Andrew Lan's Twelve-Color Fairy Tale Series: Pink Fairy Tale Books

Chapter 13 The Mermaid's Son Hans (1)
Long, long ago, in a village lived a very poor blacksmith named Basmus.He was young, strong, and handsome, but he didn't make much money in this trade, and it was not easy to feed his large group of children.However, he was very industrious, and when the smithy was not working, he went fishing at sea, or scavenged for junk by the sea.

One day when the weather was fine, Basmus went fishing alone in a small boat, but he didn't come home that day, and he didn't come back the next day.It was thought that something had happened to him at sea.But on the third day, he suddenly came back safe and sound. The boat was full of fish, which were fat and big. People had never seen such a fat and big fish!He said he encountered a thick fog and lost his way, but he didn't say where he had been for the past few days.People didn't know until seven years later that he met a mermaid in the deep sea area, and he was a guest with her all those days!From the time he came back, he never went fishing again, nor did he need to do it again.Because every time he goes to the beach, there is always a broken boat that washes up on the shore, and there are always valuable things in it.At that time, everything he picked up was his own, so the blacksmith became richer and richer day by day.

Seven years have passed since the blacksmith disappeared from the sea and returned.One morning, he was making a pair of plows in the blacksmith shop, when suddenly a very beautiful boy came in and said to him, "Hi, Dad, my mother mermaid asked me to come and see you, she said I was six years old , should be with you for six years now."

God, he's only six years old?It looks like it, and it is taller and stronger than ordinary boys!

"Would you like some bread?" asked the blacksmith.

"Oh, eat!" said Hans.Hans is his name!

The blacksmith asked his wife to cut him a piece of bread, and the boy swallowed it in one gulp, and came to his father again.

"Are you full?" asked the blacksmith.

"No," answered Hans, "that's only a tiny bit!"

The blacksmith went into the house and took a large loaf of bread, cut it in half, put a lot of butter and cheese in the middle, and handed it to Hans.After a while, he finished eating again and came to the blacksmith shop.

"Are you full now?" asked the blacksmith.

"No, it's still early," said Hans. "It seems I must find a better place than here. I can never have enough to eat here."

Hans wanted to set off right away, but before he set off, he asked his father to forge an iron rod that he needed.

"It has to be iron," he said, "and it has to be handy."

The blacksmith brought an ordinary iron rod, but Hans twisted it out of shape with his fingers, making it useless.So the blacksmith dragged another big iron rod as thick as the shaft of a cart, but Hans put it on his knee and broke it, just like breaking a straw.The blacksmith had to collect all the iron he had and make a huge iron rod.Heavier than an anvil!Hans took the iron in his hand and said, "Thank you very much, Dad," and set off for the country.The blacksmith was glad to be free of his son at last, for otherwise he would have eaten up the house and the whole family.

When Hans came to a large manor, he happened to meet the owner of the manor standing outside the yard.

"Where are you going?" asked the manor.

"I'm looking for a place," said Hans, "that needs a strong workforce and has enough to eat."

"That's right," said the manor, "at this time of year I usually employ twenty-four people, but now I only have twelve people, and I can hire you."

"Very well," said Hans, "I can easily do the work of twelve, but I must also feed twelve."

After the owner of the manor agreed, he took him to the kitchen, told the cook that the newcomer would eat for twelve people, and arranged for him to prepare a pot and a long-handled spoon for him to eat.

It was nearly dark when Hans arrived at the manor, so he did nothing but eat his supper.He ate up a large jar of buckwheat porridge, and went to bed contented.He slept soundly, everyone else got up to work, but he was still sound asleep.When the owner of the manor got up, he also came to see, because he was very curious to see how the newcomer eats and does the work of twelve people.

But Hans was not seen, and the sun was already high, so the manor went to call him himself.

"Get up, Hans," he cried, "you have slept too long."

Hans woke up, rubbed his eyes and said, "Oh, yes, I must get up and have breakfast."

He got up and got dressed, went to the kitchen, swallowed a large pot of porridge a few times, and then asked himself what work he should do.

