|
Seligor's Castle, fun for all the children of the world.
Blogs
Sun, 21 Jun 2009
|
 The Rich Man and the Poor Man
A page made by
Seligor of things that maybe you won't know of,
till now.
The Rich Man and the Poor Man
A
rich man and a poor man sat beneath the pink and
lemon blossom trees of Spring.
The rich man
said:
"Ah the scent of these trees gives me a
headache. I am not too dull a fellow that my mind
does not tell me how beautiful it is. But then I
begin to think of how I might buy up this land so
that the trees are exclusively mine and then I
might find somehow to bottle that delicious perfume
and market it."
"You do not need the money,"
said the poor man. "I would bring my ailing
daughter here that she might look at the wonderful
colour and smell the delicious scent, but she is
very sickly and the perfume would overpower
her."
The rich man mopped his brow
with a silk handkerchief embroidered and sewn with
precious jewels. A thought struck him. He pulled
out a second handkerchief, just as beautiful as the
first. He offered it to the poor man.
"Take
this." he cried, "Put it over your daughters mouth
that the heady perfume of the pink and lemon
blossom be not too strong for her chest and
senses!"
The poor man
looked abashed and pondered thoughtfully. Finally,
and not without some consternation, he spoke:
"I
thankyou, Sir, but alas, I cannot; I am, you see,
to proud to accept such a magnificent gift."
In the amiable silence that followed,
a brace of pale-green winged zephyrs disported in
the mellow afternoon sunlight, a golden canary
settled on a clump of pink blossom and a fire-bird
alighted on a branch positively efflorescent with
startling lemon petals, where it promptly fell
asleep.
The rich man called his
servant, who produced a bag containing a flask of
wine, a loaf of bread, and a selection of dried
figs and apricots. The poor man deigned to share
the welcome feast.
"When I was a young merchant,
and still quite slim," said the rich man, "I
often thought of travelling to some far distant
land, of finding a proud and beautiful princess
there, and then woo her. She would have
been fine boned and delicate, with lustrous
chestnut hair, decorated and perfumed with pink and
lemon blossom."
He produced two
bright red apples and offered one to the poor man.
A sigh escaped his well rounded form. He simply
could not stop his mind from hatching new and
convoluted schemes to make a profit from those
blossom-trees.
"Blossom is fine," said the
poor man, "but fruit sits better on an empty
stomach.
My own wife was a beauty in her day,
her voice as sweet as apples once, before she took
to working everyday in the Linen-factory; but
autumn follows summer, just as summer follows
spring. Sweet apples can turn sour out of season
and a sweet temper turn to tantrums. A sour apple
can give a fellow a belly-ache in his
head.
In his
hovel, the poor man's daughter coughed into a
filthy rag.
Through a hole in the wall she
watched the pink and lemon blossom on the trees,
softly moving on the scented breeze.
In the rich
man's palace, his cooks were beginning to prepare
his evening meal.
"I must be going," said the
poor man, and thanked .his companion for the
afternoon repast. In his pocket he carried a
half-eaten apple to give to his
daughter.
The rich man
nodded, and summoning his servant, he made to mount
his horse.
"Blossom-jam," he was thinking. "The
resin of the bark seems thick and pungent. Perhaps
it has some medicinal
properties........
Meanwhile, the
fire-bird
had
awoken and was eyeing the chattering canary with
significant disfavour.
"Can't a chap get any
sleep around here," he grumbled. and shook his
magnificent feathers.
In the distance, the evening
whistle blew at the Linen-factory and presently, a
thin line of gaunt and tired women emerged into the
gathering dusk.
More from the pen of
Willowdown©.Posted 18:50
|
No comments
|
Post a Comment:
|
|
|
|
|
