TURTUOLIS IR GRYTELNINKAS
“Buvo
toks diktai turtingas ūkininkas, ir turėjo jis savo
lauke
grytelninką ......”
Once there was a very wealthy farmer, who had a landless tenant working his
fields. This tenant used to work for the rich man all week long, and on
Saturday he received a measure of grain in payment. He had a wife and children,
and had to feed them.
One Saturday evening when he came home, he found that his
wife wanted to cook some dinner, but their fire had gone out. She asked him to
go to the farmer and carry back some embers.
On his way to the farmer’s house, he saw an old gent tending a fire
along the road. The old fellow said:
“Where are you going, young man?”
“To the farmer, to fetch some fire.”
“Well, just hold out the end of your apron there, and I’ll
give you some.”
“But my apron will burn!”
“No, it won’t. Just
hold it out thus!”
The tenant thought, well, let him try, and if it begins to burn,
I’ll just discard it all.
“Very well, Grandfather, go ahead as you said.”
The old fellow took a little scoop and filled the man’s
apron with about five scoops of live coals. The tenant kept watching, but it
didn’t burn!
When he got home, he looked again, and found his apron
filled with gold coins! Well, now they didn’t need a cook fire. They bought
everything they needed, and commenced to live as well as everyone else.
On Monday, he didn’t come to work on the rich man’s farm.
That man even sent his son to call him to work, but he still didn’t come.
Finally, he asked the tenant himself:
“Why haven’t you come to work?”
“I have plenty of food now, and I need a rest.”
“Well, where did you get that food?”
“On my way to your house to ask for some fire, I met an old
man tending a fire along the road, and he filled my apron with five scoops of
live embers, and when I brought it home, I found gold coins filling my apron
instead. So now I have everything I need.”
So the wealthy farmer ordered that the fire in his house be
extinguished, and that evening, he walked to the tenant’s house to borrow some
embers. And on the way, he came upon the old man tending his fire along the
road.
“Grandfather, please lend me some embers - our fire has gone
out.”
And the old man answered:
“It is a lie that your fire is gone; all your corners are
filled with it.”
The wealthy man, looking back, saw that his house and other buildings were
burning. Thus is greed repaid.
Source:
Publ by the Lithuanian Book
Club,
© English Translation -
Gloria O’’Brien 2007
This article was printed in Bridges Oct 2007