They were overjoyed at their deliverance. They laughed aloud, and they saw the Earth like a flower of silver, and the Moon like a flower of gold.
But then they became sad, because they remembered their poverty. One of them said to the other,
‘Why do we laugh? This life is for the rich, and not for us. Why did not we die of cold in the forest? Why did not some wild beast eat us?’
‘Truly,’ answered his companion, ‘the rich have everything, the others have nothing. There is injustice in the world, there is eternal sorrow in it.’
But as they bewailed their misery to each other this strange thing happened. A very bright and beautiful star fell from heaven. It slipped down the side of the sky, passed by the other stars, and fell into the wood – not very far from them.
‘Look! It is a good piece of gold for whoever finds it,’ they cried, and began to run. They wanted to get some gold.
One of them ran faster than his mate, and outstripped him. He ran through the willows, and lo! there was indeed a piece of gold on the white snow. So he hastened towards it, and placed his hands upon it. It was a golden cloak, it had stars on it. And he cried out to his comrade:
‘Look! I see a treasure from the sky!’
When his comrade came near, they sat down in the snow, and loosened the folds of the cloak to divide the pieces of gold. But, alas! no gold was in it, nor silver, nor, indeed, any treasure. Only a little child who was asleep.
And one of them said to the other:
‘This is the end to our hope. This child is completely useless for us. Let us leave it here[6], and go away. We are poor men, and have children of our own.’
But his companion answered him:
‘No, but it is an evil thing to leave the child to perish here in the snow. I am as poor as you are, and have many mouths to feed. But I want to bring this child home with me. My wife will have care of it[7].’
He took up the child tenderly, and wrapped the cloak around it. Then he went down the hill to the village.
‘What a fool!’ thought his comrade.
When they came to the village, his comrade said to him,
‘You have the child, therefore give me the cloak.’
But he answered him:
‘No, for the cloak is neither mine nor yours, but the child’s only.’
And he went to his own house and knocked.
When his wife opened the door and saw her husband, she put her arms round his neck and kissed him. Then she took from his back the bundle of faggots, and brushed the snow off his boots.