Three Brothers of Fortune.

 Narrated by Eugenio Estayo, a Pangasinan, who heard the story from Toribio Serafica, a native of Rosales, Pangasinan.

 

In former times there lived in a certain village a wealthy man who had three sons,—Suan, Iloy, and Ambo. As this man was a lover of education, he sent all his boys to another town to school. But these three brothers did not study: they spent their time in idleness and extravagance. When vacation came, they were ashamed to go back to their home town, because they did not know anything; so, instead, they wandered from town to town seeking their fortunes.

 

In the course of their travels they met an old woman broken with age. “Should you like to buy this book, my grandsons?” asked the old woman as she stopped them.

 

“What is the virtue¹ of that book, grandmother?” asked Ambo.

 

“My grandsons,” replied she, “if you want to restore a dead person to life, just open this book before him, and in an instant he will be revived².” Without questioning her further, Ambo at once bought the book. Then the three continued their journey.

 

Again they met an old woman selling a mat. Now, Iloy was desirous of possessing a charm³, so he asked the old woman what virtue the mat had.

 

“Why, if you want to travel through the air,” she said, “just step on it, and in an instant you will be where you desire to go.” Iloy did not hesitate, but bought the mat at once.

 

Now, Suan was the only one who had no charm. They had not gone far, however, before he saw two stones, which once in a while would meet and unite to form one round black stone, [119]and then separate again. Believing that these stones possessed⁴ some magical power, Suan picked them up; for it occurred to him that with them he would be able to unite things of the same or similar kind. This belief of his came true, as we shall see.

 

These three brothers, each possessing a charm, were very happy. They went on their way light-hearted. Not long afterward⁵ they came upon a crowd of persons weeping over the dead body of a beautiful young lady. Ambo told the parents of the young woman that he would restore her to life if they would pay him a reasonable sum of money. As they gladly agreed, Ambo opened his book, and the dead lady was brought back to life. Ambo was paid all the money he asked; but as soon as he had received his reward, Iloy placed his mat on the ground, and told his two brothers to hold the young woman and step on the mat. They did so, and in an instant all four were transported to the seashore.

 

From that place they took ship to another country; but when they were in the middle of the sea, a severe storm came, and their boat was wrecked⁶. All on board would have been drowned had not Suan repaired the broken planks⁷ with his two magical stones. When they landed, a quarrel arose among the three brothers as to which one was entitled⁸ to the young woman.

 

Ambo said, “I am the one who should have her, for it was I who restored her to life.”

 

“But if it had not been for me, we should not have the lady with us,” said Iloy.

 

“And if it had not been for me,” said Suan, “we should all be dead now, and nobody could have her.”

 

As they could not come to any agreement, they took the question before the king. He decided⁹ to divide the young woman into three parts to be distributed among the three brothers. His judgment¹⁰ was carried out. When each had received his share, Iloy and Ambo were discontented because their portions were useless, so they threw them away; but Suan picked up the shares of his two brothers and united them with his own. The young woman was brought to life again, and lived happily with Suan. So, after all, Suan was the most fortunate.

 

1 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

2 revived   

adj.再生的v.恢复( revive的过去式和过去分词 )；苏醒；使再生效；回忆起

参考例句：

• The flowers soon revived in water. 这些花见了水很快就活过来了。
• The temperance [dry; anti-alcohol] movement revived in the city. 这个城市的禁酒运动又活跃起来了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 charm   

vt.使着迷，使陶醉；n.招人喜欢之处，魅力

参考例句：

• With all imperfections the short play has a real charm.尽管有不少缺欠，这出小戏仍颇具魅力。
• He could resist her charm no longer.他再也抗拒不住她的魅力。

4 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

5 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

6 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

7 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

8 entitled   

有资格的

参考例句：

• You will be entitled to your pension when you reach 65. 你到65岁就有资格享受养老金。
• He entitled us to enter his office at any time. 他授权给我们可以随时进入他的办公室。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。