Tough
Luck
Once upon a time there
lived a happy family: father, mother, a daughter and seven sons.
Every winter the father would go with the ox-cart to the forest for
firewood. When his sons grew up he took them with him and as they grew
stronger they helped him a lot with the hard work of cutting and loading the
heavy logs.
One winter the father told them:” My dear sons. I am too old and too weak
now. I feel sick and want be able to the forest for firewood soon and if we
don't get any firewood today, tomorrow we will all be frozen dead. But you
are strong now. You have be with me to the forest so many times and know what
to do. Go without me and God be with you."
"But, father," replied the oldest son. "We will manage to cut
and load the wood but what if the cart breaks? We won't be able to come to
our warm home and will freeze to death in the cold forest. Only you know how
to fix the cart!"
"Don't worry lads," said the old man. "I have thought of
that too. If the cart breaks in the middle of the woods you have to call my
dear friend Tough Luck. He will come and help you as he has always helped
me."
"That's OK then," said the sons took their ropes and axes and
rode the ox-cart to the forest. But as the were young and strong but not that
clever they overloaded the cart and after several squeaky turns in the narrow
forest road the cart broke down.
"No problem," thought the young guys. "We'll call father's
friend and he will help us fix the cart." and they started
yelling:
"Tough Luck! Tough Luck!" at the top of their voices, but only
the forest echo mockingly answered them: “Tough Luck! Tough Luck!"
The short winter day started to end soon and faced with the prospect of a
deadly, freezing night and no prospects for help the brothers picked up their
axes and tried to fix the cart themselves. After several tries, numerous
mistakes and a few lucky guesses they managed to fix the cart somehow and
carefully drove it home where they arrived just after dark.
"So how did your day go boys?" asked the father.
"Oh, the wood chopping went OK, but then the cart broke and you must
know, father, that friend our yours Tough Luck was nowhere to be found, we
yelled in the forest at the top of our voices calling for him, but in the end
we were forced to fix the cart ourselves. You can't depend on
him."
"I don't think so, my sons," said the wise old man. "It's
Tough Luck that showed you how to fix the car. Never failed me. You can count
on tough luck to teach you all valuable lessons that you will learn in your
entire life."
