Story Reading

THE STORY OF THE GAZELLE

                Once upon a time, there was a nobleman. He had a wife, a handsome son, and a slave. His wife was a bad tempered woman, who had studied magic. One day the nobleman had to go to  a distant city. While he was away from his home, his wife tried her magic to do a bad thing. She changed her son, into a calf and the slave into a cow.

                A few years after, the nobleman came back home. He just met his wife. He didn’t see, either his son or his slave. Then he asked his wife, “ Where is our son and our slave? I can’t find them in this house, and I am really longing for him.”

           His wife answered, “ Our son? I do not know where he has gone? And our slave died a week ago.”

           Hearing this news, the nobleman was very sad. His sorrow was great. He didn’t feel happy for a year. He couldn’t sleep well every night, and sometimes he dreamt to meet his son, and his slave that caused he awoke at night.

                One day, he ordered his servant bring him a cow. He wanted to kill a cow for meal. His servant brought a cow, that actually it was he slave. The cow moaned loudly, that he didn’t kill it. Then he told the servant to bring him a calf. The servant brought a calf, that actually it was his own son, who had been change by his mother. When, the calf saw the nobleman, it was glad. It run up to him, and rubbed its head against him. He said to his servant, “ Take away this calf and bring me another.”

                His wife called him and said, “ You must kill this one. This calf is very fat.” But the nobleman didn’t listen to her. He asked the servant to take away.

                The next day, when the nobleman was sitting in his room, the servant came to him and said, “ Oh my master. I have a daughter who studied magic. Yesterday, when I went home with the calf you gave me my daughter convered her face. First she cried, and then she laughed. She told me that the calf I brought, was my master’s son.”

           Then the nobleman and the servant, went to the servant’s house to see his daughter. The nobleman asked her, “ Is it true what you have said about the calf? ”

           “ Yes my master, he is your son. I will help you, to change it back, into your son.” said the servant’s daughter. Then, shd took a bottle out of her cupboard and poured some water, on the head of the calf and said, “ Dear calf, change into a man again.” She also changed the cow into the slave. And, she changed the bad wife into Gazelle. The next, the nobleman’s son maried with the servant’s daughter. They were very happy.