WHO WENT FORTH TO LEARN WHAT FEAR WAS
A certain father had two sons, the elder of who was smart and sensible, and could do everything, but the younger was stupid and could neither learn nor understand anything, and when people saw him they said: \\u0027There\\u0027s a fellow who will give his father some trouble!\\u0027 When anything had to be done, it was always the elder who was forced to do it; but if his father bade him fetch anything when it was late, or in the night-time, and the way led through the churchyard, or any other dismal place, he answered: \\u0027Oh, no father, I\\u0027ll not go there, it makes me shudder!\\u0027 for he was afraid. Or when stories were told by the fire at night which made the flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: \\u0027Oh, it makes us shudder!\\u0027The younger sat in a corner and listened with the rest of them, and could not imagine what they could mean.\\u0027They are always saying: \\\"It makes me shudder, it makes me shudder!\\\" It does not make me shudder,\\u0027thought he. \\u0027That, too, must be an art of which I understand nothing!\\u0027
Now it came to pass that his father said to him one day: \\u0027Hearken to me, you fellow in the corner there,you are growing tall and strong, and you too must learn something by which you can earn your bread.Look how your brother works, but you do not even earn your salt.\\u0027 \\u0027Well, father,\\u0027 he replied, \\u0027I am quite willing to learn something—indeed, if it could but be managed, I should like to learn how to shudder. I don\\u0027t understand that at all yet.\\u0027 The elder brother smiled when he heard that, and thought to himself: \\u0027Goodness,what a blockhead that brother of mine is! He will never be good for anything as long as he lives! He who wants to be a sickle must bend himself betimes.\\u0027
The father sighed, and answered him: \\u0027You shall soon learn what it is to shudder, but you will not earn your bread by that.\\u0027
Soon after this the sexton came to the house on a visit, and the father bewailed his trouble, and told him how his younger son was so backward in every respect that he knew nothing and learnt nothing. \\u0027Just think,\\u0027said he, \\u0027when I asked him how he was going to earn his bread, he actually wanted to learn to shudder.\\u0027 \\u0027If that be all,\\u0027 replied the sexton, \\u0027he can learn that with me. Send him to me, and I will soon polish him.\\u0027 The father was glad to do it, for he thought: \\u0027It will train the boy a little.\\u0027 The sexton therefore took him into his house, and he had to ring the church bell. After a day or two, the sexton awoke him at midnight, and bade him arise and go up into the church tower and ring the bell. \\u0027You shall soon learn what shuddering is,\\u0027 thought he, and secretly went there before him; and when the boy was at the top of the tower and turned round,and was just going to take hold of the bell rope, he saw a white figure standing on the stairs opposite the sounding hole. \\u0027Who is there?\\u0027 cried he, but the figure made no reply, and did not move or stir. \\u0027Give an answer,\\u0027 cried the boy, \\u0027or take yourself off, you have no business here at night.\\u0027
The sexton, however, remained standing motionless that the boy might think he was a ghost. The boy cried a second time: \\u0027What do you want here?—speak if you are an honest fellow, or I will throw you down the steps!\\u0027 The sexton thought: \\u0027He can\\u0027t mean to be as bad as his words,\\u0027 uttered no sound and stood as if he were made of stone. Then the boy called to him for the third time, and as that was also to no purpose, he ran against him and pushed the ghost down the stairs, so that it fell down the ten steps and remained lying there in a corner. Thereupon he rang the bell, went home, and without saying a word went to bed, and fell asleep.The sexton\\u0027s wife waited a long time for her husband,but he did not come back. At length she became uneasy, and wakened the boy, and asked: \\u0027Do you know where my husband is? He climbed up the tower before you did.\\u0027 \\u0027No, I don\\u0027t know,\\u0027 replied the boy, \\u0027but someone was standing by the sounding hole on the other side of the steps, and as he would neither gave an answer nor go away, I took him for a scoundrel, and threw him downstairs. Just go there and you will see if it was he. I should be sorry if it were.\\u0027 The woman ran away and found her husband, who was lying moaning in the corner, and had broken his leg.
She carried him down, and then with loud screams she hastened to the boy\\u0027s father, \\u0027Your boy,\\u0027 cried she, \\u0027has been the cause of a great misfortune! He has thrown my husband down the steps so that he broke his leg. Take the good-for-nothing fellow out of our house.\\u0027 The father was terrified, and ran thither and scolded the boy. \\u0027What wicked tricks are these?\\u0027 said he. \\u0027The devil must have put them into your head.\\u0027 \\u0027Father,\\u0027 he replied, \\u0027do listen to me. I am quite innocent. He was standing there by night like one intent on doing evil. I did not know who it was,and I entreated him three times either to speak or to go away.\\u0027 \\u0027Ah,\\u0027 said the father, \\u0027I have nothing but unhappiness with you. Go out of my sight. I will see you no more.\\u0027
\\u0027Yes, father, right willingly, wait only until it is day.Then will I go forth and learn how to shudder, and then I shall, at any rate, understand one art which will support me.\\u0027 \\u0027Learn what you will,\\u0027 spoke the father,\\u0027it is all the same to me. Here are fifty talers for you. Take these and go into the wide world, and tell no one from whence you come, and who is your father, for I have reason to be ashamed of you.\\u0027 \\u0027Yes, father, it shall be as you will. If you desire nothing more than that, I can easily keep it in mind.\\u0027
When the day dawned, therefore, the boy put his fifty talers into his pocket, and went forth on the great highway, and continually said to himself: \\u0027If I could but shudder! If I could but shudder!\\u0027 Then a man approached who heard this conversation which the youth was holding with himself, and when they had walked a little farther to where they could see the gallows, the man said to him: \\u0027Look, there is the tree where seven men have married the ropemaker\\u0027s daughter, and are now learning how to fly. Sit down beneath it, and wait till night comes, and you will soon learn how to shudder.\\u0027 \\u0027If that is all that is wanted,\\u0027answered the youth, \\u0027it is easily done; but if I learn how to shudder as fast as that, you shall have my fifty talers. Just come back to me early in the morning.\\u0027Then the youth went to the gallows, sat down beneath it, and waited till evening came. And as he was cold,he lighted himself a fire, but at midnight the wind blew so sharply that in spite of his fire, he could not get warm. And as the wind knocked the hanged men against each other, and they moved backwards and forwards, he thought to himself: \\u0027If you shiver below by the fire, how those up above must freeze and suffer!\\u0027 And as he felt pity for them, he raised the ladder, and climbed up, unbound one of them after the other, and brought down all seven. Then he stoked the fire, blew it, and set them all round it to warm themselves. But they sat there and did not stir, and the fire caught their clothes. So he said: \\u0027Take care, or I will hang you up again.\\u0027 The dead men, however, did not hear, but were quite silent, and let their rags go on burning. At this he grew angry, and said: \\u0027If you will not take care, I cannot help you, I will not be burnt with you,\\u0027 and he hung them up again each in his turn.Then he sat down by his fire and fell asleep, and the next morning the man came to him and wanted to have the fifty talers, and said: \\u0027Well do you know how to shudder?\\u0027 \\u0027No,\\u0027 answered he, \\u0027how should I know?Those fellows up there did not open their mouths, and were so stupid that they let the few old rags which they had on their bodies get burnt.\\u0027 Then the man saw that he would not get the fifty talers that day, and went away saying: \\u0027Such a youth has never come my way before.\\u0027