[H]Book/short story (?) Title

I'm trying to remember the name of a book or short story (I don't remember if, perhaps, it's in a collection of short stories).

The story is about a young boy who receives a silver ball of yarn or string (I think from some sort of magical fairy that visits him at night), and this ball of yarn has the ability to fast forward time. If he pulls a bit of string time goes forward. He is warned to use this gift carefully, but of course he doesn't. So he ends up pulling way more than he should have ever pulled, and he becomes and old man, his mother is dead, and he's devastated by this. He is then visited by the fairy (or w/e) again, and time is reset.

Anyway, none of my google searches have revealed a good result, and maybe someone else here has read/heard this story (I think we read it in fourth grade) and knows what I'm talking about.

Just to fill the hour – that is happiness. Fill my hour, ye gods, so that I shall not say whilst I have done this ‘behold an hour of my life is gone,’ but rather ‘I have lived one hour.’

Archas United States. February 16 2011 04:42. Posts 5638

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You mean "The Magic Thread"? It's a story from "The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories", by William J. Bennett.

I have a link to the story, so you might be able to confirm if it's the right one.

http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/magic_thread.html

Last edit: 2011-02-16 04:44:29

"i was watching dolphins leap out of the pavement next to my car, and the moon melted into the trees. fuckin tits" - QuanticHawk

SweeTLemonS[TPR] February 16 2011 04:50. Posts 11498

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Dude, you own. Did you manage to find that on google, or did you just know it? If yes to google, what search string did you use? EDIT: I was completely wrong about the color though.

Last edit: 2011-02-16 04:52:45

Just to fill the hour – that is happiness. Fill my hour, ye gods, so that I shall not say whilst I have done this ‘behold an hour of my life is gone,’ but rather ‘I have lived one hour.’

Archas United States. February 16 2011 04:52. Posts 5638

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I Googled the string "string time story". The first result was a Yahoo Answers question that gave me the link to the story.

I'm glad I was able to help. =)

"i was watching dolphins leap out of the pavement next to my car, and the moon melted into the trees. fuckin tits" - QuanticHawk

SweeTLemonS[TPR] February 16 2011 04:56. Posts 11498

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Of course it was something super simple and I put way too much detail in the search string. Should have known better. Thanks again. =D

EDIT: The string turns silver later in his life, that's where I got that from.

Last edit: 2011-02-16 04:56:46

Just to fill the hour – that is happiness. Fill my hour, ye gods, so that I shall not say whilst I have done this ‘behold an hour of my life is gone,’ but rather ‘I have lived one hour.’

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