Mercury And The Workmen
Aesop Fable: Mercury And The Workmen
A workman, felling wood by the side of a river, let his axe
drop by accident into a deep pool. Being thus deprived of
the means of his livelihood, he sat down on the bank and
lamented his hard fate. Mercury appeared and demanded
the cause of his tears. After he told him his misfortune,
Mercury plunged into the stream, and, bringing up a golden
axe, inquired if that were the one he had lost. On his saying
that it was not his, Mercury disappeared beneath the
water a second time, returned with a silver axe in his hand,
and again asked the Workman if it were his.
When the
Workman said it was not, he dived into the pool for the
third time and brought up the axe that had been lost. The
Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its recovery.
Mercury, pleased with his honesty, gave him the golden
and silver axes in addition to his own. The Workman, on his
return to his house, related to his companions all that had
happened. One of them at once resolved to try and secure
the same good fortune for himself. He ran to the river and
threw his axe on purpose into the pool at the same place,
and sat down on the bank to weep. Mercury appeared to
him just as he hoped he would; and having learned the
cause of his grief, plunged into the stream and brought up
a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost it.
The Workman seized
it greedily, and declared that truly it was the very same
axe that he had lost. Mercury, displeased at his knavery,
not only took away the golden axe, but refused to recover
for him the axe he had thrown into the pool.
|
|
|
|
|
