Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/120



FATHER had two sons, of whom the eldest was clever and bright, and always knew what he was about; but the youngest was stupid, and couldn’t learn or understand anything. So much so that those who saw him exclaimed: ‘What a burden he’ll be to his father!’ Now when there was anything to be done, the eldest had always to do it; but if something was required late or in the night-time, and the way led through the churchyard or some such ghostly place, he always replied: ‘Oh! no, father: nothing will induce me to go there, it makes me shudder!’ for he was afraid. Or, when they sat of an evening round the fire telling stories which made one’s flesh creep, the listeners sometimes said: ‘Oh! it makes one shudder,’ the youngest sat in a corner, heard the exclamation, and could not understand what it meant. ‘They are always saying it makes one shudder! it makes one shudder! Nothing makes me shudder. It’s probably an art quite beyond me.’

Now it happened that his father said to him one day: ‘Hearken, you there in the corner; you are growing big and strong, and you must learn to earn your own bread. Look at your brother, what pains he takes; but all the money I’ve spent on your education is thrown away.’ ‘My dear father,’ he replied, ‘I will gladly learn—in fact, if it were possible I should like to learn to shudder; I don’t understand that a bit yet.” The eldest laughed when he heard this, and thought to hims elfhim self [sic]: ‘Good heavens! what a ninny my brother is! he’ll never come to any good; as the twig is bent, so is the tree inclined.’ The father sighed, and answered him: ‘You’ll soon learn to shudder; but that won’t help you to make a living.’

Shortly after this, when the sexton came to pay them a visit, the father broke out to him, and told him what a bad hand his youngest son was at everything: he knew nothing and learnt nothing. ‘Only think! when I asked him how he purposed gaining a liveli-