Usmiljena snaha in neusmiljena tašča

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Usmiljena snaha in neusmiljena tašča

There once lived a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law was cunning and merciless toward the poor, while the daughter-in-law was as good as a fine day in the year: whenever some poor soul came to the house, the mother-in-law would drive them away with her carrying pole, while the daughter-in-law would share her own morsel with them. When she carried the sheep’s milk home, wherever she saw a little hole in the road, she would say, “There must be some little creature here,” and pour a little milk into it. Because she was so charitable, her mother-in-law hated her and would even starve her, locking the bread away so that the poor woman would go hungry for two or three days at a time. One day the mother-in-law fell gravely ill, and as she lay in bed she prayed to God that, after she died, he would let her return to this world to keep her daughter-in-law from giving things away to every passing good-for-nothing. When she died and was buried, the mourners ate and drank at the funeral feast. After they had gone, the daughter-in-law washed the dishes, carried the swill out to the pigs’ trough and poured it in, then went to let the pigs loose. When the pigs ran up to the trough, they squealed and circled it, but would not drink the swill. She began to wonder what was wrong with them, and when she went to look, there was not a drop of swill left, yet the ground around the trough was dry: it had not leaked out! The same thing happened the next evening, and so it went for seven evenings. On the eighth evening she told her husband to pour out the pigs’ feed himself. When he had poured it out and let the pigs loose, he saw how thin they had grown and began scolding his wife for not feeding them, but letting them waste away like that. Then she told him all that had happened, and he ran to the trough to see whether it was empty—and empty it was! He began crossing himself and wondering what it could mean. At that moment his mother spoke from beneath the trough: “My son! I am suffering torments in the other world. Every sigh a poor soul heaved when I drove them from the door has turned into a thorn there, and on those thorns I lie. Every tear a poor soul shed because of me boils in a cauldron, and in that cauldron I am being boiled. And because I prayed to God to send me back from the other world to watch over the house and keep my daughter-in-law from giving things away to good-for-nothings, I have been condemned to come into this world and eat with the pigs. But for your wife three golden tables have been laid, covered with roses and basil. Ask her whether she will give me one, so that I may find peace.” The husband went into the house to his wife and told her everything. When she heard it, she ran to the trough to see her mother-in-law, and at the sight of her, so worn with suffering, she burst into tears. The mother-in-law began imploring her to give her one table, for such was the judgment passed upon her: if her daughter-in-law gave her one table, half her sins would be forgiven, and she would no longer have to return to this world to eat with the pigs. The daughter-in-law said, “I give you all three tables. Let everything I have done until now be for your sake, and from now on may God grant me the chance to earn something for myself.” Then the mother-in-law vanished, and never came again.