The Apple-Tree (A Story From Vietnam)

Many, many years ago in the country of Van Lang, which today is Vietnam, there lived two brothers, Ting and Ling. They had no parents, neither a father nor a mother, and lived together in a small house. There was a nice orchard around the brothers’ house with a few fruit-trees in it. A small field not far from the village belonged to them too. The brothers were busy all day long and always up to their eyes in work, but they were as poor as all the people in their village.

When Ting and Ling were more than twenty they brought wives into the house, and the women began to help the brothers in their work. Ting was a good worker, he liked his work and did it well. Ting’s wife was a good worker too, she was a great help to him. But Ling was lazy, he did not want to get up early and during the day he liked to sit somewhere under a tree and to listen to the singing of birds or to bathe in the cool river. As for his wife, she was as lazy as Ling and the two of them made a pair.

“Listen, Ling, that’s not the way to work,” Ting often said to his brother. “Don’t be lazy or you will be sorry for it.” These words made Ling very angry. He thought and thought and as he was a bad man he thought of a very bad thing. One day he said to Ting, “Now you listen to me, and listen well. The house, the orchard and the field belong to me. I’ll say to everybody that was our father’s wish. People won’t listen to you and will not help you.”

“But...” Ting wanted to say something.

“And I don’t want you around here anymore,” Ling went on to say. “Get out of here, you and your wife, and make a home for yourself in some other place.”

Ting picked up the few things that belonged to him, took his wife by the hand, left the house and closed the door behind him.

At first they lived in a tent, but in some months they made a small house for themselves. One of the good things about the new place was that there was a large old apple tree near their house. Ting and his wife worked very hard. They got up very early, quickly jumped into their clothes, worked all day long and didn’t go to bed till late at night. They went to the woods to pick up firewood and made brooms which they took to the market, they also worked in the fields of others and got some money for it. Ting’s wife was a very nice girl, tall, thin and beautiful and very quick in her work. She always sang as she worked. The two young people lived very happily together.

Their happy days came when the old apple-tree began to give fruit, because then they had a lot to eat. All year round they looked after the tree and it thanked them with a lot of apples. One morning when Ting was going to pick the fruit he looked up and saw a large, strange bird high in the tree eating the apples. Ting called his wife and they watched the bird till it flew away. Then they began to pick fruit themselves. For a month the bird came every morning. It sat in the tree, ate the best apples and flew away. In the end the husband and the wife got angry. “I’ll throw stones at it,” said Ting. But the wife was the one to think first and only then do something. “Oh, no, Ting, my dear, you won’t do that. I’ll think it over and I myself shall talk to the bird.” And as she never hurried with the first words that came into her head she thought for some time, and one fine morning she spoke to the bird.

“Dear bird,” she said, “if you go on eating like that there will soon be no apples in the tree. And what shall we eat then?”

The bird looked down at her and answered, “I think you are right. Well, a gold piece for each fruit that I have eaten! Make a large bag to hold all the gold that I’ll give you.” The bird repeated these last words three times and flew away.

Of course the husband and the wife had a very bad night. They made a large bag and they spoke of the bird and thought about its words. The next morning the bird sat down in the middle of the yard. The husband went out with the bag. The bird told him to get on its back and to put his arms round its neck. Then it opened out its wings and was soon high up in the sky. At first Ting was afraid to open his eyes. “If I fall down I’ll break my neck,” he thought. But time passed and nothing bad happened and Ting was no more afraid and opened his eyes. The picture that he saw was really very beautiful. Sometimes they flew over large green woods, sometimes over yellow fields and sometimes over long blue rivers. And how interesting it was to watch people and animals, so very, very small from above. But soon Ting could see nothing but water around. Then he saw a small piece of ground just in the middle of all this water. The bird circled round it and then came down on it. There were neither trees, nor flowers there — only stones of different colors which looked wonderful in the bright sunlight. A short way from the place where Ting stood there was a hole in the ground. The bird pointed to the hole and told the man to get into it and take what he wanted. Ting went up to the hole and looked down into it. He saw many pieces of gold there. “That’s wonderful!” said Ting to himself. “Now I’ll be a very rich man.” Then he thought, “But what if I run into trouble down there? Nobody knows what may happen. No, I shall not go down.”

So he quickly picked up some pieces of gold from the ground, put them into his bag and got on the bird’s back. The bird was happy that it was not hard to carry the bag. Its cries rang gayly as it flew. Soon they were again in the yard opposite the house.

“Are you pleased now?” the bird asked.

“More than pleased,” answered Ting warmly.

The wife ran out and saw that her husband was back and all right. She threw her arms round his neck and was happy to have him at her side. She also had the right words of thanks for the bird. She told the bird to help itself to the fruit any time it wanted. The bird ate apples, saluted the wife and the husband with three cries and flew away. From that day on it came to eat fruit only from time to time.

Soon people began to talk about Ting’s gold, because he was a good man and helped poor people with an open hand. Ling and his wife also learned that Ting was now a rich man.

“I’m dying to know how it happened,” Ling’s wife said to him. “Yes, that’s my wish too,” answered the husband. “I cannot get Ting’s gold out of my head. How did he get it?”

“I think,” said the wife, “there is only one way to know, that is to go and see them. I am sure they’ll tell us everything.”

And one fine day they went to see Ting and his wife in their small house. Ting showed them all the gold they had and didn’t hold anything back from them. Ling and his wife listened to the story with their mouths open. In the end he said, “Dear brother, there is only one thing I want to ask you. Come and live in our father’s house and let me live in your small house, will you? I want to meet that bird too.”

“Well, brother, I’ll be only too glad to do it for you,” answered Ting.

Each morning Ling and his wife sat lazily under the apple-tree looking at the sky. One day something outside the house woke them up. They hurried out and saw the strange bird sitting in the tree eating fruit. They watched the bird for some time then the wife cried, “We have only this tree. How can we live if you eat fruit like that?”

The bird answered as before. The husband and the wife were busy far into the night preparing a large bag. They slept very little that night. Ling was afraid to fly with the bird and his wife was angry with him for that.

“It’s very well for you to talk about it but I must fly with the bird and the place is far from here.”

“Yes, I know, my dear,” answered his wife. “But this is the only way to be as rich as your brother. Be a man and don’t be afraid!”

The next morning the bird came, and the husband got on its back. In some hours they were near the hole. Ling’s mouth fell open when he saw what was under the ground. He at once went down and began to put gold into his bag, into his pockets and under his shirt.

It was very hard for the bird to fly with all the gold in the bag. It flew very low touching the water with its wings. Suddenly the bag fell into the water. Ling wanted to take it out of the water and fell off the bird’s back too. There was so much gold on him, that he at once went down under the water. That is how he met his end. The bird slowly flew along the water away to the yellow fields and green woods.