O dečku, ki je šel k severnemu vetru zahtevat moko nazaj

Besedilo

O dečku, ki je šel k severnemu vetru zahtevat moko nazaj

Once upon a time there was an old woman who had a son, and as she was very poor and frail, the lad had to go to the storehouse for flour for their dinner. But when he came out onto the storehouse steps, the North Wind came blustering along, snatched the flour from him, and swept away through the air with it. The lad went back into the storehouse for more, but when he came out onto the steps, the North Wind came blustering along again and snatched the flour from him, and the same thing happened a third time. This made the lad very angry, and as he thought it quite unreasonable for the North Wind to behave in such a fashion, he decided he would seek him out and demand his flour back.

So off he set, but the way was long, and he walked and he walked, until at last he came to the North Wind. “Good day,” said the lad, “and thank you for last time.” “Good day,” replied the North Wind—his voice was very gruff—“and the same to you. What do you want?” he went on. “Oh,” answered the lad, “I wanted to ask if you would be so good as to give me back the flour you took from me on the storehouse steps, for we have little enough, and if you go about taking what little we have, there will be nothing for us but to starve to death.” “I have no flour,” said the North Wind, “but since you are in such need, you shall have a tablecloth that will provide you with anything you wish for. You need only say, ‘Tablecloth, spread yourself and serve up every kind of delicious dish!’” The lad was well pleased with this. But as the way was too long for him to get home that day, he stopped at an inn along the road, and when the guests already there were about to have their supper, he laid the cloth on a table in the corner and said, “Tablecloth, spread yourself and serve up every kind of delicious dish!” No sooner had he spoken than the tablecloth did as he asked, and everyone thought it a wonderful thing, especially the innkeeper’s wife. So late that night, when everyone was asleep, she took the lad’s tablecloth and put another in its place, exactly like the one he had been given by the North Wind, except that it could not serve up so much as a crust of dry bread.

When the lad woke, he took his tablecloth and set off, and that day he reached his mother’s home. “Well,” he said, “I have been to see the North Wind, and a decent fellow he was, for he gave me this tablecloth, and whenever I say to it, ‘Tablecloth, spread yourself and serve up every kind of delicious dish!’ I get all the food I could wish for.” “Oh, no doubt,” said his mother, “but I shall not believe it until I see it.” The lad hurried to set out a table, laid the cloth upon it, and said, “Tablecloth, spread yourself and serve up every kind of delicious dish!” But the tablecloth did not serve up so much as a morsel of bread.

“There is nothing for it, then, but to go back to the North Wind,” said the lad, and off he set. Late that afternoon he came to the place where the North Wind lived.

“Good evening,” said the lad. “Good evening,” said the North Wind. “I should like to be paid for the flour you took from me,” said the lad, “for that tablecloth you gave me was no good.” “I have no flour,” said the North Wind, “but here is a billy goat that drops nothing but gold ducats whenever you say, ‘My goat, make money!’” The lad thought this very fine, but as it was too far for him to get home that day, he again took lodgings for the night at the inn. Before asking for anything, he tried out the goat to see whether what the North Wind had said was true, and so it was. But when the innkeeper saw this, he thought it a splendid goat, and once the lad was sound asleep, he took another goat, which certainly did not drop gold ducats, and put it in its place.

The next morning the lad set off, and when he came home to his mother, he said, “The North Wind is a kind fellow after all. This time he gave me a goat that can drop gold ducats whenever I say, ‘My goat, make money!’” “Oh, no doubt,” said his mother. “It is nothing but talk, and I shall not believe it until I see it.” “My goat, make money!” said the lad;

but what the goat dropped was not money. So he went back to the North Wind and said that the goat was no good, and that he wanted to be paid for his flour. “Well, now I have nothing else to give you,” said the North Wind, “except that old stick standing over in the corner. But it is the sort of stick that, when you say, ‘My stick, beat away!’ it goes on beating until you say:

‘My stick, be still!’” As the way home was long, the lad stopped at the inn that evening too. But since he had a fair idea of what had happened to the tablecloth and the goat, he at once lay down on the bench and began to snore, pretending to be asleep. The innkeeper, who guessed that the stick must be good for something too, found another that looked just like it and was about to put it in its place, thinking the lad was asleep and snoring. But just as the innkeeper reached for it, the lad cried, “My stick, beat away!” The stick began to beat the innkeeper until he leapt over tables and benches, crying and screaming, “Oh, good Lord! Oh, good Lord! Make the stick stop, or it will beat me to death! You shall have both the tablecloth and the goat back!” When the lad thought the innkeeper had had enough, he said, “My stick, be still!” Then he put the tablecloth in his pocket, took the stick in his hand, tied a cord around the goat’s horns, and went home with them all. That was good payment for the flour!