Like many others around the world, there lived a mother with her three sons. The three brothers were not rich, but lived from their work. The eldest son once said to his mother...
“It would be better for us if I were to go to the service. »
The mother didn't like it, but finally she let him go. He goes, far, far away, and comes to a house, and asks if they want a servant. They say “Yes” and they make their deal.
The master had to give a very high salary, 100,000 francs, but the. servant had to do whatever the master ordered him to do, and if he did not, the master had to rip the skin off his back at the end of the year and send him away without pay.
The servant said to him:
“Okay, I'm strong and I'm going to work. »
The next day, the master gives him a lot of work, but he does it easily. The last months of the year, the master presses him much more, and one day he sends him to a field to sow fourteen bushels of wheat a day. The boy leaves sadly, taking with him a pair of oxen. He comes home very late at night. The master said to him,
“Did you do your job
He says “No”.
“Do you remember the deal we made? I have to rip the skin off your back: it's your salary.
He rips his skin off, as he said, and sends him home with nothing. His mother was in great sorrow to see him come home so thin and weak, and without money.
He tells what happened, and the second brother wishes to leave right away, saying that he is strong, and that he will do more work. The mother didn't like it, but she had to let him go.
He goes to the same house as his brother and passes the same conditions with the master. When he had nearly finished his year, his master also sent him to sow fourteen bushels of wheat. He leaves very early in the morning, with two pairs of oxen; but the night came before he had sown everything. The master was very happy at the sight of this. He also rips the skin off his back and sends him back without money. Think of this mother's annoyance at seeing her two sons come back like this.
The third wants to leave right away. He assures his mother that he will bring back both the money and the skin of her back. He goes to this same gentleman. He also tells him that he will give him a big salary, provided he does everything he tells him to do, otherwise he will have the skin ripped off his back, and will be sent back with nothing, to the end of the year.
He had made it work hard and well for ten months, then wanted to try it. He sent him to the field and told him to sow fourteen bushels of wheat before nightfall. He answers “Yes”.
He takes two pairs of oxen and goes to the fields. He digs a furrow all around the field and throws his fourteen bushels of wheat into it. It then makes another furrow to cover it, and at night it returns home. The master is surprised. He asks him if he sowed it.
“Yes, everything is underground; you can be sure. »
The master was not happy; he had his fears.
The next day he sent him with sixteen head of cattle to such a field, and said to him:
“You have to take all that cattle out into the field without unlocking the gate or breaching it. »
Our boy takes a hatchet, a hoe and a fork. He leaves, and when he gets to the field, he kills them all, one by one. He cuts them with the ax and throws them with the fork into the field.
He returns home at nightfall, and tells his master that all the cattle are in the field as he had told him. The master was not happy, but he said nothing.
The next day he told him to go to such a forest and bring back a load of wood, but all the sticks very, very straight. Our boy goes and cuts in the thicket of chestnut trees all the young chestnut trees that his master had planted, and which were very beautiful; and he goes home. When the master saw this, he was not happy and said to him:
“Tomorrow, you will leave with the oxen; and you'll bring a load of wood all askew, all askew if you only bring one straight, too bad for you.
The boy goes and pulls out a beautiful vine. After loading his cart, he returns home. When the master saw this, he could say nothing; but he did not know what to think of it.
He sends her to a forest. There was a Tartar over there; and all the people, and all the animals that went there, he ate them all. The master gives him ten pigs, and also food for ten days, telling him that the pigs will fatten up well there, for there are plenty of acorns, and that he must come back after ten days.
Our boy starts, and he goes, and goes, and goes. He meets an old woman who says to him:
"Where are you going, boy? »
“In such a forest, to fatten these pigs. »
The woman said to him:
“If you're not stupid, you won't go there. This horrible Tartar will eat you.
This woman was carrying a basket of nuts on her head, and he said to her:
“If you give me two of these nuts, I will defeat Tartarus. »
She gladly gives them to him, and he goes on and on. He meets another old woman, who was winding thread. She tells him :
"Where are you going, boy?
“In such a forest. »
" Do not go. There's a horrible Tartar there that's sure to eat you and your pigs. »
“I must go all the same, and I will defeat him, if you give me two of your balls of thread.
She gives them to him willingly; and he goes further, and finds a blacksmith, and he too, asks him where he is going? And he answers: “In such a forest, to fatten my pigs.
“Might as well go back. There's a terrible Tartar there that's sure to eat you.
“If you give me a brooch, I will beat him. »
“I will give it to you, willingly,” and he gives it to her benevolently.
Our boy continues on his way and arrives in this forest. He cuts the tails of all his pigs and hides them in a safe place. Tartarus appears and says to him:
"How did you come here?" I will eat you.
The boy said to him:
“Eat a pig if you want, but don't touch me. »
He takes his two hazelnuts and rubs them against each other. “I have two bullets here, and if one of them hits you, you're dead. »
The Tartarus is afraid and goes away in silence. After eating a pig, he comes back again and says to him:
“We have to make a bet, which of the two will make the biggest pile of wood?
Tartarus begins to cut and cut. Our boy leaves him alone, and when he has made a. terrible big heap, he starts going around all the trees with his balls of thread, and says to him.
“You, that; but I, all that; and he continues to bind and bind. Tartarus gives in, saying "he's smarter than him". As he had ended his ten days, he made a great fire in the night, and made his spit redden there, and while the Tartar was sleeping, he plunged this spit into his only eye. After taking the tails of his pigs, he walks away from the forest without pigs, because the Tartarus had eaten one every day.
Near his master's house, there was "a fairy well". Our boy sticks the tails of all but one of his pigs into it as best he can. He will then run towards his master, telling him that all the pigs were returning very cheerfully, and that they were so hot coming so quickly that they had all passed under the mud. “I wanted to pull one off, but only the tail came off, here it is. »
He then goes away with the master into this swamp; but the master did not dare to go in to pull them out. He leaves sadly with his servant at home, not knowing what to think of it. There, he counts out his 100,000 francs and proudly returns to his mother and brothers. They lived there happily and their master found himself with 100,000 francs less. It was well worth it to have so many.
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