Why the Sea is Salt (1)

Why the Sea is Salt (1)

Once upon a time, long ago, there were two brothers.

The older brother was rich and successful, but mean and arrogant. The younger brother was very poor, but kind and generous.

When Christmas Eve came, the poor brother and his wife found that they had nothing to eat in their house, either of meat or bread.

They had no money either, and nothing could sell. To make matters worse, the next day was a holiday, a day of celebration.

"Where are we going to get something to eat?   Tomorrow is a holiday. How will we celebrate? " asked the poor brother's wife in tears.

The poor brother did not know what to do.

"Go to your brother and ask for his help," suggested the poor man's wife. "He killed a cow yesterdayーI saw him. Surely he will not grudge us a little meat for the holiday?　"

The poor man sighed.
He did not like to ask his brother for help, for he knew how mean and selfish his brother was.

But the next day was a holiday, and he really could not think how else to get something to eat.

So he went to his brother's house and begged him to give something for Christmas Day.
It was not the first time the rich brother had been forced to give something to poor brother.

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タグ：Why the Sea is Salt

Why the Sea is Salt (2)

Why the Sea is Salt (2)

" What do you want? " asked the rich brother as soon as he saw the poor man.

" Why do you come here? " cried the rich man's wife.
" Tomorrow is a holiday, and we are busy preparing the feast. Go away, we have no time for you! "

"Brother," said the poor man.
" We have nothing to eat in the house, no food to celebrate the holiday. Lend me a little meat, so that I and my wife may also celebrate. "

" I knew it! " shrieked the rich man's wife at her husband.
" I knew your brother would come begging one day. Throw him out! "

The poor man ignored his brother's wife.
" Please, brother, " he said, looking at the rich man.

" Oh well, if you do what I ask you, you shall have a whole ham, " he said.

The poor one immediately thanked him, and promised he would do this.

" Well, here is the ham, and now you must go straight to the Dead Man's  Hall, said the rich brother, throwing the ham to him.  

The poor man thanked his brother and said, " I will do what I have promised. "

He took the ham and set off.

He traveled on and on all day, and at nightfall he came to a place where there was a bright light.

" I have no doubt this is the place, " thought the poor brother with the ham.

(2/12)

Why the Sea is Salt (3)

Why the Sea is Salt (3)

An old man with a long white beard was standing in the shed, chopping logs.

" Good evening, " said the poor brother with the ham.

" Good evening to you, Where are you going at this late hour ? " asked the man.

" I am going to Dead Man's Hall, if only I am on the right track, " answered the poor brother.

" Oh ! yes, you are right enough, for it is here, " replied the old man.

" When you get inside they will all want to buy your ham, for they don't get much meat to eat there: but you must not sell it unless you can get the hand-mill which stands behind the door for it.
When you come out again I will teach you how to step the hand-mill, which is useful for almost everything. "

So the man with the ham thanked the old man for his good advice, and rapped at the door.

When he got in, everything happened just as the old man had said it would: all the people, great and small, came round him like ants on an ant-hill, and each tried to outbit the other for the ham.



" By right my wife and I ought to have it for our Christmas dinner, but since you have set your hearts upon it, I must just give it up to you, " said the poor man.
" But, if I sell it, I will have the hand-mill which is standing there behind the door. "

At first they would not hear of this, and hagged and bargained with the man, but he stuck to what he had said, and they were forced to five him the hand-mill.

(3/12) 

タグ：Why the Sea is Salt

Why the Sea is Salt (4)

Why the Sea is Salt (4)

When the poor man came out again into the yard, he asked the old woodcutter how he was to stop the hand-mill, and when he had learnt that he thanked him and set off home with all the speed he could.

But he did not get there until after the clock had struck the hour of twelve on Christmas Eve.

" But wherever in the world have you been ? " asked man's wife.
" Here I have sat waiting hour after hour, and have not even two sticks to lay across each other the Christmas porridge pot. "

" Oh ! I could not come before; I had something of importance to see about, and a long way to go too; but  now you shall just see ! " said the man.

And then he set the hand-mill on the table, and ordered it first to grind light, then  a table cloth, and then meat, and beer, and everything else that was good for Christmas Eve's supper.

The mill ground all that he ordered.



" Bless me ! " said his wife as one thing after another appeared.

She wanted to know where her husband had got the mill from, but he would not tell her that.

(4/12)

Why the Sea is Salt (5)

Why the Sea is Salt (5)

" Never mind where I got it ; you can see that it is a good one, and the water that turns it will never freeze, " said the man.

