One warm afternoon, the carabao breathlessly told the cow, “How thirsty I am! I have been dragging this rake for the last three hours. My legs can no longer carry me.”
“Why don’t we lie down? Perhaps the master will take pity on us,” answered the cow.
“And what if he beats us?” retorted the carabao.
“Either is preferable, my friend. I can’t go on any longer. Help me…” At that moment, Pamplinosa the cow fell to the ground exhausted. The carabao could have continued, but out of friendship, he, too, fell to the ground. Their master then began to shout while beating them furiously.
“”Get up layabouts! You want to rest after only three hours’ work? Take that! That will teach you!”
Because of this, the cow, in the midst of her suffering, complained, “I can’t take it anymore. We are old and we have worked for you for as long as we could. In old age, one needs to rest. It is only right that you let us rest,”
The master stopped beating them, taken aback by the insolence of his animals’ words. ”So! What are you saying? That you will eat the grass I feed to my useful animals and not serve me?”
“It is not our fault that we are old,” the carabao dared to answer.
The master stopped to think for a minute, but because he was a miser, he answered, “Yes of course, it’s not your fault, but neither is it mine. Why should I be the one to pay and have to feed two animals that are no use to me?”
The two animals didn’t answer, but thought that with a bit of good will on part of their master, they might be able to continue living on the farm without having to work.
The master unhitched them from the plow, and once they were free, told them, “Very well, if you cannot do anything for me, neither can you expect me to look after you. Do what you wish, as long as it is not on my land. Leave and don’t ever come back.”
Adelina Gurrea
Comodón y Pamplinosa (Unpublished)
Submitted to the Publisher Doncel in 1964
English Translation by Beatriz Álvarez Tardío
Link to Spanish Version
