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16 - Folk Tales Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie · Folk Tales Every Child Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen of Folk Tales Every Child Should Know. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Greg Giardano. Folk Tales Every
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  Speaker 1: Child Should Know, edited by Hamilton Wright maybe chapter fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: The Good Children, a little Russian story of Galicia, translated
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  Speaker 1: by A. H. Ratislaw m A in sixty folk tales
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  Speaker 1: from exclusively Slovonic sources. The Lord was angered at mankind,
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  Speaker 1: and for three years there was a great famine over
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  Speaker 1: all the world. Nowhere in the world was even a
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  Speaker 1: grain of corn produced, and what people sowed failed to
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  Speaker 1: come up from a drought so great that for three
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  Speaker 1: years there was not a drop of rain or dew.
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  Speaker 1: For one year more people managed to live somehow or
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  Speaker 1: other thrashing up what old corn there was. The rich
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  Speaker 1: made money for corn rose very high. Autumn came where
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  Speaker 1: anybody had or purchased old seed, they sowed it and
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  Speaker 1: entreated the Lord. Hoped in the love of God, if
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  Speaker 1: God would give fertility, if God would forgive our sins.
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  Speaker 1: But it was not so. They did not obtain the
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  Speaker 1: love of God. When they cast the seed into the
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  Speaker 1: holy earth, that was the last they saw of it.
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  Speaker 1: If it germinated somewhat, if it sent up shoots, it
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  Speaker 1: withered away close to the ground. Woe in abundance of it.
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  Speaker 1: God's world went on sorrowed and wept, for now it
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  Speaker 1: was manifest that death by hunger was approaching. They somehow
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  Speaker 1: got miserably through the winter. Spring came. Where anybody had
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  Speaker 1: still any grain, they sowed it what would come to pass.
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  Speaker 1: No blessing was poured forth, for the thought began with wind. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: there was but little snow in the winter, and everything
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  Speaker 1: dried up, so that the black earth remained as it was.
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  Speaker 1: It now came to this, all the world began to perish.
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  Speaker 1: The people died, the cattle perished. As misery carried them,
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  Speaker 1: so did the people proceed. There was at that time
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  Speaker 1: a powerful emperor and a certain empire. As the young
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  Speaker 1: ordinarily cleaved to the young, so would he associate only
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  Speaker 1: with young men, whether in council, or in office, or
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  Speaker 1: in the army. There were none but young men. No
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  Speaker 1: old men had access to anything anywhere. Well as young men,
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  Speaker 1: unripe and understanding were the counselors so was their council
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  Speaker 1: also unripe. One year past, a second past. Then in
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  Speaker 1: the third year they saw that misery was already on
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  Speaker 1: every side, that it was already coming to this, that
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  Speaker 1: all the world would perish. The young Emperor assembled his
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  Speaker 1: young council, and they began to advise. After their fashion.
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  Speaker 1: They advised, they advised, and ah. The resolutions they came
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  Speaker 1: to were such that it is a sin even to
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  Speaker 1: give an account of their resolutions. Well, the Emperor made
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  Speaker 1: proclamation after their advice that all old people were to
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  Speaker 1: be drowned in order that said he bread might not
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  Speaker 1: be wasted in vain, but there might be a supply
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  Speaker 1: of bread for the young, and that no one should venture,
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  Speaker 1: on pain of death, to maintain or harbor any old man. Well,
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  Speaker 1: heralds went about throughout the whole country and promulgated the
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  Speaker 1: Emperor's command everywhere. Yea brigands seized old people where they chose,
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  Speaker 1: and drowned them without mercy. They were then in a
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  Speaker 1: certain place three own brothers, who had an aged father.
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  Speaker 1: When they heard of this edict, they told their father,
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  Speaker 1: and their father said, my sons, such is the will
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  Speaker 1: of God, and the will of the Emperor, take me.
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  Speaker 1: Let me perish at once, only that you, my children
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  Speaker 1: may live on. I am already with one foot in
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  Speaker 1: the grave. No our own daddy. We will die, but
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  Speaker 1: we will not give you up, cried the good sons
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  Speaker 1: with one voice, and fell upon his neck. We will
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  Speaker 1: keep you. We will take from our own mouths and
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  Speaker 1: will nourish you. The three brothers took their aged father,
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  Speaker 1: conducted him into their cottage, dug under the raised portion
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  Speaker 1: of the floor, made up a bed with sheets and
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  Speaker 1: freeze coats, for straw was scarce, and placed the old
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  Speaker 1: old man there. Brought him a loaf of bread as
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  Speaker 1: black as the holy earth, and covered him over with
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  Speaker 1: the floor. There the old man abode for two or
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  Speaker 1: three months, and his sons brought him clandestinely all they had.