So he ground meat and drink and all kinds of good things, to last all Christmas time, and on the third day he invited all his friends to come to a feast.

Now when the rich brother saw all that there was at the banquet and in the house, he was both vexed and very angry, for he begrudged everything his brother had.

" On Christmas Eve he was so poor that he came to me and begged for a trifle and now he gives a feast as if he were both a count and a king ! " he thought.

" But tell me where you got your riches from, " he said to his brother.

(5/12)

Why the Sea is Salt (6)

Why the Sea is Salt (6)

" From behind the door, " said the poor brother, for he did not choose to satisfy his brother on that point.

However, later in the evening, when he had taken a drop too much, he could not refrain from telling how he had come by the hand-mill.

" There you see what has brought me all my wealth ! " he said, and brought out the mill, and made it grind first one thing and then another.

When the rich brother saw that he insisted on having the mill, and after a great deal of persuasion he got it; but he had to give three handred dollars for it.

The poor brother was to keep it till haymaking was over, for he thought; " If I keep it as long as that, I can make it grind meat and drink that will last many a long year."

During that time you may imagine that the mill did not grow rusty, and when harvest time came the rich brother got it, but the other had taken good care not to teach him how to stop it.

(6/12)

Why the Sea is Salt (7)

Why the Sea is Salt (7)

It was evening when the rich man got the mill home.

And in the morning he told his wife to go out and spread the hay after the mowers, and he would attend to the house himself that day.

So when dinner time drew near, he set the mill down on the kitchen table.

He said to the mill, " Grind herrings and porridge, and do it both quickly and well. "

So the mill began to grind herrings and porridge, and first all the dishes and tubs were filled, and then it came out all over the kitchen floor.

The man twisted and turned it, and did all he could to make the mill stop, but, however he turned it  and screwed it, the mill went on grinding.

In a short time, the porridge rose so high that the man was in danger of drowning.

(7/12)
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Why the Sea is Salt (9)

Why the Sea is Salt (9)

She said to the women and the mowers: " Though the master does not call us home, we may as well go. It may be that he finds he is not good at making porridge, and I should do well to help him. "

So they began to straggle homewards, but when they had got a little way up the hill they met the herrings and porridge, all pouring forth and winding about one over the other.

The rich man himself in front of the flood.

" If only each of you had a hundred stomachs, take care that you are not drowned in all this porridge ! " he cried.

He went by them, down to where his brother lived.

Then he begged him to take the mill back again at once.

" If it grind just one more hour the hole district will be destroyed by herrings and porridge. " he said. 

(9/12)

Why the Sea is Salt (10)

Why the Sea is Salt (10)



But the poor brother would not take it until the other paid him three hundred dollars, and that he was obliged to do.

Now the poor brother had both the money and the mill again.

So it was not long before he had a farmhouse much finer than that in which his brother lived.

The mill ground him so much money that he covered it with plates of gold.

The farmhouse lay close by the sea, so it shone and glittered far out to sea.

Everyone who sailed by there now had to put in to visit the rich man in the gold farmhouse and everyone wanted to see the wonderful mill.

(10/12)

Why the Sea is Salt (11)

Why the Sea is Salt (11)

The report of the wonderful mill spread far and wide and there was no one who had not heard of it.

After a long, long time there came a skipper who wished to see the hand-mill.

He asked if it could make salt.

" Yes, it can make salt, " said the man who owned it.

When the skipper heard that he wished with all his might to have the will, let it cost what it might, for, he thought, if he had it, he would no longer have to sail far away over the perilous sea for freights of salt.

At first the man would not hear of parting with it, but the skipper begged , and at last the man sold it to him, and got many, many thousand dollars for it.

When the skipper had got the mill on his back he did not stay there long, for he was so afraid that the man should change his mind.

The skipper had no time to ask he was to stop it grinding, but got on board his ship as fast as he could.

(11/12)   

Why the Sea is Salt (12 完)

Why the Sea is Salt (12　完)

When he had gone a little way out to sea he took the mill on deck.

" Grind salt, and grind both quickly and well, " commanded the skipper.

So the mill began to grind salt, and kept grinding till it spouted out like water, and when the skipper had got the ship fulled he wanted to stop the mill.

But whichever way he turned it, and however much he tried, it went on grinding, and the heap of salt grew higher and higher, untill at last the ship sank.



There lies the mill at the bottom of the sea, and still, day by day, it grinds on: and that is why the sea is salt.

(12/12 完)

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