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L dI scover t E R A my T Culture R Activity 17 April 2018 E

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THE PURSE WITH COPPERS TWO

by Ion Creangă

Ion Creangă was a Romanian writer, in 19th century Romanian literature, best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his short stories, and his many anecdotes. Creangă's main contribution to children's literature includes narratives as well as fairy tales ( "The Goat and Her Three Kids", "The Mother with Three Daughters-in-Law", "The Old Man's Daughter and the Old Woman's Daughter"). Widely seen as masterpieces of the Romanian language and local humour, his writings have folkloric sources and are of rural inspiration.

there was an old woman and she lived with her husband, an old man. The old woman had a hen and the man had a rooster; the old woman’s hen laid eggs twice a day and she ate plenty of eggs but gave none to her husband. One day the old man lost his temper and asked his wife to give him some eggs.

“So that’s you what you want, is it?” said the old woman. “If you feel like eggs, thrash your rooster and make him lay eggs for you and then you’ll be able to eat some; that’s what I did to my hen and see how she’s laying.”

The old man, who was greedy, gave to the rooster a good thrashing, saying “There! It’s either eggs or off you go, so there’s no more food wasted on you.”

As soon as he slipped out of the old man’s hands, the rooster ran away from home. As he was walking along a road, he saw a purse with two coppers in it. He picked it up in his beak and started off back to the old man’s house. On the way he met a greedy rich man and some ladies driving in a carriage. The rich man looked at the rooster carefully, saw the purse in his beak and told the coachman to bring him the purse.

The coachman quickly jumped down, stole the purse from the rooster’s beak and gave it to his master… and the carriage drove on.

Much angered at this, the rooster followed the coach, constantly crowing: “Great lord, cock-a-doodle-doo!

Give the purse with coppers two!”

Greatly annoyed, the rich man, whose carriage was just passing a well, said to his coachman: “Coachman, get hold of this rooster and throw him down the well”.

The coachman caught the rooster and flung him down the well. The rooster started gulping water and gulped, until he gulped the well dry.

Then out he flew and again followed the carriage, crying: “Great lord, cock-a-doodle-doo!

Give the purse with coppers two!”

Seeing this, the rich man wondered greatly and said, “My! That’s the very devil of a rooster, that is!”

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As soon as they reached home, he ordered an old woman in the kitchen to take the rooster and throw him into an oven full of live coals and lay a stone slab upon the mouth of it. The rooster, on seeing this new and great wrong done to him, started belching water, and he belched all the water of the well over the coals till he put out the fire and cooled the oven. Then the rooster pushed away the slab and began tapping with his beak on the pane, crowing: “Great lord, cock-a-doodle-doo!

Give the purse with coppers two!”

The rich man again called his coachman and told him to fling the rooster in the midst of the herd of cattle.

The coachman grabbed the rooster and flung him into the herd. Great was the rooster’s joy!

“Great lord, cock-a-doodle-doo!

Give the purse with coppers two!”

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The nobleman was bursting with anger.

He sat for a time thinking, when suddenly a new idea came into his head: “I’ll have him thrown into the treasure-house.”

So, he seized the rooster by a wing and flung him into the treasure house.

Then the rooster greedily swallowed all the money and left all the chests empty. Then went to the boyar’s window and began: “Great lord, cock-a-doodle-doo!

Give the purse with coppers two!”

Now the nobleman seeing that there was no way out of it, flung the purse at him. The rooster picked it up and left the boyar alone.

He went straight to the old man’s house and started crowing: “Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

On hearing his rooster’s cry, the old man, joyfully went out and as he glanced at the gate, Lord! His rooster was something monstrous: an elephant would have looked like a flea beside this rooster! Behind him came numberless flocks of fowls. Then the rooster said o him, “Master, spread a rug out here, in the middle of the yard.”

As quick as a flash, the old man spread out the rug. The rooster then stepped upon the rug; and on he rug he poured out a heap of ducats that shone in the sun, dazzling the eye!

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Upon this, there came the old woman too and her eyes glittered under her brows.

“Old man”, she said, “give me some ducats too.”

“Not a hope of it, old woman. When I asked you to give me some eggs, you know what you answered. Thrash your hen now, and make her bring you ducats.”

Then the old woman went into the poultry-house, grabbed at the hen, caught her by the tail and thrashed her, so that you’d have wept with pity! The hen ran away, never to come back. Now the old woman had to feed on air, not on eggs.

As for the old man, he was very rich and he would take the rooster about everywhere with him.

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