This English folktale is about a boy who isn’t very bright and doesn’t like the idea of work. However, thanks to following the advice of his mother, he marries a rich girl and, one imagines, never has to work again. Possible morals? For children: Always do what your parents tell you and you’ll have a good life. For parents: Teach your children the value of hard work so they can take care of you in your old age. For the rich girl: Sometimes laughter is the best medicine. For the rich girl’s father: Be careful of what you wish for!
Our source for the story was a children’s book called English Fairy Tales by folktale collector Joseph Jacobs, first published in 1890. Jacobs’s source was a book for very young children called Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales by James Halliwell, published over 40 years earlier in 1849. According to Halliwell, the story originally came from oral tradition in Yorkshire.
Original Text / PDF (724 words)