Our legends of December-Polish Legend

 

The Treasurer

In the past, there were a lot of coal mines in the region of Silesia, where our school is situated. A lot of miners went to work there, both old and young. This legend tells the story which presumably happened in one of the mines.

In one mine, the miners were told to build a new gallery. They got down to work, but the coalstone was so hard that they couldn’t break it with their pickaxes. After a few days all work had to be stopped.

One young miner didn’t want to give up. His name was Karlik and he wanted to try to continue digging. He believed he could succeed. So one day he took his pickaxe and went to the mine.

In the mine, he went down, to the bottom of the mine. He was hungry, so he decided to eat a sandwich before getting down to work. As he was eating, a tiny little mouse crept out from under a lump of coal. It approached Karlik, sat on its hind legs and looked at the miner.

Karlik liked the mouse a lot, so he gave it some bread crumbs, but the mouse wanted more and more. So he gave it all his breakfast and promised to bring more the following day.

No sooner had he finished talking than a dwarf appeared in place of the mouse – he was a tiny little man with a long, grey beard. He was wearing miner’s clothes and had a cap on his head.

Suddenly the dwarf spoke, ‘You shared your breakfast with me, so I will help you with your work’.

He drilled six holes altogether in the coalstone wall and told Karlik to put some explosives into them. After a while an explosion happened and a long gallery appeared in front of Karlik’s eyes. The gallery walls were full of coal!

The dwarf promised to help Karlik again, but asked him for half of his earnings. Karlik agreed, so the mouse came daily, turned into the dwarf in front of Karlik’s eyes and helped him with his work.

On pay day, Karlik got a lot of money. He met the dwarf in one of the  mine’s galleries. They found a plank, sat on it facing each other and started dividing the money. Karlik put one coin on his pile and one on the dwarf’s. Finally one coin was left. Karlik gave it to the dwarf – after all it was thanks to him that he’d earned so much.

The dwarf was very satisfied. He said he had been waiting long for such a good miner who would be honest and not greedy. He decided to reward him. It turned out that in reality it was not just any dwarf, but the Treasurer – the Ghost of the Mine. He started taking care of Karlik, which meant that from then on Karlik would become really successful, he would earn a lot and his work would be safe.

In spite of his wealth, Karlik remained a good person. He shared his money with the poor, helped the miners and their families. That’s why the Treasurer always looked out for him, because he always takes care of good and honest miners and punishes those who are dishonest, selfish and lazy.