There once was a very spoiled young man, the son of a very rich merchant in a very large town. Now the merchant himself was a man of honor, and he had built his business from the ground up. In his later years, he had become extremely wealthy, and the only desire he had left was to see his son follow in his footsteps, work hard, and become successful. But no matter how much he tried to teach the value of hard work to his very spoiled son, none of his lessons seemed to get through. The young man was spoiled, petulant, arrogant, and rude.
This saddened the old merchant very much, but he still loved
his son, regardless of his bad behavior, and he was determined to see to it
that his son would grow into a fine man.
After all, he surmised, there is more than one way to get a pig to
market. Having put a great deal of
thought into it, he changed his Will and decided to invite Fate to step in and
help. Well, as you know, Fate is a
watchful mistress and is only too willing to accommodate the grimly
determined. After learning of the
merchant’s decision, she promptly came to see him one night and escorted him to
the next world.
In the morning, the young man learned of his father’s
death. Although he truly did grieve for
his father, he could not help but be filled with greedy anticipation at what he
might receive in his father’s Will, especially since he always felt that his
father never gave him enough. Imagine
his surprise, then, when he was not given a single penny, not a bit of gold, no
jewels, and none of his father’s many possessions. He was given only one thing, a small parcel
of land with a tiny farmhouse on it and a few animals. However, he did not have time to express his
anger and dismay, because the rest of his father’s Will was carried out to the
letter by his lawyer.
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| The companion cow. |
And what did the old merchant instruct his lawyer to
do? Ensure that the young man was thrown
out of the home without a penny to his name.
Ensure that no one dared to offer him solace or a helping hand. Ensure that he was driven from the town due
to the many debts he owed. Give him a
horse and a small amount of food, and then tell him “good riddance!” So the lawyer did as he was instructed to do,
and no amount of threatening, bargaining, and finally begging on the part of
the son did any good.
The following morning found the young man atop the horse
with a pack of food and the clothes on his back. He rode out of town with his face held down
in shame. He was full of anger and hatred
and rage for his father, but beneath it all, he was filled with sorrow because
he felt that his father had abandoned him, although he could not even admit
that to himself. He traveled for three
days, lost in thought with his emotions swinging from rage to sorrow.
At last he arrived at the tiny farmhouse. He was so used to living in an opulent home
that he was horrified upon entering. It
was very plain. Everything inside was
made from wood gathered from the land:
walls, floors, and ceilings.
There was a rustic old sink and a wood cookstove in the kitchen, a cold
pantry, a large sitting room with a fireplace, a few bedrooms upstairs, and a
large cellar. The furnishings were
sparse but functional, including a bed, table, and chairs. This home might have made someone else very happy,
but not this young man. He sat down at
the kitchen table and wept. When he
finished crying, he ate the rest of his food, drank what was left of his wine,
and went to sleep.
He woke up earlier than he was used to, and he was cold and
hungry. He sat at his kitchen table just
staring at a wall and doing nothing.
Finally, his hunger pains grew and he went outside to see if he could
find something to eat. In the barn he
found a milk cow that needed milking badly.
He didn’t really know how to milk a cow, but he sat down and tried and
figured it out quickly enough. He was
thirsty and drank almost half of what he collected. It was warm and delicious and it made him
feel a bit better. He let the cow out
into the pasture to eat.
At least, that was the idea, but the cow wouldn’t budge from
the barn. So the young man put a rope
around her neck and dragged her to the door, but once they got to the door, she
quickly headed to a smaller nearby barn with the man still following her due to
the rope being held firmly in his grip.
The cow stopped at the barn door, which the man reluctantly opened, only
to have a few dozen chickens come running out and head for the fields. He went in, found a basket, and discovered
several eggs. He went back to the house
quickly with the eggs and immediately cooked six of them and ate them all. Now he felt much better.
He went back outside and found the cow waiting for him by
the barn. This time he let her lead him
quietly. She showed him where his two
pigs were. She showed him where the
sheep were. She showed him the hay
loft. She showed him where the grains
were stored. She showed him the
equipment he had in his sheds, and it turns out that while he was not wealthy
by any stretch of the imagination, he was not poverty-stricken either. This might have made someone else happy, but
not this young man. He went back to the
house and refused to come out again. He
ate the rest of the eggs for dinner.
But morning came again as it has a habit of doing, and he
was hungry again. He headed out to the
barn and milked the cow again. She
showed him two buckets, and he understood that she wanted to be milked twice a
day and not once. He went to gather the
eggs, but there weren’t as many since he had not shut the chickens inside the
night before. He made a note of
that. He let the sheep out and gave the
pigs the rest of the milk and most of the eggs.
He went to the grain storage bins and got himself some wheat and
oats. After that, he went back to the
house to eat a few eggs and cook some oats.
I probably don’t need to tell you what happened after
that. Each day the man would go out to
the barns and the fields--very reluctantly at first but resignedly later--and
each day he would learn something new or how to do something better. The cow was his constant companion, and he
was glad to have her because he was very lonely. She helped him plow up a small field, and he
planted many things--things for him to eat and things for the animals to eat. Somehow he made it through that summer and
into the fall with a modest but decent harvest.
Somehow he made it into the winter, gathering wood and repairing the
barns and house as needed.
About six months passed and the man found himself sitting by
his fire one night, thinking about his life and the direction it had taken. He was well-fed and had learned how to make
beer from his grains, and he had all he needed to survive and even thrive. He had no human companion yet, but he hoped
someday he would, and in the meantime he enjoyed the company of the
animals. The farm was very quiet and
peaceful. It was true that his body was
usually pretty sore by the end of the day due to the work he had to do, but he
had grown used to it and didn’t really pay it much thought anymore.
He did do a lot of thinking about his father. He was no longer angry with him but had
resigned himself to farm life. What he
was thinking about tonight was how much he missed the old man. He was thinking about a wagon his father had
bought him when he was little. He was
thinking about birthdays he had, gifts his father had given him, being schooled
in the finest schools in the land, wearing ridiculously expensive clothes, and
living a life of complete ease. He had
never stopped to think before of how much his father had freely given him.
But he was not longing for any of those things. What he wanted more than anything in the
world was to see his father again, and he knew he could not have that. He allowed himself a couple of tears, washed
up the dinner dishes, and went to bed.
As he was drifting off to sleep, he recounted all the many chores he
needed to do tomorrow and mentally marked off all of those that he had already
finished that day. Lastly, he thought
that his father might be a little disappointed with how humble and poor his
lifestyle was, how he had not managed to make himself rich, so perhaps it was
just as well that his father could not see him.
He still had much to learn about himself and others and
someday he would learn it, but I think you will agree that this young man was
off to a very good start, even if he didn’t know it and even if he had done so very reluctantly. And you might also have noticed that he had
acquired riches beyond his understanding at this point and was
a wealthy man, indeed.
