“I have followed you from the harbour,” answered he, “and have been
often in sore dread lest my strength should fail me. I hoped that by
swimming after the ship I might at last reach Kungla, as I had no money
to pay my passage.” The captain’s heart melted at these words, and he
said kindly: “You may be thankful that you were not drowned. I will
land you at Kungla free of payment, as you are so anxious to get there.
So he gave him dry clothes to wear, and a berth to sleep in, and Tiidu
and his friend secretly made merry over their cunning trick.
For the rest of the voyage the ship’s crew treated Tiidu as something
higher than themselves, seeing that in all their lives they had never
met with any man that could swim for as many hours as he had done. This
pleased Tiidu very much, though he knew that he had really done nothing
to deserve it, and in return he delighted them by tunes on his pipes.
When, after some days, they cast anchor at Kungla, the story of his
wonderful swim brought him many friends, for everybody wished to hear
him tell the tale himself. This might have been all very well, had not
Tiidu lived in dread that some day he would be asked to give proof of
his marvellous swimming powers, and then everything would be found out.
Meanwhile he was dazzled with the splendour around him, and more than
ever he longed for part of the riches, about which the owners seemed to
care so little.
He wandered through the streets for many days, seeking some one who
wanted a servant; but though more than one person would have been glad
to engage him, they seemed to Tiidu not the sort of people to help him
to get rich quickly. At last, when he had almost made up his mind that
he must accept the next place offered him, he happened to knock at the
door of a rich merchant who was in need of a scullion, and gladly
agreed to do the cook’s bidding, and it was in this merchant’s house
that he first learned how great were the riches of the land of Kungla.
All the vessels which in other countries are made of iron, copper,
brass, or tin, in Kungla were made of silver, or even of gold. The food
was cooked in silver saucepans, the bread baked in a silver oven, while
the dishes and their covers were all of gold. Even the very pigs’
troughs were of silver too. But the sight of these things only made
Tiidu more covetous than before. “What is the use of all this wealth
that I have constantly before my eyes,” thought he, “if none of it is
mine? I shall never grow rich by what I earn as a scullion, even though
I am paid as much in a month as I should get elsewhere in a year.”
By this time he had been in his place for two years, and had put by
quite a large sum of money. His passion of saving had increased to such
a pitch that it was only by his master’s orders that he ever bought any
new clothes, “For,” said the merchant, “I will not have dirty people in
my house.” So with a heavy heart Tiidu spent some of his next month’s
wages on a cheap coat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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