The Four Odd Sons

Once upon a time, a couple who could have no children prayed to the green goddess of Nature for a strong, handsome son.

But, instead of a normal looking child, the mother gave birth to four odd looking sons; one who was a dwarf; one who was too tall and lanky; one who was completely blind and one who had no arms and no legs.

“Why, oh why”, the couple asked Nature, “Did you give us these four odd sons when what we wanted was normal children?”.

But Nature just said to them, “You shall see what you shall see”.

So they accepted their four odd sons and called the dwarf Mim and the one who was too tall Pim and the one who was blind Pom and the one who had no arms or legs Po.

And, one day Mim, Pim, Pom and Po were going through the woods; Pim carrying Po upon his shoulders, when all, except for the blind son, saw a garden surrounded by a high fence and, through the railings of the high fence, they saw a tall tree upon which was growing solid gold pears but there was no way into the garden except for through a pair of tall green iron gates that were locked.

“Oh, wouldn’t it be good if we could take those golden pears home to our mother and father, my brothers”, said Po, “Then our parents would surely praise us to the skies. What a pity that it is surrounded by such a high fence and that the garden gates are locked”.

But then, as they walked further along, they saw that there was a railing missing in the fence and, just beyond it, a golden key lying in the grass.

“That must be the key to get in”, said the dwarf Mim, “I could easily squeeze through that small gap and get that golden key so that our tall brother could open the gates”.

And Mim was about to squeeze through the gap in the railings when the blind brother Pom said,

“Wait! Are you not afraid of the big dog that is tied up near the tree?”.

Poms three brothers looked into the garden and strained their eyes to see it but none of them could see a dog.

But Pom insisted that he could hear a big dog snoring as if it had fallen asleep while guarding the tree and so the other brothers concluded that the dog must be invisible.

“How will we get past it?”, asked Pom.

But then Mim saw an old bone that was lying near to the railings and was broader at one end than the other and he had an idea.

Picking up the bone, he stuck the narrow end through the railings and, immediately, the invisible dog rushed over and, growling ferociously, grabbed hold of the bone by the narrow end and began pulling on it but, because it was broader at the other end, the dog just couldn’t pull it through the railings no matter how it tried
and it became so preoccupied with trying to get hold of the bone that it didn’t notice the dwarf Mim slipping through the gap in the fence, picking up the golden key that was lying in the grass and, giving it to his tall brother Pim, then pim unlocked the gate and creeping past the distracted dog picked the golden pears off of the tree, throwing them down to his brother Mim who caught them in his bowler hat.

Now, with a hat full of golden pears they went home to their parent’s house and their mother and father were amazed and over joyed, not to mention very proud of their four odd sons.

However, the garden from which the four sons had stolen the golden pears belonged to a giant and he came looking for them, carrying a big, sharp axe and, standing outside of their house, bellowed, “Hand over the one who stole my golden pears and I shall have his arms and his legs as payment”.

All the brothers, hearing this, were frightened, but the brother called Po; the one who was born without arms or legs said to his tall brother, “I have an idea. I will take the blame for stealing the golden pears but first dress me in your jacket and your trousers and stuff the arms and legs with straw”.

And so he did this and all the brothers lent him a hand and then they carried him out saying, “This is the one that stole your golden pears”.

Then the giant, raising his axe, cut off the straw arms and legs of Po and, as he did so, Po made loud screams pretending to be hurt.

But then, thinking that he had cut off Po’s real arms and legs, the giant went away satisfied and, using the golden pears, the four odd sons bought a big farm where they and their parents lived very happily.