macsplex.com 로그인

검색

2006.07.08 01:01

THE WISE LlTTLE GIRL

조회 수 179 추천 수 0 댓글 0
?

단축키

Prev이전 문서

Next다음 문서

크게 작게 위로 아래로 게시글 수정 내역 댓글로 가기 인쇄
?

단축키

Prev이전 문서

Next다음 문서

크게 작게 위로 아래로 게시글 수정 내역 댓글로 가기 인쇄
THE WISE LlTTLE GIRL



Once upon a time . . . in the immense Russian steppe, lay a little village

where nearly all the inhabitants bred horses. It was the month of October,

when a big livestock market was held yearly in the main town. Two brothers,

one rich and the other one poor, set off for market. The rich man rode a

stallion, and the poor brother a young mare.

At dusk, they stopped beside an empty hut and tethered their horses

outside, before going to sleep themselves on two heaps of straw. Great was

their surprise, when, next morning they saw three horses outside, instead of

two. Well, to be exact the newcomer was not really a horse. It was a foal, to

which the mare had given birth during the night. Soon it had the strength to

struggle to its feet, and after a drink of its mother's milk, the foal

staggered its first few steps. The stallion greeted it with a cheerful whinny,

and when the two brothers set eyes on it for the first time, the foal was

standing beside the stallion.

"It belongs to me!" exclaimed Dimitri, the rich brother, the minute he saw

it. "It's my stallion's foal." Ivan, the poor brother, began to laugh.

"Whoever heard of a stallion having a foal? It was born to my mare!"

"No, that's not true! It was standing close to the stallion, so it's the

stallion's foal. And therefore it's mine!" The brothers started to quarrel,

then they decided to go to town and bring the matter before the judges. Still

arguing, they headed for the big square where the courtroom stood. But what

they didn't know was that it was a special day, the day when, once a year, the

Emperor himself administered the law. He himself received all who came seeking

justice. The brothers were ushered into his presence, and they told him all

about the dispute.

Of course, the Emperor knew perfectly well who was the owner of the foal.

He was on the point of proclaiming in favour of the poor brother, when

suddenly Ivan developed an unfortunate twitch in his eye. The Emperor was

greatly annoyed by this familiarity by a humble peasant, and decided to punish

Ivan for his disrespect. After listening to both sides of the story, he

declared it was difficult, indeed impossible, to say exactly who was the

foal's rightful owner. And being in the mood for a spot of fun, and since he

loved posing riddles and solving them as well, to the amusement of his

counsellors, he exclaimed:

"I can't judge which of you should have the foal, so it will be awarded to

whichever of you solves the following four riddles: what is the fastest thing

in the world? What is the fattest? What's the softest and what is the most

precious? I command you to return to the palace in a week's time with your

answers!" Dimitri started to puzzle over the answers as soon as he left the

courtroom. When he reached home, however, he realised he had nobody to help

him.

"Well, I'll just have to seek help, for if I can't solve these riddles,

I'll lose the foal!" Then he remembered a woman, one of his neighbours, to

whom he had once lent a silver ducat. That had been some time ago, and with

the interest, the neighbour now owed him three ducats. And since she had a

reputation for being quick-witted, but also very astute, he decided to ask her

advice, in exchange for cancelling part of her debt. But the woman was not

slow to show how astute she really was, and promptly demanded that the whole

debt be wiped out in exchange for the answers.

"The fastest thing in the world is my husband's bay horse," she said.

"Nothing can beat it! The fattest is our pig! Such a huge beast has never

been seen! The softest is the quilt I made for the bed, using my own goose's

feathers. It's the envy of all my friends. The most precious thing in the

world is my three-month old nephew. There isn't a more handsome child. I

wouldn't exchange him for all the gold on earth, and that makes him the most

precious thing on earth!"

Dimitri was rather doubtful about the woman's answers being correct. On the

other hand, he had to take some kind of solution back to the Emperor. And he

guessed, quite rightly, that if he didn't, he would be punished.

In the meantime, Ivan, who was a widower, had gone back to the humble

cottage where he lived with his small daughter. Only seven years old, the

little girl was often left alone, and as a result, was thoughtful and very

clever for her age. The poor man took the little girl into his confidence, for

like his brother, he knew he would never be able to find the answers by

himself. The child sat in silence for a moment, then firmly said:

"Tell the Emperor that the fastest thing in the world is the cold north

wind in winter. The fattest is the soil in our fields whose crops give life to

men and animals alike, the softest thing is a child's caress and the most

precious is honesty."

The day came when the two brothers were to return before the Emperor. They

were led into his presence. The Emperor was curious to hear what they had to

say, but he roared with laughter at Dimitri's foolish answers. However, when

it was Ivan's turn to speak, a frown spread over the Emperor's face. The poor

brother's wise replies made him squirm, especially the last one, about

honesty, the most precious thing of all. The Emperor knew perfectly well that

he had been dishonest in his dealings with the poor brother, for he had denied

him justice. But he could not bear to admit it in front of his own

counsellors, so he angrily demanded:

"Who gave you these answers?" Ivan told the Emperor that it was his small

daughter. Still annoyed, the great man said: -~

"You shall be rewarded for having such a wise and clever daughter. You

shall be awarded the foal that your brother claimed, together with a hundred

silver ducats . . . But . . . but . . ." and the Emperor winked at his

counsellors:

"You will come before me in seven days' time, bringing your daughter. And

since she's so clever, she must appear before me neither naked nor dressed,

neither on foot nor on horseback, neither bearing gifts nor empty-handed. And

if she does this, you will have your reward. If not, you'll have your head

chopped off for your impudence!"

