ESL Blogs

I read this story quite a while ago, so I may not be very accurate in details. But the main idea is unchanged.I was really impressed by the story.

There lived a man, let him be called Waine. he was a kind-hearted man. Once he let in his house a wanderer to spend a night, for it was stormy and cold.The wanderer was old and in shabby clothes but still the man treated him with respect . In the morning, before going away, the wanderer gave the man a small wooden box.He said "I want to thank you for your kindness. This box will help you out in any situation, if you simply open it . But remember, you can use the box only once, so open it when you are in extreme necessity."

The man cherished the box as treasure. After a year or so they had very little harvest, hardly enough to keep them alive.His wife pleaded"Let us open the box, we are having the worst time ever." But the man answered " No, we can last till the next season and then perhaps we'll have better luck". So they lived through a very bad year and indeed their next harvest was rich.

Then in hot weather their house caught fire.Again the wife pleaded as they were watching it burn to ashes "Aren't we having extreme necessity now? Open the box!"  "No",replied the husband. "It's not extreme necessity.We are all safe and I managed to save our money, too. We can build a new house."

Some time later when they were living in a new house, his son fell ill. Doctors were called for but all medicine couldn't help. The child lay in high fever and got weaker day by day."Oh, dear husband, save our son! Open the box!",his wife cried. The husband thought "Who knows if this is really the worst time? I have two more sons." He didn't open the box. His son died.

After some years a cruel enemy attacked their village. They captured women and children and sold them as slaves. All men took their weapons and went to fight. So did Waine. He was fighting like a lion but the enemies were outnumbering. He ran trying to save his life.The enemies were chasing him.Suddenly he discovered that he had nowhere to run  - he was on the edge of a precipice and the enemies were near.

He took the box out of  his pocket hurriedly and opened it. Inside there was a piece of paper which read "And this will pass, too..."