Fairy Tales for Workers' Children

by Hermynia Zur Mühlen

The Sparrow followed the advice of the wise Grandmother Mouse and soon realized that she had spoken truthfully. The children were delighted with him, and they spared him breadcrumbs from the few that were provided for their own little mouths. And because they were children, they understood the language of the Sparrow, and chatted with him. In this way the Sparrow heard many sad stories. The children told of poverty and distress, how hard parents had to work and how often there was nothing to eat at home. The honest Sparrow felt very sad to hear this. “There must also be a beautiful land for men, where conditions are good and they do not have to hunger and freeze,” said he to his little friend.

“Perhaps,” said a pale little girl. “But we have not yet found the road to it.”

“When I am big,” declared a little boy dressed in black, “then I will go out to search for that land. When I find it I will lead all the poor people to it.”

The two mice also visited the Sparrow often, they always came towards evening, when all was quiet.

So passed a long time, and one day the Sparrow saw land in the distance, saw houses and trees and knew that now his goal was reached.

The grey ocean had become quite blue and gleamed in the sunshine. It was very hot, and Grandmother Mouse said that in this land there was no winter. [[29]]

When the ship landed, the Sparrow flew after his friends for a while and then contemplated his new home.

All the people had brown faces and wore strange clothes. The faces of the women were covered so that one could only see their large black eyes. He also saw queer animals that walked on four legs and had great humps on their backs. Even the trees were different than those at home, there were some with long pointed leaves and brown fruit that the Sparrow relished. There was plenty to eat; here no Sparrow had to suffer hunger, and there was no snow or cold.

“Isn’t this also the right country for the poor people?” the Sparrow asked himself. But then he saw that in this sunny land [[30]]there were also rich and poor, that some were richly dressed and others wore rags, that some lazy ones rode in handsome carriages and some dragged heavy burdens. And he thought, “It is much easier to find a Sparrow paradise than a land in which people may enjoy happiness.” This pained him, because on his journey he had learned to love the poor people. “But how strange this is. People can tame wild animals to carry them through all lands, they know how to build houses that swim on the water and yet they are so poor and destitute and let a few evil wretches take everything for themselves.”