Once upon a time, in a far flung village by way of a wonderful river, there lived two brothers named Antek and Jonek.
Jonek become a kind hearted and patient guy, always keen to help others, and it became with gratitude that he took over the going for walks of his parents’ farm after they had turn out to be too vintage to take care of the animals. Jonek turned into a successful farmer and soon married a stunning woman who became as mild and hardworking as he.
Antek helped his brother at the beginning, however he soon bored with farming and moved on from one task to some other, first becoming a carpenter’s apprentice, then a baker’s assistant, and then a blacksmith’s assistant. Being a lazy man, Antek changed into not able to stay in anyone job and might usually pass on while the paintings have become too difficult or tiresome. Ultimately he settled down and married the daughter of a completely wealthy widow and lived a secure and expensive existence which required very little paintings.
Jonek, notwithstanding being a diligent and compassionate guy, had no such luck. He toiled inside the fields however his crops did not yield very plenty come harvest time. The wheat that did grow was soon overwhelmed down by indignant storms and merciless winds, and his farm animals were plagued through disease and starvation.
His wife fell unwell, and just as she commenced to recover, 4 of his children had been struck down through yellow fever.
Whilst he eventually ran out of cash, Jonek changed into compelled to pay a visit to his heartless brother.
‘Antek, lend me a few money,’ pleaded Jonek. ‘My loved kids are ill, my horse is death, and my ox is lame. I can't work, and we're so hungry.’
‘o.K., but you must pay me back what you owe and more,’ spoke back Antek with a boastful grin on his face.
Jonek was saddened by his brother’s loss of goodwill, but he had no desire however to borrow the money regardless of such unreasonable needs.
Jonek borrowed and borrowed from his brother, and Antek let this show up, believing that in the future he would be capable of take over the circle of relatives farm and attain the rewards.
It changed into not too lengthy before the suggest brother got his desire. Jonek fell in the back of in his payments and become unable to retain the renovation of the farm. Eventually he was pressured to look for a new domestic.
Antek was a completely mean fellow and began to transport all of his possessions into the farm earlier than Jonek and his family had even had a chance to move out.
Regardless of his terrible run of awful good fortune, Jonek remained superb. He instructed his wife: ‘there's a small residence at the very fringe of the village in which a shepherd as soon as lived. We are able to just about manage to stay in such a place.’
Although he was determined to stay constructive, Jonek wept as he bid farewell to his childhood home. He left the farm with his wife and seven children. They carried their humble possessions on their backs and made their way in the direction of their new domestic. Antek was so imply that he even refused to lend them his cart for the adventure.
Jonek sold his remaining farm animals for less than half what they have been really worth and tried his nice to settle into the little residence on the edge of the village.
His wife and kids tended a small vegetable patch in the modest garden, at the same time as Jonek took on various bizarre jobs around the village. The own family spent many years residing an impoverished existence, all the time cautious of the wolves who roamed inside the woodland, all of the time hungry for meals or in want of extra money to shop for clothes or drug treatments.
For the duration of those difficult years, Antek, the suggest hearted brother, have become the wealthiest man inside the county, however by no means as soon as did he offer to help his negative brother.
At some point, as Antek became hosting a lavish wedding ceremony for his eldest daughter, Jonek determined to go to the church to pray for help. Within the church he saw his brother and his family – all sitting within the front row, all dressed in extravagant silks and furs and clean leather-based boots, whilst terrible Jonek remained behind the church: a chilly and hungry determine hiding in the shadows.
Once the rite had come to an give up, Jonek observed the marriage procession closer to his old circle of relatives domestic. He stayed in the history in which he could not be visible, tears filling his eyes, conquer with grief in any respect that he had lost. Whilst he reached the farmhouse, he stood hunched in the doorway and pleaded together with his brother. ‘Brother,’ he whispered, ‘God be with you. I'm famished. My wife and children are starving. Take a moment out of your festivities to assist us, please.’
Upon seeing his terrible brother, Antek growled: ‘I do not help idle creatures.’ And with that he grabbed a bone with slightly a few scraps of meat on it and thrust the feeble imparting into his brother’s palms.
