The boy and the shells

A man and his wife had for their heart, a son, for their arms, work, for their body, a small hut and a mat to sleep on, for their stomach, a little food, and on their neck not the slightest little shellfish. The one with the shells had everything. When he wanted something, he could have it all in exchange for shells.

A day while the boy was playing, he smelled an extraordinary perfume. He followed the aroma. He ran to the other end of the village. There sat men eating the food from which this delicious aroma came. The one who ate the most was the man sitting in the middle. He was gobbling non-stop, and was so big that his stomach felt like it was going to burst.
The boy came up and asked, “Who are you to eat things that smell so good?” »
The man turned his head and shouted in a voice that made the boy feel smaller than the smallest ant: "How come you don't know who you're talking to? ? What I wear on my neck, don't you recognize it? » He pointed to his shell necklace with his fat finger. There were big ones and small ones, white ones, pink ones, yellow ones, and all colors.

“Don’t you know that the one who has so many shells is the leader of the island? »
The man stood up, the shells clinked, and the boy admired them.
“Who are you? asked the chief. You would like them, eh! my beautiful shells? They are beautiful, say? Say they are beautiful! So answer! » And he took off one of his necklaces, which he made dance and jingle before the boy's eyes. He laughed. He laughed a lot, very hard.

LThe boy said to him: “They are beautiful. They are very, very beautiful. I too will have lots of beautiful shells like these and lots of food that smells great. I too will be a chef. »
The chief, in great anger, broke a piece of shell, which he threw at the boy's feet:
“Go away, while I still control my anger. When your necklaces are bigger than the ones on my neck, come back to see me. We will count. The one with the most shells will be the leader of the island. »
He laughs a lot. All the men laughed with him. The boy picked up the piece of shell and left, very angry at what the chief had done to him.

DAt first he wanted to throw away the piece of shell, so as to no longer have the lord of the island in mind, but finally he exchanged it for an orange seed. He planted it, then lay down to sleep, for his stomach was empty and his legs had no strength. When he woke up, the tree was already very tall, and when he woke up the next day, its branches were touching the sky.
The boy jumped, his hands grabbed the branches, and he climbed to the top, onto the highest branches of the tree.

HASAbove him swung a small house. The boy, driven by curiosity, entered it and saw a woman inside.
“Quickly turn around and run away, you don’t yet know what danger there is here, what is good and what is bad. Turn around, jump and run away from here. If my husband sees you, he will make sure you die. It's a spirit!
“I just climbed to the top, why should I come back down,” said the boy. His eyes looked at the woman. Your husband doesn't interest me and doesn't scare me!
— But you came to him. Hide in the corner,” the woman said and threw a mat over him. The spirit came and smelled.
“Woman, it smells like a man in here!” Who is it, woman? who is here?
- What a man ? » said the woman and her voice was as hard as ironwood. “A child has arrived from downstairs, he is in the corner, under the mat. »

The spirit said nothing, ate, and drank with his wife. They gave the boy a wooden bowl with a lid made of a large leaf on it. When the boy lifted the leaf, the bowl filled with food. He took some and ate, took some again and ate again, took some again and ate again, gave some to the spirit and his wife, and the bowl was always full of food. When he had had enough and was satisfied, he covered the bowl with the leaf. Then the spirit placed a few pieces of bamboo stalks on the table.

The boy shook them, and shells fell. It fell for a long time, it always fell, and there were a lot of them. The spirit and the boy said, “One, two, three, four, and so on until the strength left hands and head, but they still counted. »
Then they wanted to arrange the shells in the stems. There were so many shells that neither of us had the strength to count.
The sun had already set behind the forest, and it was dark when they finally put the last shell back into the bamboo stems.
Then the boy took them, as well as an ax and the wooden bowl, and he left the house through the branches of the orange tree. He went down from branch to branch, then from branch to branch again, until there were only five left to go down, and then there were none left and he came to the ground.
He entered his parents' cabin and placed the wooden bowl on the table. “Lift the leaf cover, and eat, Dad, eat the food, Mom!” It's a bowl that I bought from the house in the sky. She swings from left to right, here and there, like a heron on its long feet. »

The man and the woman ate, and what they ate was good for the tongue and the stomach. They ate a lot, and after each mouthful, they said: “One, two, three, and so on until the strength left their hands, but also the hunger in their stomach, and yet they still counted. » Then they placed the leaf back on the wooden bowl and waited because the boy had left just as they had started eating. The boy had gone to find the leader. When he arrived at his home, the chief stood up, his shells tinkled, and the boy looked at the man who was looking at him from all his height. He said to him:
“I have come, as you wanted.
“I see you, and I am amused at the idea of ​​what you are going to tell me,” said the chief.
— The one with the most shells will be the leader of the island. These are your words that I have come to tell you, replied the boy.
— Yes, the one who has the most shells, said the chief, and pride made his shells ring.
“Whichever of us has the most shells, tell my ears,” asked the boy.
— Go away, while I still control my anger, said the chief, but first, I will count your little shards of shells on your fingers.
— Let's count your shells first, not mine. And we will make a difference, and fingers may not be enough. »

IThey counted. The chief had a lot of shells, but they managed to count them all. But when the boy scattered his own, the chief's mouth opened wide, like a large oyster, and remained open. The chief and the boy said,
“One, two, three, four, and so on, until the strength left hands and head, but they were still counting. » Then they no longer had enough strength to count all the shells. The chief's mouth no longer laughed, his necklaces jingled around his neck, and his mouth no longer closed. He went to sit at home, behind the oven.

She was the boy who became a chef.

  © 2009-2023, rue des écoles