The owner of the farm said that his job that day was threshing corn, while the other twelve were already busy.There are twelve threshing grounds in total, and the twelve people are busy in six of them in groups of two.Hans had to finish off everything in the other six valley yards.He took out a flail in the barn and started to work like they did, but the first blow broke the flail to pieces.There were still several flails hanging from the barn, and Hans changed one after another, but all of them fell to pieces the first time he struck them.He had to look around for another tool, and finally found two very thick beams nearby.Then he saw horse hides nailed to the barn door.So he made a flail by binding two beams together with horse hides, one beam for the handle and the other for threshing.Everything was ready, but the barn was too low to wield the flail, and each barn was too narrow.Hans thought of a solution. He took off the entire roof of the barn, put it aside, poured out all the grain, and then he was busy.He went back and forth between several grain fields, and any grain looked the same to him.Before noon he had threshed all the farmer's grain, except that the rye, wheat, barley, and oats were all mixed together.When he was done, he raised the roof and put it back in the barn, like putting a lid on a box, and then he went to tell the manor that the work was done.

The owner of the manor opened his eyes wide in surprise when he heard that it was done so quickly, so he went to see for himself whether it was true.Of course it was really finished, but he was not happy to find that all the grains were mixed together.But when he saw the big flail that Hans had made, and knew how he had taken the roof and swung the big flail to finish the corn, he was too frightened to say anything more, except that it was well done, but that they had to be done. clean.

"What do you mean clean up?" asked Hans.

The owner of the manor told him that he wanted to separate the grains from the chaff and pile them into piles.Hans grabbed a little and began to divide it in his hand, but soon he found that it was impossible to do so.But he came up with another way, he opened both doors of the barn, and then lay on one end of the barn and blew, all the husks flew up and piled up on the other end of the barn, like a sand dune, and the grains dried up. clean.Then he told the manor owner it was done again.The owner of the manor said well done and had nothing else to do.So Hans went into the kitchen again, and had a good meal, and then he went to take a nap, and slept until supper time.

The owner of the manor was very distressed, and kept complaining to his wife, asking her to find a way to get rid of this strong guy, because he dared not send him away.The wife sent someone to invite a man who could think of ways, and according to his arrangement, all the people had to go to the woods to cut firewood the next day.And everyone must reach an agreement in advance, the last one to bring the firewood home will be hanged.They all thought it would be easy to do, and that it must be Hans who was hanged, for they would all be on their way early in the morning, and Hans would surely oversleep.So, in the evening, everyone sat together and discussed, saying that they had to set out early the next morning to cut firewood in the woods. Since everyone had to walk such a long way, it was very hard to cut firewood for another day. In order to make everyone happy, finally Whoever brings firewood home will be hanged.Everyone agrees, and Hans has no way to object.

The twelve men set off the next day before dawn.They have chosen all the good horses and cars.But at this time Hans was still sleeping, and the manor said, "Let him sleep!"

At last Hans felt that it was time for breakfast, so he got up and dressed.After a long breakfast, he came out to prepare the carriage.The better horses and carts were all gone, and it took him a lot of trouble to fasten four wheels of different sizes to an old carriage, and he had to use two old horses to pull it, because there were no other horses. up.Not knowing where the woods were, he followed the trail of other carriages.Unfortunately, when he got to the gate into the woods, he knocked it open, and blocked it with a block of stones seven feet long and seven wide.Then he continued on his way, joining the other woodcutters.These people kept laughing at him, because they came before dawn. Everyone worked hard and helped each other cut down trees to load the car. Now there is only one person whose car is not full.

Hans took one of the men's axes to chop the tree, but at the first blow the blade was broken, and the handle broke off.So he laid down the axe, and with his arms round the tree, he uprooted it, and threw it on to the wagon, and thus he uprooted many trees one by one.But the others all forgot their work, opened their mouths in astonishment, and stared at the strange woodcutter without moving.Then they began to hurry up, loaded the last cart in a few strokes, raised their whips, and urged the horses to gallop, so as to be the first to go home.

Hans finished loading the cart, harnessed the two old horses, and was ready to go, but the old horses couldn't pull a cart of trees at all.He was a little annoyed, so he simply tied the car and the tree together with a rope, put it on his back, and set off home, led the horse by the rein, and ran behind him.When he arrived at the gate of the mountain pass, he saw that the carriages that had gone first were all standing there waiting, because the gate was blocked by boulders, and they could not pass through.

(End of this chapter)