Like many others around the world, there lived a mother with her three sons. The three brothers were not rich, but made a living from their work. The eldest son one day 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 eventually 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 didn't do it, the master had to tear 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 in the day. The boy leaves sadly, taking with him a pair of oxen. He comes home very late in the evening. 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: this is your salary.
He tears off his skin, 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 wants 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 has the same conditions with the master. When he had almost 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 night came before he had sown everything. The master was very happy at the sight of this. He also tears the skin off his back and sends him away without money. Think of this mother's disappointment at seeing her two sons come back like this.
The third wants to leave immediately. 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, on the condition that he does everything he tells him to do, otherwise he will have the skin torn off his back, and will be sent back to the end of the year.
He had worked it 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 dark. He answers “Yes”.
He takes two pairs of oxen and leaves for the fields. He digs a furrow all around the field and throws his fourteen bushels of wheat into it. He then makes another furrow to cover it and, at night, he returns home. The master is surprised. He asks him if he lost him.
“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 arrives on the ground, 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 down in the chestnut thicket all the young chestnut trees that his master had planted, and which were very beautiful; and he comes home. When the master saw this, he was not happy and said to him:
“Tomorrow you will leave with the oxen; and you will bring a load of wood all crooked, all crooked if you only bring one straight, too bad for you.
The boy goes and pulls up a beautiful vine. After loading his cart, he returns home. When the master saw this, he could say nothing; but he didn't know what to think about it.
He sends him to a forest. There was a Tartar 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 well there, because there are plenty of acorns, and that he must return 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 is a horrible Tartarus there who is 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 nuts and rubs them together. "I have two bullets here, and if one of them hits you, you're dead." »
The Tartar is afraid and leaves 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 me, all that; and it continues to bind and bind. The Tartar gives in, saying “he is smarter than him”. As he had stopped his ten days, he made a big fire in the night, and made his spit redden there and while the Tartar was sleeping, he plunged this spit into his one eye. After taking the tails of his pigs, he leaves the forest without pigs, because the Tartar had eaten one every day.
Near his master's house there was a "fairy well." Our boy sticks the tails of all his pigs in there, except one, as best he can. He then runs to his master, telling him that all the pigs were coming home very happily, and that they were so hot coming so quickly that they had all gone under the mud. “I tried to tear one off by pulling, but only the tail came off, here it is. »
He then goes with the master into this marsh; but the master did not dare to enter to remove them. He goes home sadly with his servant, not knowing what to think. There, he counts out his 100,000 francs and he proudly returns to his mother and brothers. They lived there happily and their master found himself with 100,000 francs less. It was good for him to have so many.
