In days gone by, two brothers, Raul and Johan, who lived on adjoining
farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 35 years of
farming side by side in central Germany, sharing machinery, and trading
labour and goods as needed without a single problem occurring.
However, one autumn, the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a
small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it
exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence
between the two brothers.
One morning there was a knock on Raul's door. He opened it to find a man
holding a carpenter's toolbox. 'I'm looking for a few days work,' Angelis
said. 'Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help
with? Could I help you?'
'Yes,' answered Raul, extremely pleased to see
Angelis the carpenter, 'I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at
that farm. That's my neighbour, in fact, it's my younger brother, Johan's
farm. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to
the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done
this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber by the
barn? I want you to build me a fence; an 8-foot fence, so I won't need to
see Johan's place nor his face anymore.'
Angelis the carpenter said
thoughtfully, 'I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the
post hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you.'
Raul
then left for the nearby town, Erfurt, so he helped the carpenter get the
materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard
all that day measuring, sawing, nailing, and hammering.
About sunset when
Raul returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes
opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all.
It was a
bridge: a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other. A fine
piece of work handrails and all, and the neighbour, his younger brother
Johan, was coming across, his hand outstretched. 'You are quite a fellow to
build this bridge after all I've said and done, 'Johan smiled.
The two
brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle,
taking each other's hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox
on his shoulder. 'No, wait. Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects
for you,' called Raul.
'I'd love to stay on,' Angelis murmured quietly,
'but, I have many more bridges to build.'
Cora, an elderly woman walked into her local St Michael's Church.
The friendly usher greeted her at the door and helped her up the flight of
steps, 'Where would you like to sit?' he asked politely.
'The front row please,' Cora answered amiably. 'You really don't want
to do that,' the usher said, 'This vicar is really boring.'
'Sonny, do you happen to know who I am?' Cora inquired, looking directly
at him. 'No.' he rejoined.
'I'm the vicar's mother,' Cora announced indignantly. 'Do you know who
I am?' he asked.
'No.' she said. 'Good,' he answered and disappeared.
There was once a little girl who was very wilful and who never obeyed
when her elders spoke to her - so how could she be happy?
One day she said to her parents, 'I have heard so much of the old witch
that I will go and see her. People say she is a wonderful old woman, and has
many marvellous things in her house, and I am very curious to see them.'
But her parents forbade her going, saying, 'The witch is a wicked old
woman, who performs many godless deeds - and if you go near her, you are no
longer a child of ours.'
The girl, however, would not turn back at her parents' command, but went
to the witch's house. When she arrived there the old woman asked her:
'Why are you so pale?' 'Ah,' she replied, trembling all over, 'I have
frightened myself so with what I have just seen.'
'And what did you see?' inquired the old witch. 'I saw a black man on
your steps.' 'That was a collier,' replied she.
'Then I saw a gray man.' 'That was a sportsman,' said the old woman.
'After him I saw a blood-red man.' 'That was a butcher,' replied the
old woman.
'But, oh, I was most terrified,' continued the girl, 'when I peeped
through your window, and saw not you, but a creature with a fiery head.'
'Then you have seen the witch in her proper dress,' said the old woman.
'For you I have long waited, and now you shall give me light.'
So saying the witch changed the little girl into a block of wood, and
then threw it on the fire. When it was fully alight, she sat down on the
hearth and warmed herself, saying:
'How good I feel! The fire has not burned like this for a long time!'
Classic Short Stories
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This was the situation: Abraham Thornton was accused of having drowned
Mary Ashford, but he was acquitted by the jury. This acquittal did not
satisfy popular feeling, and the brother of Mary Ashford appealed.
Now Thornton was well advised as to his next proceeding, and, following
the still existent law of this early time of which I write, he went to
Westminster Hall, where he threw down, as a gage of battle, an antique
gauntlet without fingers or thumb, of white tanned skin ornamented with silk
fringes and sewn work, crossed by a narrow band of leather, the fastenings
of leather tags and thongs.
This done, he declared himself ready to defend himself in a fight, and so
to uphold his innocence, saying that he was within his rights, and that no
judge could compel him to come before a jury.
This was held to be good and within the law, so Abraham Thornton won his
case, as the brother refused to pick up the gauntlet. The scandal of this
procedure caused the abolishment of the trial by battle, which had remained
in the country's laws from the time of Henry II, until 1819.
Once upon a time there was a good old woman who lived in a little house.
She had in her garden a bed of beautiful striped tulips.
One night she was awakened by the sounds of sweet singing and of babies
laughing. She looked out at the window. The sounds seemed to come from the
tulip bed, but she could see nothing.
The next morning she walked among her flowers, but there were no signs of
anyone having been there the night before.
On the following night she was again wakened by sweet singing and babies
laughing. She rose and stole softly through her garden. The moon was shining
brightly on the tulip bed, and the flowers were swaying to and fro. The old
woman looked closely and she saw, standing by each tulip, a little Fairy
mother who was crooning and rocking the flower like a cradle, while in each
tulip-cup lay a little Fairy baby laughing and playing.
The good old woman stole quietly back to her house, and from that time on
she never picked a tulip, nor did she allow her neighbours to touch the
flowers.
The tulips grew daily brighter in colour and larger in size, and they
gave out a delicious perfume like that of roses. They began, too, to bloom
all the year round. And every night the little Fairy mothers caressed their
babies and rocked them to sleep in the flower-cups.
The day came when the good old woman died, and the tulip-bed was torn up
by folks who did not know about the Fairies, and parsley was planted there
instead of the flowers. But the parsley withered, and so did all the other
plants in the garden, and from that time nothing would grow there.
But the good old woman's grave grew beautiful, for the Fairies sang above
it, and kept it green; while on the grave and all around it there sprang up
tulips, daffodils, and violets, and other lovely flowers of spring.
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