Chapter 148 173. Cargo ships

The parents of a boy are devoted followers of the Archangel St. Michael, and they always celebrate his festival every year.After my father died, my mother still used the little money left over to celebrate St. Michael's Day every year.One year, the mother was penniless and had nothing to sell to celebrate the festival, so she wanted to sell her son to the king. "Your Majesty," she said to the king, "will you buy me a boy? Give me twelve crowns, or you can see, and I can celebrate St. Michaelmas." The king gave her a hundred gold pieces, and she left the child.He thought: This poor woman has sold her own son to pay homage to the Archangel Michael; but I am a king, and I have no respect for him.So the king had a chapel built and a statue of St. Michael the Archangel bought for his feast day.But as soon as the festival was over, he put a veil on the statue and never ignored it again.

The boy's name was Pepi, and he grew up in the palace.The king's daughter was the same age as he was, and they played and stayed together, and when they grew up they fell in love.The Privy Councilor saw this, and said to the king, "What will happen, Your Majesty? Of course you don't want your daughter to marry that poor boy, do you?" "What shall I do? Can I drive him out?" asked the King. "According to my idea," said the Privy Councilor, "send him to trade in your most worn-out ship. You give orders to the captain, and leave him alone when on the high seas. He will drown, our problem. That's solved."

The king accepted this idea, and said to Pepi, "Hey, you have to go to a distant place to do business, and I will give you three days to load the goods." At night, he kept thinking about what would be the best thing to pack.The first night and the second night, he didn't come up with an idea.On the third night, he thought and thought, and finally decided to ask the Archangel St. Michael.St. Michael came to him and said to him, "Don't be discouraged. Go and tell the king that your ship is loaded with salt." The next morning, Pepi got up happily.The king asked him, "Hey, Pepi, what have you decided to pack?"

"I hope His Majesty will allow me to load a load of salt." The privy ministers were secretly happy, thinking: It's wonderful! Loading that kind of cargo, the ship will sink soon! Loaded with salt, the ship sailed out to sea, with a small boat behind it. "What is that boat for?" Pepi asked the captain. "Oh, I have my own arrangements," replied the captain. In fact, as soon as we were on the high seas, the captain boarded the boat, said "goodbye," and left Pepi alone. Pepi's boat starts to leak and is about to sink in rough seas. "Dear mother!" cried Pepi, "Dear Christ! St. Michael the Archangel! Help me!" In the blink of an eye, a solid gold boat appeared, with St. Michael the Archangel at the helm.Seizing a rope thrown to him, Pepi tied his boat to St. Michael's, and the boat sailed like lightning across the sea into an unknown port.

"Have you come here for peace or for war?" asked the man on shore. "For peace!" Pepi replied.So he was allowed to land. The king of the country invited Pepi and his companion to a feast (the king did not know that his companion was Saint Michael). "Beware," said St. Michael to Pepi, "the people of this country have not seen salt." So Pei brought a bag of salt into the palace. They sit down to eat, but the dishes are not good at all.Pepi said: "Your Majesty, why is your dish like this?" "We have always eaten this dish," replied the king.

So Pepi sprinkled a little salt on everyone's dishes. 'Your Majesty, now have a taste. " The king ate a few bites, and exclaimed happily: "It's delicious! It's delicious! Do you have many of these things?" "A full boat." "What price do you sell for?" "Equal weight of gold." "In that case, I'll buy them all." "It's a deal." After the meal, people unloaded the salt and weighed it. Salt was placed on a plate at one end of the scale and gold was placed on a plate at the other end.So Pepi loaded the ship with gold, repaired the leaks in the ship, and set off.

Since Pepi left, the king's daughter stayed on the balcony every day, pointing the telescope at the distant sea, waiting for Pepi to come back to her. She saw the boat and hurried back to her father. "Dad, Pepi is back! Pepi is back!" After Pepi landed, he greeted the king quickly, and then unloaded all the gold from the ship.The privy minister turned blue with anger, and said to the king, "Your Majesty, we didn't expect this!" "What shall I do?" asked the King. "Send him to a distant place to do business." A few days later, the king sent Pepi out again, to consider what to pack.After thinking about it, Pepi went to ask St. Michael."A load of cats," he said.

