Crimson Fairy Book

Chapter 22 The Quarryman

Once upon a time there was a stone quarryman who would go to a huge boulder next to a big mountain every day to quarry stone slabs for tombstones and house repairs.He knows exactly what kind of stone is needed for different uses, and he is a careful craftsman, so he has many customers.For a long time he was very happy and content, and content with the status quo.

On that mountain lived a god who would appear to people from time to time and help them get rich and prosper in many ways.But the quarryman had never seen this fairy before, and whenever anyone mentioned him, he just shook his head, showing a look of disbelief.But now he was about to change his mind.

One day, the quarryman carried a tombstone to a rich man's house, and there he saw all kinds of beautiful things that he had never dreamed of.His daily tasks seemed suddenly hard and onerous, and he said to himself, "Oh, if I were a rich man, I should be able to sleep in a bed with silk curtains and gold tassels, How happy I would be then!"

A voice answered him: "I heard your wish, you will be a rich man!"

Hearing the voice, the quarryman looked around, but saw no one.He figured it must be nothing more than his hallucinations, so he packed up his tools and went home, not intending to do any more work that day.When he returned to the hut where he lived, he was stunned. His wooden house was gone, replaced by a magnificent palace full of luxurious furniture.The most luxurious of all the furniture was the bed, exactly like the one he had so much envied.He was almost mad with joy.After living a new life, the old days were quickly forgotten by him.

It was early summer at that time, and the sun was getting hotter and hotter every day.

One morning the weather was so oppressive that the quarryman was so hot that he decided to stay at home until evening.He was rather bored, and didn't know what to do with it, so he looked out through the drawn curtains to see what was going on in the street.At that moment a small carriage passed by servants in blue and silver.In the carriage sat a prince, with a golden umbrella over his head to shield him from the sun.

"Oh, if only I were a prince!" said the quarryman to himself after the carriage had disappeared around the corner, "Oh, if only I were a prince, so that I could sit in the How happy I should be in a carriage like that!"

The voice of the mountain god replied, "I heard your wish, and you will be a prince."

So he became a prince.A group of people on horseback surrounded him at the front and rear of the carriage, servants dressed in bright red and gold pulled him forward, an enviable parasol was propped on top of his head, and everything about him was desirable.But this is not enough, he is still looking for what he hopes to get.When he saw that he poured water on the grass, and the sun dried it up, and his face was getting darker every day, although he held an umbrella, he cried angrily: "The sun is stronger than me, oh, if How nice it would be if I were the sun!"

The mountain god replied: "I heard your wish, you will become the sun."

He became the sun, proud of his power.He radiated light to the earth, to the sky, and in every direction, and he withered the grass in the fields, and scorched the faces of princes and poor people.But he soon grew weary of his powers, for he seemed incapable of doing anything but those things.He was dissatisfied again when a cloud covered his face and the ground, and he exclaimed angrily, "Did the cloud block my light? Is it stronger than me? Oh, I To become a cloud, stronger than anything!"

The mountain god replied: "I heard your wish, you will become a cloud!"

He became a cloud and floated between the sun and the earth.He blocked and blocked the sun's rays, and to his delight the earth was green again and the flowers bloomed again.But that wasn't enough, and he poured rain on and on for days and even weeks until the rivers overflowed and drowned the crops.Cities and villages were washed away by the rain, and only the huge rock on the side of the mountain stood there unshakably.Seeing this scene, Yun was very surprised. He exclaimed in amazement: "So, this stone is stronger than me? Oh, it would be great if I were that stone!"

The mountain god replied: "I heard your wish, you will become that stone!"

He turned to stone, proud of his strength.He stood there proudly, neither the sun nor the rain could shake him. "It's better than anything!" he said to himself.But one day, he heard a strange sound coming from under his feet. He looked down to see what it was, and found a quarryman wedged a quarrying tool into the surface of his body.A shudder ran through him at the sight.A large stone was mined and fell to the ground.So he exclaimed angrily: "Is a mere mortal man stronger than a rock?

Oh, if only I were a human being! "

The mountain god replied: "I heard your wish, you will become a human again!"

So he became a man, and went back to his business of quarrying in sweat.His bed was hard and his food was precarious, but he was content with that and didn't want to be anything or anyone else.Since he no longer wanted extravagantly, nor wanted to be greater or stronger than others, he finally became happy again, and never heard the voice of the mountain god again.

(End of this chapter)