Once upon a time there lived a man who had three
sons. The sons grew up and were big and sturdy lads but
loafers all three who hated work of any kind.
The father toiled the year round, he worked now in
the vineyard, now in the orchard, now in field, and he
fed and clothed his sons, but the sons never did a
stroke of work and only sat in the shade or went bathing
in the Dniester.
It was lucky the father took such pains tilling
the soil, for he gathered a rich harvest every autumn,
and in his hands the vineyard, orchard and field were
priceless treasures.
The years passed, and the father’s beard was now as
white as snow. He saw that old age was upon him, that his
strength was ebbing and that he could no longer care
for his sons the way he had, and so he decided to
turn over his land to them and all he had been able to
amass at the price of such wearing labor as well. He
also wanted to tell them a secret.
One day he called them to his bedside and said:
"My dear children, I cared for my who e life long
and toiled day in and day out in order that you might
not want for anything. But now that my end is close
there is nothing I have to leave you save this hut and
also the vineyard, orchard and field. But know this:
somewhere here a great treasure lies buried, a whole jug
of gold. Dig up the land and find it, and it will be
yours."
"But where is this jug buried, Father, how deep
down?" the sons asked.
"I don't remember that, I buried it when I was
young", the father said. "But not very deep down, I
think. Dig as deep as the blade will go, from vine to
vine in the vineyard, from tree to tree in the orchard
and from boundary to boundary in the field, and
you 're sure to find it!"
The old man died, and his sons were left alone.
They laid their father to rest, and the youngest of
them , who was also the cleverest of the three, said:
"No body is going to feed us now, brothers, no, nor
even give us a crust of bread. Do you remember what
father said before he died? Let's dig up the vineyard
and perhaps we'll find the treasure and lead a life of
ease again."
Next morning they rose when it was still dark, took
the biggest spades they had in order to dig deeper
and set to work in the vineyard. They dug first in one
place, then in another, but though they made a whole lot
of holes there, and in the field too, they found not-
hing.
The brothers grew sad.
"If we go on making these holes," the youngest of the
three said, "we'll never find anything. Let's dig up
the whole of the land."
The brothers took their spades and, being eager to
find the treasure, began digging up the field. They dug
for a day and another and a third, but no Jug did they'
find! When they reached the very end of the field, the
eldest brother's spade struck something that made a
jangling sound. The brothers lost their hearts. They
scraped away the soil and saw that what the spade had
struck was a stone slab. They began trying to loosen the
slab and pull it out of the earth, and lo! -water, cool
and transparent, shot forth from under it. Instead of
the jug of gold they had found a spring!
One of the brothers said:
"Do not grieve, lads! Let's dig a well here. It's
always been hard to carry water from the other one, it's
so far away from our place."
They dug a well, fased it with stone, fashioned a
sweep and a trough for the cattle, and it came out as
fine as you could find nowhere! The water had a pleasant taste and there was a lot' of' it,
enough for everybody, and people from all over the neighborhood began coining there for it.
And as for the brothers, they
set to work anew, and, eager to find the pot; dug up the
whole of' the vineyard, the field and the orchard.
They found nothing again, and the eldest brother
looked at the field and said:
"It's sowing time now, so why don't we sow the field,
and maybe something will come out of it. At least all
our labor will not have been wasted."
They sowed the field with wheat the way their
father used to and they weeded and watered it, and the
yield was so big as never before! And they got a rich
harvest of grapes from the vineyard and of fruit
from the orchard as well.
The brothers divided these rich es among themselves
and began digging up the land again.
The second brother said:
"It's no use , we're only wasting our time, there' s
no treasure here!"
And the youngest brother looked at him and said:
"I know now what Father meant when he told us about
the jug of gold. He had a good harvest in mind. If we
work hard we will have it; if we don 't , we'll be left
with nothing!"
And the other two realized that he was right and
that their father had indeed been wise! They knew that
they had nor labored in vain and decided to 'til l the
land and work hard in order that it might yield up its
treasures-to them. For it is your labor that is always re-
paid a hundredfold!
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