勤勞致富

Making money through hard work

There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard. He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew that his three sons despised the farm work, and were eager to make wealth through adventure.

When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, “My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish to get it.”

The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden, but he would tell them nothing more.

After the farmer died, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold. Since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.

They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing.

The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.

And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, “There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish to get it.”

【助讀詞匯】

◇olive  n. 橄欖樹，橄欖

◇orchard  n. 果園

◇despise vt. 輕視

◇bitterly adv. 苦苦地，悲痛的，厲害的

【參考譯文】

勤勞致富

從前有一個農民，他有一座漂亮的橄欖園。他非常勤勞，而且農場在他的照管下非常繁榮。可他知道自己的三個兒子瞧不起農活，都渴望通過冒險致富。

當這個農民老了，感到死期快要來臨時，將三個兒子叫到身邊說：“兒子們，橄欖園里藏有一罐金子。你們想要，就去挖吧。”

兒子們想讓父親告訴他們金子藏在果園的哪一塊地方，可他什么也沒再給他們說。

那個農民死后，三個兒子就開始工作去尋找那罐金子。因為他們不知道金子藏在什么地方，所以他們一致同意排成一行從果園的一頭開始挖起，直到其中一人挖到金子為止。

他們挖啊挖，一直到把果園從一頭挖到了另一頭，果樹周圍和果樹之間也都挖到了，可還是沒有找到那罐金子。看來一定是有人已經把那罐金子偷走了，要么就是他們的父親一直在異想天開。三個兒子對他們白干了一場相當失望。

到了下一個橄欖季節，果園里的橄欖樹結出的果子比以往的都多；賣完果子后，三個兒子賺了整整一罐金子。

當他們從果園里得到這么多錢后，突然明白了聰明的父親所說的“果園里藏有金子，想要就去挖吧”這句話的含義。

【人生啟迪】

“勤勞致富”，這是眾人皆知的通理。人世間致富的方法有很多，但通過hard work來致富是讓人最踏實的。當然，如果我們在“勤勞”的同時還能充分發揮自己的聰明才智，那自然就是“致富”的最高境界了。