Jonek was conquer with melancholy and anger at how his own brother ought to treat him so callously. He took the bone and ran from the farm into the bloodless, dark night.
It become no longer lengthy earlier than Jonek found himself at the bank of the river. A unusual voice inner his head whispered: ‘Why should you go through so? Leap in, soar in. The water is deep. You may finish this.’
However Jonek knew that he could not go away his own family to fend for themselves. He slumped down onto the damp grass and commenced to gnaw at the scraps of meat nevertheless left at the bone his brother had given him.
, Jonek felt a cold hand on his shoulder, then a quiet voice said: ‘provide a few meat to me. Provide some to me too.’
The terrible farmer slowly grew to become round and took inside the strange sight that stood before him: a tall creature, skinny and bony with skin almost translucent within the moonlight. The creature became very pale with darkish, sunken eyes. It had crimson lips that regarded to glow inside the darkness, and it wore upon its shoulders a cloak made from spider weds. Atop its head there sat a wreath made from dried ferns. This turned into a honestly ghostly apparition, however Jonek was now not afraid.
‘What do you need me to offer you?’ asked the poor farmer. ‘you notice for your self that this bone is almost stripped bare of all meat.’
‘You just give me the very last scraps,’ whispered the creature. ‘permit me lick the juices clean from the bone. I'm Poverty who has been following you for many years. We share the entirety you and that i.’
Jonek jumped to his ft and cried out: ‘You pest! You nuisance! It's far your fault that my family and i are suffering from starvation and cold. It's miles you who has delivered on this wretchedness and misery that plagues my existence! I can remove you once and for all!’
But Poverty did not circulate, did no longer seem disturbed by means of the poor man’s outburst. She virtually looked at him and asked: ‘what will you do to me while no man can harm me nor kill me? I am an apparition and can't be harmed. Deliver me the bone and i can leave you and your own family in peace for one entire day.’
Jonek changed into very hungry, however he could not withstand the offer of 1 whole day of peace; one whole day with out Poverty preying on his own family.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and surrendered the bone to the atypical creature.
Poverty snatched the bone from Jonek’s shaking hand and started eagerly gnawing each ultimate scrap of meat. Seeing a small hollow on the rounded cease of the bone, she located a skeletal hand inner, then any other; then, like a ghostly snake, she slid inside the bone so that she could higher suck at the juicy marrow hidden within the hollow.
Jonek all of sudden had an idea. He located a quick twig within the grass at his ft and jammed the twig into the hollow, trapping Poverty within the bone. Then he threw the bone out across the river and watched it splash into the water and sink underneath the murky floor.
As soon because the bone disappeared from sight, Jonek felt peace in his heart, as though a tremendous weight have been lifted for the primary time in many years.
Jonek grew to become away from the river and cast the apparition from his mind for all time. He commenced to whistle a happy tune and, for the first time that he ought to consider, he began to experience optimistic about the future.
On his way domestic he handed by means of the village resort and changed into greeted by means of vintage friends and neighbours. They invited him interior to percentage a drink. They commenced to reminisce approximately vintage times, and a number of the villagers amassed that night time recalled Jonek’s hardworking nature and his kindness closer to others. They commenced to invite him if he might help them around their farms or companies as they all remembered that Jonek turned into very professional and very diligent in his paintings.
The eldest of the group introduced out a stack of gold cash, giving Jonek two hundred pieces of gold with which to shop for a horse and provide for his own family. Jonek gratefully common, vowing to repay the gold as soon as he become able, and straight away again domestic to his wife.
By the time Jonek arrived at his little house on the edge of the village, the sun become rising across the fields. He located his spouse and children in the garden expecting him, they all smiling and completely happy.
‘The people of the village got here to go to us while you were away and they gave to us this cart complete of flour and wheat and barley and beans!’ exclaimed his spouse. ‘there is additionally meat and heat garments for the youngsters!’
