The Origin Of The Mole

: Cossack Fairy Tales And Folk Tales

Once upon a time a rich man and a poor man had a field in common, and

they sowed it with the same seed at the same time. But God prospered

the poor man's labour and made his seed to grow, but the rich man's

seed did not grow. Then the rich man claimed that part of the field

where the grain had sprung up, and said to the poor man, "Look now!

'tis my seed that has prospered, and not thine!" The poor man

protested, but th rich man would not listen, but said to him, "If

thou wilt not believe me, then, poor man, come into the field quite

early to-morrow morning, before dawn, and God shall judge betwixt

us."



Then the poor man went home. But the rich man dug a deep trench in the

poor man's part of the field and placed his son in it, and said to

him, "Look now, my son; when I come hither to-morrow morning and ask

whose field this is, say that it is not the poor man's, but the rich

man's."



Then he well covered up his son with straw, and departed to his own

house.



In the morning all the people assembled together and went to the

field, and the rich man cried, "Speak, O God! whose field is this, the

rich man's or the poor man's?"



"The rich man's, the rich man's," cried a voice from the midst of the

field.



But the Lord Himself was among the people gathered together there, and

He said, "Listen not to that voice, for the field is verily the poor

man's."



Then the Lord told all the people how the matter went, and then He

said to the son of the rich man,



"Stay where thou art, and sit beneath the earth all thy days, so long

as the sun is in the sky."



So the rich man's son became a mole on the spot, and that is why the

mole always flies the light of day.