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HOW THE BEGGAR BOY TURNED INTO COUNT PIRO |
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Once upon a time there lived a man who had only one son, a lazy,
stupid boy, who would never do anything he was told. When the
father was dying, he sent for his son and told him that he would
soon be left alone in the world, with no possessions but the small
cottage they lived in and a pear tree which grew behind it, and that,
whether he liked it or not, he would have to work, or else he would
starve. Then the old man died.
But the boy did not work; instead, he idled about as before,
contenting himself with eating the pears off his tree, which, unlike
other pear trees before or since, bore fruit the whole year round.
Indeed, the pears were so much finer than any you could get even
in the autumn, that one day, in the middle of the winter, they
attracted the notice of a fox who was creeping by.
'Dear me; what lovely pears!' he said to the youth. 'Do give me a
basket of them. It will bring you luck!'
'Ah, little fox, but if I give you a basketful, what am I to eat?' asked
the boy.
'Oh, trust me, and do what I tell you,' said the fox; 'I know it will
bring you luck.' So the boy got up and picked some of the ripest
pears and put them into a rush basket. The fox thanked him, and,
taking the basket in his mouth, trotted off to the king's palace and
made his way straight to the king.
'Your Majesty, my master sends you a few of his best pears, and
begs you will graciously accept them,' he said, laying the basket at
the feet of the king.
'Pears! at this season?' cried the king, peering down to look at them;
'and, pray, who is your master?'
'The Count Piro,' answered the fox.
'But how does he manage to get pears in midwinter?' asked the
king.
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Fairytales 