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  Speaker 1: The summer passed without harvest, without mowing. September passed, two,
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  Speaker 1: Autumn passed without joy. Winter passed. Two. Now came spring.
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  Speaker 1: The sun became warm. It was now time to sow,
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  Speaker 1: but there was no seed. The world was large, but
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  Speaker 1: there was no seed corn. When one kind was used up,
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  Speaker 1: the people sowed others, hoping there would be a crop.
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  Speaker 1: But when they cast it into the holy earth. It
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  Speaker 1: rotted there. It seemed as if the end of the
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  Speaker 1: world were come. Then the three sons went to their
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  Speaker 1: father and asked him, Daddy, what shall we do. It's
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  Speaker 1: time to sow. God is now sending showers of rain.
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  Speaker 1: The earth is warmed and is crumb like grits. But
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  Speaker 1: of seed there is not a blessed grain. Take my
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  Speaker 1: sons and strip the old roof off the house, and
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  Speaker 1: threshed the bundles, and sow the chaff. The lad stripped
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  Speaker 1: the house and barn anyhow there was nothing in it,
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  Speaker 1: and threshed away till the sweat ran from their brows,
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  Speaker 1: so that they crushed the bundles as small as poppy seeds.
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  Speaker 1: When they sowed, God gave a blessing. So in a
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  Speaker 1: week's time it became green like rue. In a month's time,
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  Speaker 1: in two months time there was corn, ever so much,
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  Speaker 1: ever so much, and all manner of seed was found.
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  Speaker 1: There There was rye, There was wheat and barley. Yea,
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  Speaker 1: maybe there was also a plant or two of buckwheat
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  Speaker 1: and millet. Wherever you went throughout the world there was
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  Speaker 1: no corn to be seen. All the plain was overgrown
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  Speaker 1: with grasses, step grosses, and thistles, but with them was
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  Speaker 1: corn like a forest. How people wandered and were astounded.
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  Speaker 1: The fame thereof went over the whole world, and the
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  Speaker 1: news reached the Emperor himself that in such and such
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  Speaker 1: a place there were three own brothers, and with them
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  Speaker 1: corn had sprung up for all the world, and so beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: never was the like beheld. The Emperor ordered the three
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  Speaker 1: brothers to appear in the imperial presence. The brothers heard
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  Speaker 1: of it and smacked the tops of their heads with
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  Speaker 1: their hands. Now it will be amen with us. They
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  Speaker 1: went again to their father, Daddy. They tell us to
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  Speaker 1: appear before the Emperor. Advise us, Daddy what to do. Go,
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  Speaker 1: my sons, what will be, will be? And tell the
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  Speaker 1: pure truth before the Emperor. The brothers started off and
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  Speaker 1: went to the Emperor. The Emperor inquired menacingly, why villains
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  Speaker 1: did ye hoard up corn when there was such a
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  Speaker 1: famine that so many people died of hunger? Tell the truth.
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  Speaker 1: If not, I shall order you to be tortured and
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  Speaker 1: racked even unto death. The brothers related all as it
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  Speaker 1: had been, from the beginning to the end. Now, most
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  Speaker 1: gracious Emperor, give us over to any torture whatever, or
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  Speaker 1: let thy kindness have compassion on us. The Emperor's brow
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  Speaker 1: became smooth, his eyes became serene. He then ordered the
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  Speaker 1: old Father to be brought before him at once, and
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  Speaker 1: made him sit beside him, close to his throne. And
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  Speaker 1: hearkened to his counsel till death, and his sons he
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  Speaker 1: rewarded handsomely. He ordered the corn to be collected ear
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  Speaker 1: by ear, and to be rubbed out in men's hands,
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  Speaker 1: and send it about for seed corn in all empires.
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  Speaker 1: And from it was produced holy corn for all the world.
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  Speaker 1: End of chapter fifteen, The Good Children recording by Greg Giardano,
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  Speaker 1: Newport Richey, Florida,