The onlookers began to laugh, knowing that the poor man would never to able

to fulfill the Emperor's conditions. Ivan went home in despair, his eyes

brimming with tears. But when he had told his daughter what had happened, she

calmly said:

"Tomorrow, go and catch a hare and a partridge. Both must be alive! You'll

have the foal and the hundred silver ducats! Leave it to me!" Ivan _did as his

daughter said. He had no idea what the two creatures were for, but he trusted

in his daughter's wisdom.

On the day of the audience with the Emperor, the palace was thronged with

bystanders, waiting for Ivan and his small daughter to arrive. At last, the

little girl appeared, draped in a fishing net, riding the hare and holdig the

partridge in her hand. She was neither naked nor dressed, on foot or on

horseback. Scowling, the Emperor told her:

"I said neither bearing gifts nor empty-handed!" At these words, the little

girl held out the partridge. The Emperor stretched out his hand to grasp it,

but the bird fluttered into the air. The third condition had been fulfilled.

In spite of himself, the Emperor could not help admirlng the llttle girl who

had so cleverly passed such a test, and in a gentler volce, he sald:

"Is your father terribly poor, and does he desperately need the foal.

"Oh, yes!" replied the little girl. "We live on the hares he catches in the

rivers and the fish he picks from the trees!"

"Aha!" cried the Emperor triumphantly. "So you're not as clever as you seem

to be! Whoever heard of hares in the river and fish in the trees! To which the

little girl swiftly replied:

"And whoever heard of a stallion having a foal?" At that, both Emperor and

Court burst into peals of laughter. Ivan was immediately glven his hundred

silver ducats and the foal, and the Emperor proclalmed:

"Only in my kingdom could such a wise little girl be born!"





--------------------------------------------------광고(Advertising)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Who's dnavi

profile

안녕하세요 macsplex.com 웹마스터 DNAVI입니다.

오픈소스를 좋아하고 컴퓨터에서 돌아가는 OS와 소프트웨어를 설치하고 웹사이트를 운영하는데 관심이 많습니다.

 

가지고 있는 제품리스트

PC  :

homebuilt computer(Intel i7-4790K, ASUS MAXIMUS Ranger Vii, AMD Radeon R290),

homebuilt computer(AMD Phenom X4 630, GIGABYTE GA-61P-S3, NVIDIA GT8600),

Apple iMac 2009 late(Intel E7600)

Apple MacMini 2018(Intel i5-8500B, A1993)

homebuilt computer(AMD Ryzen 3200G, Asrock B450 Steel Legend)

Beelink SER 7 (AMD Ryzen 7840HS)

Firebat S1(Intel N100)

 

Notebook :

Apple Macbook Air 2022 (M2, A2681)

Lenovo LEGION 5 Pro 16ACH R7 STORM (AMD R7-5800H, NVIDIA RTX3060 laptop)

Lenovo Thinkpad T420s(Intel i5-2540M)

Apple Macbook Air 2011 Mid( i5-2467M, A1370)

 

Server :

Dell PowerEdge R420(Intel XEON E5-2407)

Dell PowerEdge R710(Intel XEON E5620 x2, 32GB)

HP Proliant Microserver Gen8(Intel XEON E3-1230V2)

 

NAS :

Synology.DS218+

BUFFALO LinkStation Live LS-XL/E

 

Smartphone:

Motorola Edge 20 pro

Apple iPhone 12

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Samsung Galaxy S8

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Mi 8

Lenovo Phab2 Pro

Apple iPhone 5

Huawei X3, Nova Smart

Blackberry 9790

 

Tablet :

Apple iPad 9th gen

Apple iPad Air2

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+

Lenovo Xiaoxin 2022

 

Game Console :

Sony PSP, PS3, PS4 Pro, PS5

Microsoft Xbox 360, Xbox One X

Nintendo DS Lite, 3DS XL, Switch Lite, Switch

HardKernel Odrid Go Advance Black Edition

Gamepark GP2X-F100

Valve Steam deck LCD


  1. No Image notice

    english.dnavi.info 사이트이동

  2. No Image

    WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK

  3. No Image

    TIL ULENSPIGHEL

  4. No Image

    THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN KIDS

  5. No Image

    THE WOLF AND THE LAMB

  6. No Image

    THE WOLF AND THE CRANE

  7. No Image

    THE WMPRESS JOWKA

  8. No Image

    THE WITCH IN THE TOWER

  9. No Image

    THE WISE LlTTLE GIRL

  10. No Image

    THE WEEPING PRINCESS

  11. No Image

    THE VAIN CROW

  12. No Image

    THE UNLUCKY WARRIOR

  13. No Image

    THE UGLY DUCKLING

  14. No Image

    THE TIN SOLDIER

  15. Hello world!

  16. I made a trip for nothing

  17. What's the deadline?

  18. $ 100 Laptop

  19. I have now got tonsillitis.

  20. It's cut too low.

  21. I'll be out of town.

Board Pagination Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 14 Next
/ 14