The Gold-seeker of the Tendres Farm

Between Reshen and Nauders lies the Tendres Farm, and the old farmer,

who is still living there, recounts the following tale:--

“In my younger days a Venediger-Manndl used to arrive here every year

towards the autumn, dressed in dreadfully ragged black clothes, just

like a beggar, who always passed the night in my farm, and left on the

following morning in the direction of the Green Lake, towards the Swiss

frontier, and returned here again in the evening.

“As I could never comprehend what the little beggar was doing here

every year, and as in the same day he could neither reach huts nor

farms, where he could get something by begging, I followed him one day,

and found him on the borders of the Green Lake, close to a fountain,

busily occupied in taking sand out of a wooden trough, into which the

spring was running, and putting it into his sack.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wait, my little fellow, I will lighten that work

for you, and empty the trough before you return again; if the sand is

of some value, I also can make some use of it, and if it were of no

value, you certainly would never come here from so far to fetch it.’ In

the following year, towards the autumn, I went to the spring, removed

the stone slab from the trough, and found it full of gold sand, which

was very heavy. I set off with it directly to Venice, to offer it for

sale to a rich merchant, who was astonished at the sight of the sand;

and said, ‘Oh! you rich man, I have not money enough to buy all that

gold; but go down into that street, and you will find a large house

shut up; knock at the door, and the richest man of Venice will let you

in, and buy the treasure of you.’

“As I approached the house, a distant voice shouted to me out of one

of the windows, ‘Tendres Farmer, bring here your gold.’ I could not

make out who could know me, far as I was from my own country, and, as

I entered the palace, I was dazzled with the magnificence and riches

which everywhere met my eyes. In a splendid chamber, on an armchair

of pure gold, was sitting the little beggar, who had so often passed

the night in my farm. He arose as I entered, and, shaking his finger

menacingly at me, said, ‘You have not acted honestly in clearing out my

trough; but, since you have so often sheltered and fed me, I will give

you a day’s pay for the gold, which is my own.’ Then he gave me a gold

coin for each day I had been on my journey, after which he held a glass

before my eyes, in which I saw Tendres, my wife and children working

in the field; in one word, everything as clearly as though I was myself

standing in the farm. Then he turned the glass, and I saw the well on

the Green Lake with the gold trough, and, after having passed his hand

over the glass, he said, ‘Now go home, and you will never again find

fountain or trough.’

“And so it happened indeed, for when I reached home, and went down to

the Green Lake, it was impossible for me to discover one single trace

of the Gold Spring.”