The three favorites of fortune

 The three favorites of fortune

Author: Brothers Grimm

Ages: From 4 years

Values: cunning, positive attitude, austerity

The three favorites of fortune

 Once upon a time there was a father who called his three children one day and gave them some gifts. To the first he gave a rooster; to the second, he gave him a scythe, and to the third, he presented him with a cat.

"I am old now," he told them, "my time is drawing near, and before leaving you I wanted to assure your future." I have no money, and what I am giving you now may seem of little value to you; It all depends on how you know how to use it. Let each of you find a country where these things are unknown, and your fortune will be made.

The father died, the eldest son left with his rooster. But everywhere he went, the animal was known. In the cities he already saw it from afar on top of the bell towers, turning at the mercy of the wind. In the villages I heard him sing. His rooster did not cause the slightest sensation, and did not seem to bring him much luck.

After a time, the boy arrived at an island, whose inhabitants had never seen a rooster, and who, furthermore, did not know how to allocate time. They distinguished, the morning from the afternoon; but at night, as soon as they slept, they never knew what time it was.

"Look," he said to them, "this animal, which wears a crown on its head and spurs on its feet like a knight, at night it will sing to you three times at a fixed hour, and when it does it for the last time, it will mean that the sun is about to rise. And when he sings during the day, prepare yourselves, for, without a doubt, there will be a change of Those people liked the qualities of the rooster, and they spent a night without sleeping, verifying with great satisfaction that it announced the time at two, four and six.

They then asked the young man if he was willing to sell them the bird, and how much he was asking for it.

"As much gold as a donkey can carry," he answered.

"It is a trifle, for such a precious animal," said the islanders. And they gave him what he asked for for the rooster.

When the young man returned home with his fortune, his two brothers were amazed, and the second said:

"Well, now I'm leaving, to see if I can get as much use out of my scythe."

It did not seem likely, since everywhere he found peasants who went with the instrument on his shoulder, like him. Finally, he too came to an island, whose inhabitants were unaware of the scythe. When the grain was ripe, they took artillery cannons to the fields and razed them with cannon fire.

Before that happened, the young stranger began to mow silently and so quickly that the people drooled at the sight of him. They declared themselves willing to buy the tool from him for whatever price he asked; and so he received a horse loaded with all the gold he could carry.

He was the turn of his third brother, who left with the purpose of making the best possible use of his cat. He happened to him like the other two; while he was on the mainland he couldn't get anything, because there were cats everywhere, so many that most of the puppies were drowned at birth. But at last he embarked and arrived at an island where, happily for him, no one had ever seen one, and the mice walked on it like Perico through his house, dancing on top of tables and benches, even if the owner was as if not

The islanders were fed up with that plague and not even the king himself knew how to get rid of it in his palace. There were mice in every corner. But behold, the cat entered the scene, and in the blink of an eye he cleaned several rooms of mice, for which the inhabitants begged the King to buy such a wonderful animal for the good of the country.

The King gladly paid what the owner asked for, which was a mule loaded with gold; and so the third brother returned to his town even richer than the other two. In the palace, the cat lived high life with the mice, killing so many that no one could count them. Finally he got thirsty, hot as he was from his hard work, and, standing a moment, he raised his head and cried, "Meow, meow!" Hearing that strange roar, the King and all his courtiers were terrified and, panic-stricken, fled from the palace.

The King held a council in the square, to study the most appropriate procedure in that trance. It was finally decided to send a herald to the cat, ordering him to leave the palace, warning him that if he did not do so, force would be used. Counselors said:

—We prefer the plague of mice, which is a well-known evil, to leaving our lives at the mercy of such a monster.

A page was sent to ask the cat to leave the palace willingly; but the animal, whose thirst was increasing, limited himself to answering: "Meow, meow!" The page understood: "No and no!"; and he ran to convey the answer to the King.

"In this case," the councilors said, "he will have to yield to force."

They brought in the artillery and firebombed the castle. When the fire reached the room where the cat was, it was saved by jumping out of a window; but the besiegers did not stop firing until the entire castle was a heap of rubble