The Two Carpenters

By Troy Morash

There was, and probably still is, a tiny village where the sun never shines. In this tiny village it always rained or was cloudy. People were always cursing as they got stuck in the mud or dirtied up their houses.

In this tiny village there were two carpenters who took advantage of the rain in order to make a living. The first carpenter was poor and he built ladders. Very beautifully crafted and made with the best wood and glue. They were said to last a lifetime. But you ask, "How do ladders help when it's raining?!" If you are a smart little boy or girl, you probably know already how silly ladders are when it's raining. But you see, these ladders were made to go way up, to the top of the highest mountain, far beyond the storm clouds and the rain. On the top of this mountain, the poor carpenter said there was a beautiful city where it never rained. But the villagers had no proof that this place existed. No one had ever seen it and none of the scientists ever talked about it. If such a place really existed, why wasn't it in the newspapers? So as a result the poor carpenter had very little business. One ladder was so expensive, that no one wanted to take the risk. Almost nobody bought a ladder from him, except one or two people and they never returned. And the villagers thought that those people were crazy anyway. And to make matters worse, he didn't advertise.

The second carpenter was rich because he made umbrellas. The umbrella, you see, was cheap to make. He would simply cut some cloth and sew it onto a metal rode. One umbrella cost a hundred times less to make than one ladder. Also he had the extra advantage that an umbrella lasted only one season and so everyone always had to buy a new umbrella at the beginning of each season. "It was much better to buy a one dollar umbrella than a hundred dollar ladder that takes you nowhere," all the people would say. The rich carpenter's advertisements always read, 'The umbrella: you can see! Buy one today and one for tomorrow and you'll be okay.' Sometimes you could hear the old ladies talking, "That poor silly carpenter, he really isn't a carpenter if you ask me. Why doesn't he do what the rich carpenter does and start using metal and cloth. Now that's real carpentry!"

"Yes indeed, Louise, you're right, why that poor carpenter isn't really a carpenter at all. He's, he's more like a criminal if you ask me. Spreading such fantasies like sunny places and big cities. Why I never heard of such a thing!"

One day, after one of the worst storms in years, a young man, the most handsome and most popular in the village started thinking, 'If I buy one umbrella every season, that comes to four dollars a year. If I live to be fifty that is two hundred dollars. If I live to be one hundred and fifty that is six hundred dollars! That's a pretty penny! And if there is a bad storm like the last I will need to buy an extra ten umbrellas a year. That is just too much money, more than I can really afford. It would be much cheaper to buy one ladder for a hundred dollars than so many umbrellas. Besides, those umbrellas don't really keep you dry anyway.'

Now this young man was one of the most respected young men in the village. Everyone always spoke highly of him and how they would vote for him if he ever wanted to become their mayor. "What a smart young man he is," they would say, "Why Louise, I bet he knows exactly how many pebbles are in the river!" So you can imagine the scandal it caused when this young man, this young hero went to the poor carpenter in order to order a ladder. It was in all the newspapers for weeks, with interviews from the priest, the mayor and the butcher. (The butcher in this village was also their chief of police. It was mandatory for butchers to assume public office.) There were rallies and public protests. Plays and operas were written about it and even to this day people can't help but spit out the bad taste in their mouths when the subject is brought up.

After a couple of months the young man just about completely disappeared from public life. He had no time to join in on the river festivities and public hackles. He spent all his time working, in order to buy a ladder. He also had to go out and find the special type of wood that was needed to build the ladders. This was not an easy task. He had to travel fairly far in order to find it and it would take almost just as long to haul it all back. But that is not what the people thought. They thought that the poor carpenter had kidnapped the young man, the young hero of their village and had him under a wicked spell. They thought that the young man, their young hero had lost his mind and was dancing naked under the full moon and eating raw chickens with the poor carpenter. There was even one nasty rumor that he was tied up somewhere and the poor carpenter was plucking one hair from his body every hour on the hour.

Well, all this hysteria, went as it should for a time until the rich carpenter decided that maybe it was time to get rid of the poor carpenter. The rich carpenter started thinking, "What if that poor carpenter is right? What if there really is a top to the mountain? What if there really is a beautiful city with sunshine everyday? If there is, and this young man discovers it, than I will be out of business!" The rich carpenter was, as you can see a good business man. So he decided to start a campaign to run the poor carpenter out of the village, which the people were all too happy to do. So they set to work to do just that. This however did not stop the poor carpenter from helping the young man to finish his ladder and on the next rainy day the young man climbed up his ladder and disappeared.

After some time the people in the village grew even more angry with the poor carpenter. They started thinking that he had killed their young hero and future mayor. So the villagers decided, for the sake of their children and their grandchildren, to hunt down the poor carpenter and take care of him once and for all. The rich carpenter agreed and eagerly paid the expenses because he was a good business man. There was a quick trial and then they took all the wood that the poor carpenter had, broke it all up into sticks and placed it all under his feet and burned him to death. Afterwards, oddly enough, they decided to declare that day a national holiday and celebrated.

The next day however, a curious thing happened. The young man, their hero and future mayor returned, looking better than ever, with a nice suntan. He quickly set up shop andd a business selling ladders to the top of the mountain. He said that there one could see the most beautiful sight. The sun shined everyday, all day long. There wasn't even a night time, there wasn't even a need because no one was ever tired and never needed to sleep. The most beautiful things in the world, things beyond description grew wild everywhere and everyone was friends and always smiled, so much that it almost hurt. They all studied at the biggest universities and everybody learned everything.

The village people laughed, "You're mad! If it's such a nice place, why did you come back then?"

"Well yesterday the poor carpenter who used to be here, arrived there and told me of this wonderful business opportunity in the village. The poor old carpenter explained to me that he was tired and had decided that it was time to retire. So here I am."

The villagers were shocked. "He's insane!" they cried. "He'll starve to death!"

After this was all said and done the young carpenter never said anything else about the city at the top of the mountain. He never advertised. It was a rule. He knew he would never starve to death. Because you see, for each ladder he built for someone in the village below, he would receive a million dollars from the city above. So if he found one person to build a ladder, he would be rich forever. So he didn't starve to death, in fact he lived happily ever after, for a long time, longer than most could bear.

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