Jonek was overcome with joy and dropped to his knees and said a prayer of gratitude. ‘sooner or later,’ he concept, ‘the curse of Poverty has been lifted from my own family so that we would once more live in peace and happiness.’
From that day forwards, Jonek’s success grew from energy to power. He constructed a brand new residence for his circle of relatives and bought a small farm in a neighbouring field. He also bought two horses and a few cows and even an ox.
He busied himself within the wooded area, slicing wood and selling the timber to villagers all across the county. Soon he became so busy that he was capable of rent a young farmhand, and he watched with a glad coronary heart as his own family grew sturdy and healthful.
Every person in the village was pleased for Jonek and his family; every body except for Antek who grew jealous and resentful of his brother’s excellent fortune.
Someday, Antek invited his brother back to their childhood farm for a few hot mead. Jonek, all the time inclined to forgive his brother’s mean methods, everyday the invitation within the wish that they could once more become pals.
The brothers sat and drank in front of the fire at the same time as speaking over old times. However it did no longer take very lengthy earlier than Antek’s temper darkened. He could not stand to peer his brother so satisfied and contented and he insisted on understanding how Jonek had turned his awful fortune into accurate. He accused his brother of many foul deeds. ‘simply you stole cash,’ he said. ‘Or perhaps you visited a neighbouring village and took food and cattle throughout the night?’
Jonek was harm that Antek have to assume he had gained accurate fortune by dishonest means, so he determined to divulge heart's contents to his brother and informed him all about how Poverty had haunted his own family for many years and the way, in the end, he had tricked Poverty via trapping her in the bone and casting her into the river at some point of the night time.
This news was precisely what the treacherous brother were watching for.
After bidding Jonek farewell, he waited until dusk and then ran all the way down to the river as rapid as his legs would deliver him. As soon as there, he jumped into the river and dived down into the murky waters looking for the bone. Ultimately his hands landed upon the bone which had settled the various tall weeds within the riverbed.
Antek swam to the surface and climbed out onto the riverbank and swiftly pulled the twig from the hollow ultimately of the bone.
There has been a whooshing sound and a totally vibrant light which made Antek drop the bone in fright. Poverty regarded earlier than him and swept him up into her arms, making a song at the pinnacle of her voice: ‘Oh, my saviour, you have freed me! Now it's miles you who i'm able to faithfully accompany until the day which you die!’
Antek grew uneasy. ‘no longer me,’ he cried. ‘it's miles my brother whom you ought to haunt.’
‘No, my pal,’ hissed Poverty, ‘you have set me unfastened, so it's far you who will now have Poverty until the end of your days.’
It was simplest then that Antek simply realised his terrible mistake.
The mean hearted brother ran from the river, however whilst he approached his home he located that a fire had taken keep of the roof and his farm animals have been jogging unfastened across the fields. His spouse ran toward him in misery. She told him how wolves had additionally attacked the sheep and how the horses were missing from the barn. ‘What are we to do?’ she cried. ‘How should such horrific success have befallen us in a unmarried night time?’
Antek fell to his knees, overcome with disappointment and guilt at what he had achieved. And he was additionally afraid. He turned into afraid because he knew that his awful luck had most effective just began.
Because the weeks and months surpassed, Antek and his circle of relatives suffered a extremely good deal from hunger and misfortune. Jonek tried to assist his brother, however irrespective of what he did, it appeared that disaster was fated to took place Antek and his family.
Quickly Antek grew very ill and there has been nothing that anybody ought to do to assist. Every correct deed resulted in failure, every try to help led to misery. Most effective Antek knew the motive why… ‘Poverty will now not set me free until my dying.’ notion the mean brother. ‘It appears I ought to pay for my misdeeds in the end.’
Someday later, on a quiet wintry weather’s night, Antek surpassed away in his sleep. And it was only then that Poverty released the family of the curse so that they might begin a new existence in peace.
As for Jonek and his family, they lived a protracted and fruitful existence. Jonek became an antique guy and the loving couple have become grandparents typically over. The farm remained wealthy and stuffed in each corner with the laughter of satisfied youngsters.