格林童话经典小故事之《返老还童》

　　While our Lord was still patrolling the earth, one night he took St. Peter to a blacksmith's house. The blacksmith was happy. At this time, a beggar happened to come. He was old, weak and in low spirits. He looked very pitiful. He begged the blacksmith to give him something. St. Peter sympathized with him and said, "Lord, if you like, please help him cure his illness so that he can earn his own food."

 

　　God said very kindly, "master, please lend me your iron stove and add some charcoal in it. I'll make the old beggar younger."

 

　　The blacksmith was very happy. St. Peter pulled up the bellows. God pushed the beggar into the most prosperous part of the fire. The old man burned like a rose and praised God loudly. After a while, God stepped in front of the sink and put the red man in the water. When he cooled down, God blessed him. After a while, the little old man jumped out and changed his face. He looked so straight and healthy, just like a 20-year-old boy. The blacksmith watched carefully and invited them to dinner. The blacksmith had an old mother-in-law who was half blind and hunchbacked. She went up to the young man, looked carefully and asked him if the fire had burned him. The man told him that he had never been so comfortable. Standing in the fire was like bathing in cool dew. The young man's words rang in the old woman's ears all night.

 

　　The next morning, God was ready to go. He thanked the blacksmith. The blacksmith thought he could make his old mother-in-law younger, because he saw everything yesterday. So he asked his mother-in-law if she wanted to become an 18-year-old girl and jump around. "I miss it so much," she said So the blacksmith started a big fire and pushed the old woman in. She tossed and turned inside and screamed horribly. "Sitting quietly, what are you doing shouting and jumping?" Cried the blacksmith to her. Then he pulled the bellows again and burned all the old woman's rags. The old woman still couldn't stop talking, so the blacksmith doubted, "it's so difficult that I haven't learned my craft?" So he dragged her out and threw her into the sink. The old man screamed again. Even the blacksmith's wife who lived upstairs and the old man's daughter-in-law heard it. They ran down the stairs together. I saw the old woman curled up in the sink and wailed. Her face was wrinkled and burned out of shape. The two men were pregnant with children. Because they were frightened, they gave birth to two children that night, not like people, but like monkeys.

 

Then they ran into the forest and there were monkeys on the ground.