Iron Boots And His Friends
Once a farmer was returning from the fields. It was dusk and he was rushing home. Suddenly he heard the cries of a baby. With some difficulty, he reached where the cries came from. To his surprise, he found a newborn baby. He took the baby in his arms and began fondling it. The child stopped crying. He waited for some time for someone to come and claim the baby. Nobody came, and he realized that it was an abandoned child. So, he took it home. The farmer, who was left childless by his wife before her death during an epidemic, was happy that he would now have someone to look after and when the baby boy grew up, there would be somebody to look after him in his old age. He showered all his affection and love for the child. The farmer noticed something strange in him even in the early days. He would not drink any milk but ate rice and curries with relish. As he grew up, he showed early signs of adulthood maturity.
He would take the baby with him when he went to the fields and he would play around till his foster father was ready to go home. Soon the child was able to walk and run. One day, as they were returning home, the boy asked his father for a wheelbarrow. The farmer made a small toy wheelbarrow for him and the boy would pull it to and fro the fields. A year later, the boy wanted a slightly bigger wheelbarrow. Now, the farmer made one of wood. As he grew taller, the boy demanded a still bigger wheelbarrow, and this time the farmer made one of iron. "You'll find it hard to pull, son," cautioned the farmer. "But, father, I need something strong, so that I can bring wooden logs from the mountains," said the boy, who had by then grown strong and sturdy. Every day he would go to the mountainside, instead of the fields along with his foster father and bring logs of wood of various sizes. Before the farmer knew it, the boy had made a little log cabin for himself in the courtyard. By now, he would wear only iron boots and so came to be familiarly called iron boots. One day, he started on a long journey. He reached a mountain where he took rest under a tree. He could not believe his eyes when, yonder in a field, he saw a huge tree rising from the ground and going down, every now and then. His curiosity took him near the tree where he found a youngster, like him, fast asleep. It was his loud snore that was uprooting the tree and making it sway in the air! "He must be a very strong person thought Iron Boots. "Hey, mister!" he called to the youth. There was no response.
He was still fast asleep. Iron Boots then hit him on the nose. The young man got up, yawned, and scratched his head as if nothing had happened. "Can we be friends?" Iron Boots suggested. "Oh! Ho!" said nose blower casually. That was the name thought of by Iron Boots for his newfound friend. "But let's decide who is stronger," demanded Nose Blower. The two wrestled for some time. No doubt, it was Nose Blower who won. So, he became senior to Iron Boots. The two started on their journey together. They reached a mountain which, strangely, was shaking. They cautiously approached and, what else did they find than a youngster, like them, trying to tilt the mountain with a long spade. He must be an extraordinary fellow, thought Iron Boots and Nose Blower. "Let's befriend him," they told each other. However, they wanted to test his strength, and went and sat on the spade. The youth was not able to lift the spade. So, they made him their younger brother. Now, people often say three won't make a company, but these three soon became fast friends. As Iron Boots had by then started addressing his friend as Nose Blower, the two decided to call the junior Spade Shaker. The three proceeded on their journey and soon came to a river in which the water appeared all muddy. Why should it be so, when it had not rained the previous night? they thought. They walked upstream to find the reason and, to their surprise, found a youth, like them, who had turned his nostrils and mouth like a fountain. Water was gushing from his nose and mouth, and the force was dirtying the water in the river.
They wanted to test him and went and shook his neck. Lo and behold! Water came out as if there was a dam burst, and the three were washed away in the flood. They saved themselves from drowning and went and apologized to the youngster. They requested 'Waterfall' to join their company. All four of them resumed their journey. By nightfall, they were dead tired. Soon they came upon a small house and decided to seek shelter there for the night. An old woman answered their knock on the door. "We're tired and hungry. Could we get some food here?" they asked the woman politely. "Come in, come in! You're all welcome," greeted the old woman. "Let me see what I can give you." Soon shes got up a sumptuous meal for them. There was rice and a meat dish to go with it. When they tasted the curry, they suspected it was no ordinary meat. Could it be human flesh? They ate the rice with the gravy, thanked the woman, and retired to their room. They decided to keep awake, lest something happened to them. When everything was quiet, they could listen to this conversation outside. "Mother, we can smell humans inside. How many did you get?" "Four of them, and they all appear to be of some tasty kind. How many did you manage?" "I could only get a couple of deer. My three brothers did not get even that." "What shall we eat first, the deer or the humans?" "They must be asleep now. We shall fry them first." The four friends now did not have any doubt.
The woman and her four sons must be really tigers in human form. They remained in their room in stony silence. Suddenly they found the floor farm, it was getting heated up. So, the tigers must have raised a fire beneath their room to fry them? Nose Blower came up with a solution. "Don't worry, I shall take care of it." He then blew his nose and mouth and kept the room as cool as possible. Sometime later, the tiger brothers slowly opened the door and peeped in. They found their guests still alive. So they had to contend with frying the deer for their supper. When morning came and they got ready to go, the woman stopped them. "All four of you must compete with my sons in cutting wood. All of you go to the mountain and cut the wood. My sons will collect the logs and arrange them according to their size. Whoever gets defeated in the competition will have to die." The four friends climbed the trees and began to cut wood. As the logs and branches were thrown down, the woman's sons collected them. They were taking a lot of time to do so. It was almost certain that they would get defeated. The woman was worried. "All right, now you change positions. My sons will climb trees and cut the wood. You come down and collect them." The friends found there were not enough logs falling down for them to collect. In fact, they had to idle away a lot of time. The woman became jittery. She set fire to the logs collected by the four friends, who were then standing on the pile. When the fire rose, the four sons cried out in joy. They climbed down the trees and stood in a circle around the pile of wood shouting in victory.
The friends never had imagined that the woman would cheat them. Waterfall came to their rescue. In no time, water began to spout from his mouth and nose and the woman and her sons were caught in the flood. Once water touched them, they assumed the shape of tigers and they began to swim, all the while crying out, "Please have mercy on us! We're sorry we troubled you and tried to harm you!" The four brave youngsters did not pay any heed to their cries. Instead, the Nose Blower blew so strongly that the water began to freeze, and the tigers were now unable to swim and were frozen to death. Iron Boots ran up and down the frozen water in glee, while Spade Shaker broke the ice all over, and the place soon looked like the mountainside. There was no sign of any flood, nor of the five tigers. "It's time for us to return home!" said the four friends together, and they went back the way the came.
For More Bedtime Stories Click Here
Comments
Post a Comment