blue fairy tale book

Chapter 28 Why Sea Water Is Salty

A long time ago, there were two brothers, one rich and one poor.When Christmas Eve came, the poor brother never had a bite of bread or a piece of meat.So he went to his rich brother and begged him for God's sake to give him something to get him through this Christmas.At first, my brother was not happy at all, and he didn't want to be begged by his poor brother all the time, because he was not that generous.

"If you do as I tell you, you'll have a whole ham," he said.The poor brother immediately agreed to the rich brother with gratitude.

"Very good, here, here is the ham, now you have to go directly to the 'morgue'." Brother Fu said, and threw the ham to him.

"Okay, I'll keep my promise," said the younger brother, and he took the ham and left.He walked for a whole day, and finally came to a place with twinkling lights when night fell.

"What's so scary about this place?" the younger brother holding the ham thought.

An old man with a long white beard was planing wood outside the house.

"Good evening." My brother greeted.

"Good evening, young man, where are you going so late?" asked the old man.

"If I don't go the wrong way, I'm going to the 'morgue'." The poor brother replied.

"Oh, yes, you did not go wrong, here it is." The old man said. "After entering, they will all want to buy the ham in your hand. They don't have enough meat to eat there. But remember, they must exchange your meat with the grinding disc behind the door. When you come out, I will Will teach you how to stop that universal mill."

So the poor brother thanked the old man for his suggestion, and knocked on the door.After entering, he found that everything was exactly the same as what the old man had said.No matter the old or the young, everyone huddled around him like ants in an anthill.And everyone is desperately raising the price, hoping that they can buy ham.

"This is my Christmas dinner with my old mother! But, because you really want to buy it, I can sell it to you." The poor brother said, "But I only want to use it to exchange The millstone behind your door."

At first they were not very happy, so they kept haggling with the poor brother.But no matter how they toss, the poor brother never backed down, and finally those people had to give him the millstone.When he got out of the room and came to the yard, he asked the old man who planed the wood and learned how to stop the millstone.The poor brother thanked him, and then rushed home as fast as he could, but it was a pity that he still didn't arrive home until after the clock struck twelve o'clock on Christmas Eve.

"Where have you been?" asked my mother. "I've been waiting here for an hour, and an hour, and there's not even a piece of meat to cook on Christmas Eve."

"Oh! I can't go home early, because I ran a long way to do more important things. Now let you see!" said the poor brother, and put the millstone on the table.First there was a lamp, then a tablecloth, then meat, beer, and all the nice things that should go for a Christmas dinner.Mopan conjured everything according to his request. "My God!" his wife exclaimed as she saw these things popping up one after the other.She wanted to know where her husband got the millstone, but he didn't tell her.

"Don't worry about it. You know it's a good thing now, don't you? And the water it touches will never freeze," said the poor brother.Then there was a lot of meat and drink, and all kinds of good things.That way they can all have a wonderful Christmas.On the third day, he also hosted a banquet for all his friends.

At this time, Brother Fu saw what happened in the room and at the banquet, and was very angry. He was jealous of what his brother had now. "On Christmas Eve, this brat was so poor that he begged me to give him something for God's sake. Now he can host a feast for the king and ministers." He thought to himself, and asked his brother:

"For God's sake, tell me how you got so rich?"

The younger brother who had the millstone didn't want his elder brother to know about it, but at night, he drank too much and couldn't control himself anymore, so he let out how to get the millstone. "Behind the door you can see what has made me rich," he said, taking out the millstone, and performing it in turn.After my brother saw it, he insisted on this millstone.The younger brother couldn't stand his prolonged persuasion, and agreed to give it to his elder brother, but he paid 300 yuan, and he had to wait until the wheat straw was dried.The younger brother thought: "In that case, I can use it to conjure a lot of delicious food and wine."

You can imagine that the grinding disc will not rust at all.After the wheat was harvested, brother rich came to take it away, but brother deliberately didn't teach him how to stop the millstone.It was already evening when my brother returned home with the millstone.The next morning he sent his wife out to dry the wheat grass, so he could stay at home all day by himself.When it was time to serve dinner, he put the millstone on the kitchen table and read: "Mopan millpan, make fatty fish and broth quickly."

So the millstones began to turn fatty fish and broth, filling first all the dishes and tubs, and then pouring out of the kitchen floor.The elder brother twisted and twisted, trying his best to stop it, but no matter how he tried to make the disc stop, he couldn't stop it.There were more and more things, and in a blink of an eye the broth was so high that my brother was about to drown.So he hurriedly opened the door of the living room, but it didn't take long for the broth to fill the whole living room.He had to risk his way through the torrent of broth to grab the latch.After he opened the door, he didn't want to stay in the house for a moment and ran out quickly.Fat fish and broth followed him, flooding farms and fields.

His wife, who was drying the hay, was wondering why the food had not been delivered so late.She said to the maids and the mower, "Let's go, though the master doesn't call us home." So they drove home in groups of three and four.But when they just went up the mountain, they saw fatty fish, broth and bread pouring over one after another.And the hero is running at the forefront of this torrent. "I suppose your stomachs are big enough to hold them? Be careful not to drown in the broth!" he yelled, rushing with them to where his brother lived.

He begged his brother, begging him, for God's sake, to take back the millstone.He said hastily, "If it had changed an hour longer, the whole place would have been ruined by fatty fish and broth."

But the younger brother must pay the 300 yuan he promised to take back the millstone.

So the poor brother got both the money and his millstone back.Soon he had a better house than his brother.The mill turned a lot of money for him, and he paved the house with gold bricks.Because it is close to the sea, the golden light of the house shines all the way to the sea.Everyone who sailed there stopped to visit the owner of the golden house, and they all wanted to see the magical millstone that everyone knew about.

After a long time, another captain came.He also wished to see the millstone.He asked: "Can it make salt?" "Of course, it can make salt." The owner of the millstone replied.After the captain learned of this, he was willing to exchange everything he had for it, because he felt that if he had it, he would not have to cross the dangerous sea to transport a ship full of salt back.At first the owner of the mill was unwilling to give it to others, but he couldn't stand the captain's entreaties and prayers, so he finally sold it to him for a lot of money.The captain didn't dare to stay there after he got the millstone, lest the master change his mind.

Before he had time to ask how to stop the mill, he boarded the boat and drove away.

Not far out to sea, he took out the millstone and put it on the deck. "Mill the grinding disc, quickly change the salt." The captain read.So the millstone began to produce salt, more and more, and finally gushed out like water.When the captain felt that the ship was full, he wanted to stop the mill, but found that no matter how hard he turned it, no matter how hard he tried, it kept emitting salt.The salt piles grew higher and higher, and finally the ship sank.And what about the grinding disc?Always at the bottom of the sea, still producing salt, day in and day out — that's why the sea is so salty.

(End of this chapter)