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Once there was an old man who lived in Switzerland. He was very rich, but his wife had died young.
They only had one son, and he was very stupid. His name was Eric. One day, the father said to Eric,
‘Listen, my son. You are not the cleverest in the world. [ Languages ]
I try to teach you many things, but I can get
nothing into your head. It is time for you to leave home. I will send you to a famous teacher, and he
will teach you until you are clever. [ Languages story]…….
Then we will see what we can do with you.’ So Eric was sent to a
strange town, and lived there for a year. His teacher was kind, and tried to teach him mathematics,
geography, history and English, but Eric did not remember any of it.
However, there were many dogs
in the town, and every day after class he went and played with them. After the year, he went home
again, and his father asked, ‘Eric, what have you learned?’ ‘Father, I have learned the language of
the dogs. When they bark, I understand what they say.’ ‘My goodness!’ said the father.
‘Is that all
you have learned? I must send you away again, to a better teacher.’ This time, he was sent to a small
village on the top of a mountain. There were very few people, and his teacher was very unkind.
Every time Eric made a mistake he hit him, but it did not matter, because not a single thing stayed in
Eric’s head. Still, every day he walked around the mountains, and many birds flew around him, and
he listened carefully to their songs. [ Languages ]
Three languages:
When he returned home, his father asked, ‘Eric, what have you learned?’ ‘Father, I have learned the
language of the birds. When they sing, I understand what they say.’ ‘My goodness!’ said the father.
‘The second time has been no better than the first. I will send you away one more time, but if you
learn nothing, then I will stop being your father. You will have to go out and live by yourself.’ This
time, Eric was sent to a very big school. [ Languages ]
He lived, ate and slept in the school, with all the other
students, and they could never go outside. Every day, they studied and studied, and all the students
learned well, except for Eric. One day, the teachers were so mad at him that they threw him outside.
Eric ran into the forest, and found a family of frogs. He stopped and listened to them croak, and he
lived in the forest for the rest of the year.
When he came home, his father asked, ‘Eric, what have
you learned?’ ‘Dear Father, I have learned the language of the frogs. When they croak, I understand
what they say.’ [ Languages ]
‘Enough!’ shouted his father. ‘You are not my son!’ He called some men in, and said, ‘This man is no
longer my son. Send him into the forest and kill him.’ They took Eric out, but they could not kill him.
They knew him well, and he was a nice boy, even though he was very stupid. So they cut the eyes
and tongue out of a pig and took them to the old man.
They said that they were Eric’s eyes and
tongue. And so Eric left home and travelled on his own. First, he came to a castle, and spoke to the
King. ‘Please, sir, may I stay the night here? I have no home.’ ‘You can sleep in the old tower,’ the
King said. The tower was different from the rest of the castle.
it was breaking apart, and it looked
very cold and wet. ‘But you must know. In that tower live many dogs. Every night they bark
endlessly, so you will surely not be able to sleep. And sometimes they even eat men. I am sorry, but
this is the only room I have for you.’ ‘That’s OK!’ said Eric. ‘Can I have some food for the dogs?’
‘Of course,’ said the King. He looked very surprised, but he gave Eric some dog food, and the boy went
into the tower. When he came in, the dogs did not bark or attack him, and were even very friendly.
He threw the food to them and they ate it, and at night he slept with them so that he was nice and
warm. The next day, he went back to the King. The King and all his men were very surprised. They
thought the boy would be dead. [ Languages ]
‘I had a nice talk with the dogs,’ said Eric. ‘They told me why they live in the tower, and why they
bark so much and attack men.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said the King. ‘How can you talk to dogs?’ ‘I
speak their language,’ Eric said. ‘Anyway, they told me that there is a great treasure at the bottom of
the tower.
They look after it, and they will bark and attack people until the treasure is taken away.’
‘We must go at once!’ said the King. ‘Wait! Only I can take the treasure. The dogs will attack
everyone else.’ ‘Oh,’ said the King. ‘Of course.’ ‘But I will bring it here, to say thank you. You let me
sleep in your castle when you could have thrown me outside.’ ‘Brilliant!’ said the King. ‘Bring me the
treasure and I will give you half of it.’ So Eric went and got the treasure, and the King was very
happy. The dogs went away from the tower, and Eric took his treasure and went travelling again.
This time, he went to Rome.
On the way, he went through a forest. Many frogs sat there croaking.
He listened to them croaking, and understood their message. “Oh no!” thought Eric. “That is a
strange message indeed. I hope it is not true.”
He went on to Rome. When he got there, everyone was crying in the streets. ‘What is going on?’
asked Eric. ‘The Pope has died!’ cried a man. ‘And there is nobody to replace him. We need a new
Pope!’ Eric went into the Vatican, where they were discussing the problem. ‘We need help from
God,’ said a man. [ Languages ]
‘Please, give us a sign, God!’ Just then, two snow-white doves flew through the
window and went down to Eric. They sat on his shoulders. Everyone in the room turned to look at
him, not saying a word. ‘Uh, hello,’ said Eric. ‘This man! This man will be our new Pope!’ ‘I don’t
know about that…’ said Eric. Usually, everyone told him he was stupid, but now they thought he
should be Pope?
One of the doves went to his ear and whispered, ‘Coo, coo. You must be Pope. You
are the right man. God has chosen you.’ ‘I don’t believe it,’ Eric whispered back. The other dove then
spoke, saying, ‘Coo, coo. God sent us. You are the right man.’ ‘Oh, alright then,’ said Eric. Everyone in
the Vatican started cheering, and they began the ceremony to make Eric into the Pope. The frogs
had been right. [ Languages ]
The frogs in the forest had said that a man called Eric was going to be Pope. That was
why Eric was so worried when he heard the frogs. He could not believe their message. But it was
true. Eric was the new Pope. And after the ceremony, they sang hymns. ‘Just one problem,’ Eric said
to the doves. ‘I don’t know the words to these hymns!’ ‘Don’t worry,’ whispered the doves. ‘We will
tell you the words.’ So the doves whispered the words into Eric’s ears, and he sang his first hymns as
Pope.
