The Farmer’s Dream
By
Valerie L. Egar
A
young farmer lived in a cabin at the foot of a mountain with his wife and daughter.
His land was rocky and not easily farmed, but he managed to grow enough food to
feed his family and their cow. His wife grew vegetables and raised chickens.
Their daughter helped by milking the cow and weeding the garden.
One
night as the farmer slept, he dreamt he found emeralds and rubies red as blood deep
in the earth on his farm. The gems were beautiful and sparkled in his hands.
When he awoke, he told his wife about his dream. “Perhaps it means the crops will yield well
this year and we will have a little extra money,” she said.
The
farmer shook his head. “No. It means there are emeralds and rubies buried
somewhere on our farm.”
Hi
wife thought no more about it until lunchtime when she carried a basket with bread,
cheese and cool water to the farmer. Instead of hoeing weeds and watering the barley
he’d planted, he was digging a hole in the middle of the field, tossing aside
the young plants he’d tended so carefully. A pile of barley plants withered in
the hot sun.
“What
are you doing, husband?” she cried.
“Looking for the
gems I saw in my dream.”
“Couldn’t
you wait until after the harvest?”
“No!”
he whispered. “What if thieves discovered them first?”
Every
day, the farmer dug holes in his field, uprooting the wheat and barley he’d
planted.
“Husband,”
his wife said, “You’re killing all you planted. We won’t have any food this
winter.”
“You
worry too much, “ he replied. “When I find the emeralds and rubies, we’ll be
rich and able to buy all the food we want.”
His
wife said nothing, but planted extra turnips and potatoes in her garden to try
and make up for the loss of the grain.
By
the middle of summer, holes and piles of dirt covered the fields where barley
and wheat once grew. The farmer eyed his wife’s garden. “That’s where the emeralds
and rubies must be!” he declared and started to dig, uprooting the vegetables
his wife was growing for them to eat.
“Have
faith,” he said to his wife. “I know there are emeralds and rubies somewhere
and I am working hard every day to find them.”
The farmer’s wife
had never seen her husband work harder, but when she saw all the plants she grew
dying in the sun, the only thing she could imagine was a winter with nothing to
eat. “I wish you luck, husband,” she said and left to live with her parents,
taking their daughter with her.
Years passed. He
scraped by, year in and year out, growing thin, his hair greying. “In my
dream,” he told those who would listen, “I saw emeralds and rubies. I held them
in my hands.”
One
evening in June, as the evening light lingered, the farmer dug the deepest hole
ever. Something glimmered in the setting sun. It was the size of a hen’s egg
and glowed green. He picked it up— an emerald, large and perfect. He dug faster
and deeper and soon, he had a bucket of the largest and most beautiful emeralds
and rubies ever seen.
He
sold the gems and became very wealthy. Newspapers all over the world reported his
extraordinary find. Many people commended him for following his dream, and believing
in himself. Others were critical. “He gave up his family, friends, and
good health to have what?” they said. People spent hours debating the issue.
Everybody had an opinion, but what does that matter? The only thing that’s
important is what you think about it.
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Copyright 2017 by Valerie L. Egar. May not be copied or reproduced without permission from the author.
Published June 4, 2017, Journal Tribune Sunday (Biddeford, ME).
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