(29) From the Bukowniaer. Van Wliolocki.
There was once upon a time a couple who had no children, and they prayed
Heaven every day to send them a child, though it were no bigger than
a hazel-nut. At last Heaven heard their prayer and sent them a child
exactly the size of a hazel-nut, and it never grew an inch. The parents
were very devoted to the little creature, and nursed and tended it
carefully. Their tiny son too was as clever as he could be, and so sharp
and sensible that all the neighbours marvelled over the wise things he
said and did.
When the Hazel-nut child was fifteen years old, and was sitting one day
in an egg-shell on the table beside his mother, she turned to him and
said, ‘You are now fifteen years old, and nothing can be done with you.
What do you intend to be?’
‘A messenger,’ answered the Hazel-nut child.
Then his mother burst out laughing and said, ‘What an idea! You a
messenger! Why, your little feet would take an hour to go the distance
an ordinary person could do in a minute!’
But the Hazel-nut child replied, ‘Nevertheless I mean to be a messenger!
Just send me a message and you’ll see that I shall be back in next to no
time.’
So his mother said, ‘Very well, go to your aunt in the neighbouring
village, and fetch me a comb.’ The Hazel-nut child jumped quickly out
of the egg-shell and ran out into the street. Here he found a man on
horseback who was just setting out for the neighbouring village. He
crept up the horse’s leg, sat down under the saddle, and then began to
pinch the horse and to prick it with a pin. The horse plunged and reared
and then set off at a hard gallop, which it continued in spite of its
rider’s efforts to stop it. When they reached the village, the Hazel-nut
child left off pricking the horse, and the poor tired creature pursued
its way at a snail’s pace. The Hazel-nut child took advantage of this,
and crept down the horse’s leg; then he ran to his aunt and asked her
for a comb. On the way home he met another rider, and did the return
journey in exactly the same way. When he handed his mother the comb that
his aunt had given him, she was much amazed and asked him, ‘But how did
you manage to get back so quickly?’
‘Ah! mother,’ he replied, ‘you see I was quite right when I said I knew
a messenger was the profession for me.’
His father too possessed a horse which he often used to take out into
the fields to graze. One day he took the Hazel-nut child with him. At
midday the father turned to his small son and said, ‘Stay here and look
after the horse. I must go home and give your mother a message, but I
shall be back soon.’
When his father had gone, a robber passed by and saw the horse grazing
without any one watching it, for of course he could not see the
Hazel-nut child hidden in the grass. So he mounted the horse and rode
away. But the Hazel-nut child, who was the most active little creature,
climbed up the horse’s tail and began to bite it on the back, enraging
the creature to such an extent that it paid no attention to the
direction the robber tried to make it go in, but galloped straight home.
The father was much astonished when he saw a stranger riding his horse,
but the Hazel-nut child climbed down quickly and told him all that had
happened, and his father had the robber arrested at once and put into
prison.
One autumn when the Hazel-nut child was twenty years old he said to his
parents: ‘Farewell, my dear father and mother. I am going to set out
into the world, and as soon as I have become rich I will return home to
you.’
The parents laughed at the little man’s words, but did not believe him
for a moment. In the evening the Hazel-nut child crept on to the roof,
where some storks had built their nest. The storks were fast asleep,
and he climbed on to the back of the father-stork and bound a silk cord
round the joint of one of its wings, then he crept among its soft downy
feathers and fell asleep.
The next morning the storks flew towards the south, for winter was
approaching. The Hazel-nut child flew through the air on the stork’s
back, and when he wanted to rest he bound his silk cord on to the joint
of the bird’s other wing, so that it could not fly any farther. In this
way he reached the country of the black people, where the storks took
up their abode close to the capital. When the people saw the Hazel-nut
child they were much astonished, and took him with the stork to the King
of the country. The King was delighted with the little creature and kept
him always beside him, and he soon grew so fond of the little man that
he gave him a diamond four times as big as himself. The Hazel-nut child
fastened the diamond firmly under the stork’s neck with a ribbon, and
when he saw that the other storks were getting ready for their northern
flight, he untied the silk cord from his stork’s wings, and away they
went, getting nearer home every minute. At length the Hazel-nut child
came to his native village; then he undid the ribbon from the stork’s
neck and the diamond fell to the ground; he covered it first with sand
and stones, and then ran to get his parents, so that they might carry
the treasure home, for he himself was not able to lift the great
diamond.
So the Hazel-nut child and his parents lived in happiness and prosperity
after this till they died.