The good man waited and waited in vain for his neighbor to return the mortar, and at last went over to ask for it.
“I have burned it,” said the envious man. “It only filled the house with filth, and at any rate it was made of my plane tree and I had a right to do with it as I wished.”
The good man returned to his wife very sorrowful, for lost now was all further hope of riches. But that night the couple again dreamed. In their dreams the dog appeared to them and told them the man must go to the neighbor and ask him for the ashes of the mortar and pestle. “Take a handful of these ashes, and fling them over any tree,” said the dog, “and even although it is dead, and has been dead many years, it will burst into bloom.”
The next morning the man arose in haste, and went over to the neighbor’s house, and begged him to give him the ashes of the mortar and pestle.
“There they are,” said the envious man contemptuously. “You may gather them up if you choose, and much good may they do you.”
The good man gathered them up very carefully, and carried them home. To test them he took up a handful and flung it over a withered branch in his garden. Immediately the branch burst forth into bloom; the whole garden was filled with the perfume of the flowers.
The man then put the ashes in a bag and started out with them; he went about through the country throwing handfuls of ashes over dead trees and bringing them to life, and in this way he earned a great deal of money.
At last the prince of the country heard of all this, and sent for the man to come to the palace, and began to question him. “Is it true,” he asked, “that you can bring dead trees to life and make them blossom, as I have heard?”
“That is indeed no more than the truth,” answered the man.