英语故事:The Wooden Horse

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A carpenter and a blacksmith had an argument. Each of them insisted that he was more skilfulthan the other. Who was actually the more skilful of the two? They disputed this question for a long time without reaching any conclusion. Finally they agreed, "Let's go to the king and ask him to be the judge."

So they came to the king who asked them, "What have you come for?"

"I am a carpenter," said the one. "And my handiwork is more ingenious than the handiwork of any other carpenter in the world. But he said that I cannot match him in skill."

The blacksmith said, "Whoever sees my work praises it. But he insists that my skill is inferior to his."

"We want Your Majestyto be our judge and tell us whose skill is truly superior," the two pleaded. This put the king in a difficult position. "How can I form a judgement without seeing a single thing you have made?" said he. "I'll give you ten days. In that time you must each make a sample of your work and bring it here."

The two went home and each set his hand to his task. Ten days later, they came to the king again. The blacksmith brought with him a huge iron fish. "What can this do?" asked the king.

The blacksmith told him, "This iron fish of mine can float in the sea loaded with a hundred thousand sacks of grain."

These words made the king laugh inwardly. "This fellow is bound to come out the loser," he said to himself. "Such heavy iron will definitely sink when put in the water. How can it possibly float? But anyway, they may as well put a hundred thousand sacks of grain into the thing and see what happens." On his orders, the iron fish was launched. Strangely enough, it moved through the water with speed and without the least trace of clumsiness. It caused quite a sensation among the spectators. The king was most impressed and even promised the blacksmith an official post. Later he actually made him beadle of one of his districts.

The carpenter came with a wooden horse slungover his shoulder. When he saw it, the king pulled a long face, "Surely this is a child's toy? How can it compare with the iron fish?"

"Oh, it's even better than the iron fish," said the carpenter. "It has twenty-six screws on it. When you loosen the first screw, the wooden horse will fly into the sky; when you loosen the second screw, it will accelerate. If you loosen all the twenty-six screws, it will fly more quickly than any bird and take you around the world."

The young prince happened to be present while they were talking about this. His curiosity was greatly aroused when he heard that the wooden horse could fly. How he wished he could fly up into the sky and have a look at the world! He turned to the king and asked him to let

him have a ride. The king said, "No, it's out of the question. Are you even sure that it can really fly? What if it rises into the sky and then falls to the ground?"

"Don't worry," said the carpenter. "There is no chance of that ever happening."

The little prince kept pesteringhis father. Since the king doted on him and had never refused him anything, he got his way in the end. "But you can only try it out," said the king. "You must fly slowly and only loosen the first screw." Agreeing to this, the little prince mounted the horse. He loosened the first screw, and sure enough, the wooden horse rose into the air. He looked down and saw everything beneath him moving further away: the mountains, the rivers, the trees, the towns, the crowds of people. He was so delighted that he loosened one screw after another. The wooden horse flew faster and faster and soon crowds, trees, towns were all out of sight. As he flew, the little prince became hungry. He looked down and saw another city beneath him. He tightenedthe screws one by one. The wooden horse slowed down and gradually landed. The little prince had a meal and put up for the night at an inn. What fun! To arrive like this, in the twinkling of an eye, in a new town, a town he had never seen before!

The next day the little prince went sight-seeing. Having strolled along several streets, he found himself in a square filled with people gazing up into the sky. "There must be something fascinating up there in the sky," he thought. He elbowed his way into the crowd and looked up, but there was nothing to be seen.

"What are you looking at?" he asked a man beside him. The man gave him a scrutinizingglance and replied, "Our king has a princess. No one in the world can match her in beauty. The king loves her so much that he will not let anybody look at her. The princess used to live in the palace, but the king thought that she was not safe enough there, so he has had a mansionbuilt in the sky and the princess lives there all by herself. Every day, when the court is dismissed, the king goes up to see her. He has been there for quite a long while and is expected to return at any moment. That's why everyone is here, waiting for him."

This sounded quite strange to the little prince.

"Surely it's impossible to build a palace in the sky?"

"The palace was built by an immortaland his beard stood on end. People were very puzzled that day because the king returned to his palace rather early. Seeing that he was in a bad mood, his courtiers came forward to ask what was troubling him. The king told them what had happened. "Who else can go up there but me?" he asked, and then added, "You must find me a way to arrest this man."

One of his courtiers made a suggestion, "We have four mightywarriorsin our kingdom. Your Majesty can send them up to stand at the foot of the four walls of the palace. When the man turns up, they wil1 he sure to catch him." The king thought this an excellent idea. That evening he personally took the warriors up and showed them where to hide and keep watch. When everything was set, the king went down to his palace. But, unfortunately for his plans, the warriors were inveteratesleepy heads and soon fell asleep at their posts. The little prince came again and stayed with impunityuntil dawn.

When the king arrived and weighed the princess, he discovered that she had put on weight again. He was speechless with rage.

He called in another courtier for consultationand brought to the king. "Why are your clothes stained with paint?" the king questioned him. The old man answered, "I picked these clothes up off the ground and they were like this when I found them." The king didn't believe his story and sent him to prison to be interrogatedunder torture. Without much trouble, they managed to extract some sort of confessionfrom him, and he was sentenced to death by hanging.

The whole town was abuzz with this affair, and everyone was curious to know what this man was like who had succeeded in getting into the palace in the sky. When they saw this old man being led to the scaffold, no one thought he could possibly have done it. They began to talk about the case, and all felt that he must have been

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