Availability: Usually ships within 48 hours. Ships from and sold by Babblebooks.com.Running time: 48 min
The unabridged classic on MP3 audio, narrated by Anais 9000. Three playback speeds on one disk; etext edition included. Running time: 0.8 hours (slow), 0.7 hours (medium), 0.6 hours (fast).
How The Agricultural System Of The Black Brothers Was Interfered With By Southwest Wind, Esquire
In a secluded and mountainous part of Stiria there was in old
time a valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility. It
was surrounded on all sides by steep and rocky mountains rising into
peaks which were always covered with snow and from which a number of
torrents descended in constant cataracts. One of these fell
westward over the face of a crag so high that when the sun had set
to everything else, and all below was darkness, his beams still
shone full upon this waterfall, so that it looked like a shower of
gold. It was therefore called by the people of the neighborhood the
Golden River. It was strange that none of these streams fell into
the valley itself. They all descended on the other side of the
mountains and wound away through broad plains and by populous
cities. But the clouds were drawn so constantly to the snowy hills,
and rested so softly in the circular hollow, that in time of drought
and heat, when all the country round was burnt up, there was still
rain in the little valley; and its crops were so heavy, and its hay
so high, and its apples so red, and its grapes so blue, and its wine
so rich, and its honey so sweet, that it was a marvel to everyone
who beheld it and was commonly called the Treasure Valley.
The whole of this little valley belonged to three brothers,
called Schwartz, Hans, and Gluck. Schwartz and Hans, the two elder
brothers, were very ugly men, with overhanging eyebrows and small,
dull eyes which were always half shut, so that you couldn't see into
THEM and always fancied they saw very far into YOU. They lived by
farming the Treasure Valley, and very good farmers they were. They
killed everything that did not pay for its eating. They shot the
blackbirds because they pecked the fruit, and killed the hedgehogs
lest they should suck the cows; they poisoned the crickets for
eating the crumbs in the kitchen, and smothered the cicadas which
used to sing all summer in the lime trees. They worked their
servants without any wages till they would not work any more, and
then quarreled with them and turned them out of doors without paying
them. It would have been very odd if with such a farm and such a
system of farming they hadn't got very rich; and very rich they DID
get. They generally contrived to keep their corn by them till it
was very dear, and then sell it for twice its value; they had heaps
of gold lying about on their floors, yet it was never known that
they had given so much as a penny or a crust in charity; they never
went to Mass, grumbled perpetually at paying tithes, and were, in a
word, of so cruel and grinding a temper as to receive from all those
with whom they had any dealings the nickname of the "Black
Brothers."
The youngest brother, Gluck, was as completely opposed, in
both appearance and character, to his seniors as could possibly
be imagined or desired. He was not above twelve years old, fair,
blue-eyed, and kind in temper to every living thing. He did not,
of course, agree particularly well with his brothers, or, rather,
they did not agree with HIM. He was usually appointed to the
honorable office of turnspit, when there was anything to roast,
which was not often, for, to do the brothers justice, they were
hardly less sparing upon themselves than upon other people. At
other times he used to clean the shoes, floors, and sometimes the
plates, occasionally getting what was left on them, by way of
encouragement, and a wholesome quantity of dry blows by way of
education.
Things went on in this manner for a long time. At last came
a very wet summer, and everything went wrong [...]
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