The Godfather

A poor man had so many children that he had already asked all the world to be his godfather, and when he got one more, there was no one left to ask. Not knowing what to do, he lay down in sorrow and fell asleep. Then he dreamed that he should go to the gate and ask the first person he met to be his godfather. When he woke up, he decided to follow the dream, went outside the gate and asked the first person he met to be his godfather. The stranger gave him a glass of water and said: "This is a wonderful water, with it you can heal the sick, you only have to see where death is standing. If it stands by the head, give the sick person some of the water and he will get well, but if it stands by the feet, all the effort is in vain, he must die." From now on, the man could always tell whether a sick person could be saved or not, became famous for his art and earned a lot of money. Once he was called to the king's child, and when he entered, he saw death standing by the head, and he healed it with the water, and so it was the second time, but the third time death stood by the feet, so the child had to die.

The man wanted to visit his godfather and tell him how the water had been. But when he came into the house, there was such a strange economy in it. On the first staircase, the shovel and the broom quarreled and violently threw themselves at each other. He asked them "where does the master live?" The broom replied "one stair up." When he got to the second staircase, he saw a lot of dead fingers lying there. He asked "where does the Mr. Godfather live?" One of the fingers answered "one stair up." On the third staircase there was a pile of dead heads, they directed him again one staircase higher. On the fourth staircase he saw fish standing over the fire, sizzling in the pan, baking themselves. They also said "up one stair." And when he had climbed the fifth staircase, he came to a parlor and peered through the keyhole, where he saw the godfather, who had a pair of long horns. When he opened the door and went in, he quickly lay down on the bed and covered himself. Then the man said, "Sir, what is this strange business in your house? When I came to your first staircase, the shovel and the broom were quarreling with each other and beating each other violently." "How simple-minded you are," said the godfather, "that was the servant and the maid talking to each other." "But on the second staircase I saw dead fingers lying." "Ei, how silly you are! They were scorzonera roots." "On the third staircase there was a pile of skulls." "Silly man, those were cabbage heads." "On the fourth, I saw fish in a pan, sizzling, baking themselves." As he had said this, the fish came and baked themselves. "And when I had come up the fifth staircase, I looked through the keyhole of a door, and there I saw you, old man, and you had long long horns." "Ei, that's not true." The man was frightened, and he ran away, and who knows what else the master would have done to him.