21
THE RICHEST GROOM
lashes.”
The two neighbors decided to go together to propose marriage for their
sons. They came and sat down in a dignified way.
The village elder called in his daughter and said to her, “Here, my daugh-
ter, matchmakers have come to see you, from two young men wishing to
take you for a wife. We have come to a joint decision to let you determine
which of the two is your chosen one. Can you tell us who he is right away or
will you take until dawn to think it over?”
“I have spent quite a few dawns in dreams, Father,” the young maiden
said softly, “and I can give you an answer right away.”
“Then speak, we are all waiting impatiently.”
The beauty answered the matchmakers who had come as follows.
“Thank you, fathers, for your attention. Thank you to the matchmakers’
sons for their desire to join their life to mine. You have raised handsome
sons, fathers, and the choice as to which of the two to entrust my fate to
might be difficult. But I want to bear children and I want my children to be
happy. I want my children to live in plenty, in freedom and love, and so I
have come to love the one who is richest of all.”
The entrepreneur’s father rose proudly. The second father sat with down-
cast eyes. But the maiden walked up to the second father, knelt before him,
and said, without raising her eyelashes, “I want to live with your son.”
The village elder rose from his seat as well. He wanted to see his daughter
living in the house considered the finest in the village and so said sternly,
“You have spoken correctly, my daughter. Your prudence has brought joy to
a father’s heart, but you did not approach and kneel to the richest in the vil-
lage. The richest here is the other. Here he is.”
The elder, pointing to the entrepreneur’s father, added, “Their son has
built a spacious house. They have a car, a tractor, and money.”
The maiden moved closer to her father.
“Naturally, you are right, dear papa. But I was talking about children.
What good will there be for children in the things you listed? The tractor
will break down while they are growing up. The car will rust, and the house
will fall into decay.”
