Читать книгу The Deer and the Woodcutter - Kim So-Un - Страница 7

Long, long ago, at the foot of the Kumgang Mountains, there lived a poor woodcutter. He lived alone with his mother, as he had not yet married. Every day he would go into the mountains to cut wood, as that was his job.

One fine autumn day, when the red maple trees flamed everywhere, the woodcutter went as usual to chop wood in the forest. Soon he was hard at his work. Suddenly a stately deer came running out of the forest. He was panting and seemed on the point of falling with exhaustion.

“Save me, please!” the deer cried. “A hunter is chasing me!” And he looked back in fear, expecting the hunter to come out of the woods at any moment.

The woodcutter felt sorry for the deer. “Here, I’ll help you,” he said. “Quick, hide under these branches.”

The woodcutter covered the deer with a small tree he had just felled.

No sooner had he done this than a hunter appeared, carrying a gun.

“Say!” the hunter said. “Didn’t a deer come running this way?”

“Yes,” the woodcutter answered, “but he kept on going that way.” The hunter quickly ran in the direction the woodcutter had pointed.