Week 11 Storytelling
The Ox who won the Forfeit
Long ago a man owned a farm where he raised and sold animals of all kinds. He owned chicken, sheep, horse, ox and more. One day while the man was strapping one of his ox up to tug his carriage around, something phenomenal happened.
The ox was accidentally attached to the wrong carriage and began tugging the whole line of carriages along with him. Astonished by the strength of this ox, he began testing the ox's abilities by increasing the weight of what the ox could handle.
Starting with his line of carriages, he began to fill all of these carriages up with rice, making them heavier and heavier. The man began talking to the ox saying, "How much more can you pull? I continue to add more and nothing seems to phases you." Until it got to the point where there was no more weight that he could add, yet the ox was still able to pull it along.
The man was speechless, proclaiming "only if you could speak to me then we could move mountains."
The owner began to exploit the powers that the ox had by going from city to city, betting silver that his ox could move more than anyone could imagine. He won bet after bet, winning silver in every town that he passed.
He was so confident in this ox because every bet that he had made with the towns, he had known that the ox had towed more than the town offered for the bet.
Using this silver that he had made, he began to upgrade his farm hoping another one of these unstoppable ox will be created.
The man began running very low on money because he would get very mad whenever an ox was not as strong and he began killing all of them.
He wanted to make his silver back very quick so he rode on down to the richest town around and offered a bet. The owner said, "I will forfeit a thousand pieces of silver if my ox cannot pull a line of one hundred carriages."
The man laughed and quickly accepted the challenge without knowing of the strength of this ox.
The owner, being very worried about the weight that this ox needed to pull in order to win the wager, told the man that he will return tomorrow for the bet.
The next day comes around and the owner is still stressing because the one thousand silver is all he owns. He shows up to the town and the carriages are already lined up. With him sweating, he attaches his ox to the front of the line.
The owner began to whip the ox yelling "Get up! Get along you rascal!" and the ox did nothing. The ox did not move a single muscle and the owner ended up losing all of the one thousand silver.
On this way back to his farm he asks himself, "Why did the ox do this to me, why did he not pull the carriages?" The ox then responds to him, "Why did you whip me today? You called me names that you have never said to me."
The man was surprised to hear this from the ox and immediately apologized to the ox for what he had done today. The ox accepted the apology and responded with, "You have been a great owner so take me back tomorrow and I will gain you back what you have lost."
The next day they show up again and bet the town two thousand silver if the ox could pull the 100 carriages. The man once again took the bet and lines the wagons up.
The owner then gave the ox words of encouragement and he easily pull all one hundred of the carriages.
The man paid up, astonished of what he had just witnessed.
And the ox and the owner went home, happy.
Authors Note: This story is one from our class reading that we were assigned during week 11. This story was originally just the story of the owner and ox at the last town. I have added the beginning part of this story in order to add more backstory and make it a more interesting.
Bibliography: This is the link to the story by Ellen C. Babbitt. Link
Hi Matt!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story. I hadn't read the original story, so I wasn't sure what to expect. From reading your author's note, I will say I'm glad you added the beginning part. I think I would like it better with having the background instead of just reading about the last town. I did wonder why, if the ox could talk the whole time why didn't he before? But I liked that the lesson was to treat others with kindness (except he was basically stealing money from people, I guess I'll ignore that part).
Hello Matt! I had not read the original story so I went ahead and read the original as well as your author's note before I dove into your retelling. Both of which got me up to speed before reading your version. The story itself was a great read. I think you did a great job with this one man! Keep up the good work. Looking forward to reading more from your in these last few weeks.
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