Name: The Three Sillies | Tall Tales from History #8
Uploaded: 2021-11-20T17:41:27.000Z
Duration: 25 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello. We're off. We've done everything... I put  down the tents, everything else is packed away,  

my Lord's off to the next tournament.  Nice to see you though. Before we go,  

Once upon a time, not long ago and not far  away, there lived a young man who god and  

fortune had blessed for he was handsome, he was  quick-witted, he was loved by his neighbours,  

he was a regular attender at the  church but most of all he was rich.  

He had a great farm, a beautiful house, stables  for the horses, servants to run around after him.  

He didn't have to do a thing for himself. But he  felt that he lacked one thing: he lacked a wife

Now it just so happened that his eye had fallen  on the daughter of a local farmer and he found an  

excuse in a market to engage in conversation with  this farmer and asked if he might pay a visit to  

the farmer and his wife to court their daughter.  Well of course the farmer was thrilled to bits!  

The most eligible bachelor in the county, one  of the richest young men? This suited the farmer  

very, very well so he invited the young man  round to meet his daughter that very evening.  

The farmer ran home. 'Wife,  wife!' he said, 'fantastic news!  

That young man, the unmarried one,  the richest bachelor in the county,  

he wants to come and pay court to our daughter! We  must make preparations, he's on his way tonight'.  

Well, the wife was a little surprised at the  short notice but dutifully she ran around and  

tidied up the house. Then she began cooking  a sumptuous feast. The daughter, meantime,  

washed herself as one as she could, brushed out  her long lustrous hair and then took out her  

best dress and beat it with a stick  until it was as clean as possible,  

perfumed herself with scented water and dressed  herself. Meanwhile the farmer went around to the  

local alewife and purchased from her a barrel of  her finest ale. Now I have to say this was very,  

very special stuff. She had a reputation  throughout the county. This ale was flavoured  

with herbs and honey and nothing compared in  taste to it. That evening as the sun set there  

was a tap at the door and sure enough it was a  young man. The farmer opened the door, introduced  

the young man to his wife and then ushered  him in so that he could meet their daughter.  

While the young man was very impressed  for their daughter was to give her a due  

very, very beautiful and looked very well enough  in her fine dress. The young man went to sit down  

and the farmer offered him  the best seat at the table  

and then the wife started to bring out dishes  of food. It was a feast fit for a king!  

Everything, each dish was better than  the last. 'Well,' the young man thought,  

'this was fantastic'. He had never eaten such fine  food but what made it even better was the farmer  

bought out a jug of ale and this ale was the best  ale that this young man had ever tasted in his  

life. He couldn't believe it! Well, the young man  fairly quickly got it into his mind that he was  

going to ask the farmer a certain question that  very evening and so he turned the conversation  

around to the idea of proposals and the farmer  took the hint. Seeing that perhaps the young man  

wants some private time with him and his wife the  farmer sent his daughter to take the jug to the  

larder to fill it up with more ale and, dutiful  daughter that she was, off she went to do that.

When the daughter got into the larder she  looked at the barrel and where the barrel  

sat there was a shelf just above it, a rickety  old thing, and on that shelf there was a hammer.  

Well she looked at the shelf, she looked  at the hammer and she thought to herself,  

'if I was to marry that young man and we were  to celebrate our wedding and then come here  

for the face and he was to come in here with  a jug to fill it up with ale from a barrel  

that was placed here and he was to  lean forward and just touch that shelf,  

the hammer on that shelf would fall off  and hit him on the back of the head!  

He would be killed by the blow! I would be a  wife and a widow all in the space of one day!'  

And with that a big fat tear rolled down her  cheek and then another and another and another  

until she sat on the floor crying her eyes out.  Well, the farmer gave her a bit of time but then  

began to become concerned about why his daughter  had not returned so he sent his wife to find her  

the wife went into the ladder and was presented  with the sight of her daughter sat on the floor  

crying her eyes out. 'Daughter, what's the matter  with you?' cried the farmer's wife. 'Oh mum,' said  

the daughter, 'terrible, terrible news. If I was  to marry that young man and on our wedding day we  

would have come back here to my father's house  and then that my young man, my new husband, was  

to come in here with a jug to fill it up with ale  so we could drink a toast to our future happiness  

and as he went forward to feel the jug if that  shelf moved slightly that great heavy hammer  

there would fall off hit him on the head, break  his neck, and I would be a wife and a widow all  

in the space of one day!' And with that she cried  even harder. Well, the farmer's wife looked at the  

shelf and the hammer. She looked at the position  of the barrel. She leant forward and looked up

and she realised that her daughter was  right. A tear rolled down her cheek  

and she thought of the disaster that was going  to happen when they were wed. Then another tear  

and another tear, another tear, until she too  collapsed on the floor crying her eyes out.

Well, by now the farmer was getting  a little bit irritated at the uh  

the ladies in his house  delaying him so much. So he  

made his excuses to the young man and he went to  the larder to see what on earth was keeping them.  

Well when he opened the door to the larder,  what did he see his wife and his daughter

sat on the floor crying their eyes out. 'What on  earth is the matter with you?' We're trying to  

sort out that young man's marriage to our daughter  and you're sat in here crying!' 'Oh husband,'  

said the wife, 'come and look at this.'  And with that she pointed to the shelf  

where the hammer sat directly  above the barrel full of ale.

'If our daughter was to marry that lovely young  man and he was to come in here on their wedding  

day after the ceremony at the church to fill a jug  with ale to take it back to top everybody's cups  

before making a toast to their future happiness  together... if that shelf would've moved,  

that hammer would fall it would catch him  on the back of the head and break his neck.  

Our daughter would be a wife and a  widow all in the space of one day!

Then another, then another and another until  he too sat on the floor crying his eyes out.

The young man waited on his own for what seemed  like a polite amount of time but he began to fear  

that some dreadful accident had befallen everybody  in the larder and that perhaps he ought to go and  

see if he could assist. So he went to the door of  the larder and he opened the larder door. And when  

he looked inside what did he see? The farmer, his  wife and their daughter sat on the floor crying  

their eyes out. 'What... what's the matter?' said  the young man, 'what... what's wrong?' 'Oh son,'  

said the farmer, 'terrible, terrible business. If  my daughter was to marry you and on your wedding  

day you were to come down here with a jug to fill  it up with ale so you go back to toast your future  

happiness with your wife and your new family and  you to lean forward that hammer up there on that  

shelf if that were to slip and fall it would  strike you on the back of the head. It would  

break your neck! My beautiful daughter, she would  be a wife and a widow all in the space of one day!

The young man looked at the hammer. He tried the  shelf and indeed the shelf was very rickety. He  

looked at the position of the barrel of ale  and then he reached up to where the hammer  

was he took the hammer, felt its weight which  was substantial, and then put it on the floor.  

'There,' he said, 'if I was to come  in here now to fill up a jug with ale  

and that hammer were to fall, the worst that  might happen to me is that it might stub my  

toe. You three really are the three silliest  people I've ever met in my life. I'm not going  

to marry your daughter. I'm going to leave this  place, I'm going to travel out tomorrow to see  

if I can find in the space of three days three  people who are more silly than you. And if I can,  

I will marry elsewhere. But if I discover  that you are not the three silliest people  

in the county then I will return and I will marry  your daughter'. And with that the young man left.

he had his servant saddle one of his horses  

and off he rode to see if indeed he  could find three people more foolish  