In order to prepare cats for Pepi, the king issued an announcement: Anyone who has a cat will be sent to the palace, and the king will buy them all. Soon the boat was full of cats and sailed out to sea, and the cats on board meowed along the way. When the ship sailed farther than the first time, the captain said "goodbye" and slipped away.The ship began to sink, and Pepi called for help from the Archangel St. Michael.In the blink of an eye, the golden boat appeared again.It dragged Pepi to an unfamiliar port at lightning speed.A group of people on the shore came to meet them and asked them whether they came to seek peace or to provoke war. "Seek peace," the two replied.So the king immediately invited them to a feast.

However, everyone has a small broom next to their dishes. "What is this for?" "You will understand in a moment," replied the King. The dishes are served.A group of mice jumped onto the dining table and rushed to the dishes.The guests all tried to drive the mice away with small brooms, but it was useless, because the mice came back immediately after being driven away, and there were too many mice to do anything. Then St. Michael said to Pepi, "Open the bag you brought." Pepi opened the bag and released the four cats.They pounced on them and tore the mouse to pieces.

The king shouted happily: "These little animals are wonderful! Do you have many more?" "A full boat." "Are you going to sell it for a lot of money?" "Equal weight in gold as these cats." "Okay!" The king bought all the cats.A cat is placed on a plate at one end of the balance, and gold is placed on a plate at the other end.After the ship was repaired, Pepi returned home with a ship full of gold. The king's daughter was waiting for Pepi at the port, and she danced for joy when she saw Pepi come back.Trip after trip the porters unloaded the gold from the ship, but the king was in an embarrassing position.The privy councilors, blue with anger, said to the king, "Twice we have failed. The third time we must kill him. Let him rest for a week, and then send him out again."

When Pepi came to ask what to load this time, St. Michael said, "A load of broad beans." When the boat carrying broad beans was about to sink, the golden boat appeared again.In the blink of an eye, Pepi and St. Michael's ship docked at another port. The ruler of the country was a queen, and she invited them both to a feast.After dinner, the queen took out a deck of cards and said, "Shall we play a round?" So they played cards.The queen is a good card player, and anyone who loses to her is thrown into a dungeon. But Saint Michael will never lose.The queen felt that if she continued to play, she would lose everything she had now. Then she said, "I declare war on you." They agreed on a time for the war, and the queen called her troops together.St. Michael and Pepi, a party of two men, went into battle with swords brandished against all the queen's host.But St. Michael raised a gust of wind, and the dust was blown up, and the sky was covered, and people could see nothing.St. Michael walked up to the queen quietly, and cut off her head with a sword. When the wind subsided, the people cheered when they saw the Queen's head fell to the ground, for they had had enough of her servitude.The soldiers said to Saint Michael: 'We embrace you as our king!' St. Michael replied: "I am the king of other countries. Choose a king from among your own people." An iron cage was made, and the queen's head was put in it, and the cage was hung on the corner of the street.Saint Michael and Pepi went into the dungeon to free the prisoner.Hungry prisoners huddled together, smelling foul.On the ground, beside the living, lay dead bodies.Pepi sprinkled them with handfuls of fava beans, and the prisoners scrambled for them and devoured them like animals.In this way, St. Michael and Pepi revived the prisoners, gave them broad bean soup, and let them go home. No one in that city had ever seen broad beans.So, Pepi sold all the broad beans according to the method of exchanging a catty of broad beans for a catty of gold.Then, the ship carrying the gold and the convoy under his command set off for home.A salute of guns was fired as his ship pulled into port. This time, the golden ship also sailed into the port.The King welcomes the presence of St. Michael the Archangel.During the meal, St. Michael said to the king: "Your Majesty, you have a statue of St. Michael, but you pay homage to it only on festivals, and then cover it with cobwebs. What's the matter? You Maybe you're short of money?" The king said, "Oh, yes, that's Saint Michael the Archangel, and I've completely forgotten about that." Then Saint Michael said: 'Let's go and see the statue. " When they arrived at the chapel, they found that the surface of the statue was moldy."I am Saint Michael the Archangel," said the stranger. "Why, Your Majesty, have you treated me so badly?" The king quickly knelt down and said, "Forgive me. Tell me how to serve you! From now on, I will celebrate your festival most solemnly!" The saint replied: "You'd better celebrate the wedding of your daughter and Pepi, because these two young people are determined to be husband and wife." So Pepi married the king's daughter, and he later became king. (Sara Paruta area)