and sky that he had never seen. Yussel grew to love Shayndel, and she loved him as well. Still, her happiness was not complete because she feared that somebody would tell Yussel about her appearance.

"Even a blind man will not want the world to see him with a wife who is not pretty," she said. "Better the taunts of my brothers than the love of a man I cannot marry." So Shayndel said goodbye to the rabbi and his family and went home.

Yussel could not be comforted when he found that his beloved Shayndel had gone. He wished to marry her and would not accept no for an answer. On the arm of his father, Yussel came to the farm to ask for Shayndel's hand in marriage.

"Your hair feels like silk," Yussel said to Shayndel. "Your voice is the voice of an angel. If only I could see your beauty. Will you be my wife?"

But Shayndel said no.

"Why not?" asked Yussel. "I thought you loved me."

But Shayndel did not answer, and Yussel went home with his father. A few days later, the rabbi returned alone to speak to Shayndel.

"Why will you not marry my son?" asked the rabbi. "It is plain to all who see you and Yussel together that there is great love between you."

"I cannot marry your son because I am not comely," Shayndel said, in tears.

"My child!" said the rabbi, "In my eyes and my heart, you are lovely."

At last, Shayndel agreed to marry Yussel. For a few months they lived happily in a small cottage near the rabbi's house.

One afternoon a sudden storm blew up. Rain slammed down in heavy sheets, wind roared through the trees, and the sky grew black with swirling clouds. The storm raged as Yussel made his way home from the fields where he had been walking with his dog. Shayndel, who had come to find him and lead him to safety, watched in horror as a tree fell.

A branch hit Yussel's head, knocking him to the ground. He lay motionless for several minutes and Shayndel feared he was dead. She knelt at his side, wiping the rain from his face with her shawl. The dog licked Yussel's hand as if trying to wake him from sleep.

The brief storm ended and the sun came out again. At last Yussel opened his eyes. Slowly he sat up, shielding his face from the sunlight with one hand. With the other hand he touched the wet grass.

"I can see," he said softly. He blinked again and again to clear the blurred shapes. As his vision cleared, he looked around him at the sky, the trees and the wild flowers, and he began to weep.

At first, Shayndel was happy, but when Yussel stood up, she hid her face in her shawl. Yussel turned to her and gently parted it. He looked at her long nose and her multi-colored hair. He saw two eyes, one blue and one brown, full of tears. She was the first woman he had ever seen.

"How beautiful you are!" he cried, and hugged her. "Now I must see my mother and father, my grandmother, and your parents. I want to see everyone I love and everyone I know."

Shayndel took his hand and led him through the village, with the dog yelping at their heels. They stopped at every house to greet their neighbors.

That night, when they returned home, Yussel said, "I have a secret to tell you, Shayndel. Promise me you will not repeat what I say." Shayndel promised.

"The women of this village are homely!" Yussel told her. "Both their eyes are the same color. Their noses are too small and each has hair of only one shade."

Shayndel laughed. "I will not tell anyone," she replied.

"How lucky I am to be married to a woman of such rare beauty," Yussel said. "I am the luckiest man in the world."

In the years that followed, four daughters were born to Yussel and Shayndel. All had their mother's long nose, one blue eye and one brown, and hair a mixture of three colors.

"I am the happiest of men, surrounded by the most beautiful women in the world," said Yussel.

Shayndel smiled and said nothing, for she was truly the happiest of women.

Toby Rosenstrauch, an award-winning columnist, lives in Boynton Beach, Fla.