the landowner's lady". 'I grant that your wish shall be fulfilled". The Old Woman had lived as a landowner's wife for some time, and then she wanted to get something better. So she says to her Old Man: "What's the use of being a landowner's wife! If you were a colonel and I the colonel’s lady, it would be quite different, everybody would envy us".

Once again she sent the Old Man to the tree; he took his axe, came to the tree and got set to cut it down. "What do you want?" "Make me a colonel and my Old Woman the colonel's lady". "I grant that your wish shall be fulfilled" The old Man came back to find that he had been made a Colonel.

After a while the Old Woman said: "What is a colonel? If the general wants to, he can put you under arrest. Go to the tree and ask it to make you a general and me the general's lady". So the Old Man went to the tree and prepared to cut it down with his axe. "What do you want?" asked the tree. "Make me a general and the Old Woman the general's lady". "I grant that your wish shall be fulfilled". The Old Man returned home to find that he had been promoted to the rank of General.

After a while the Old Woman's pleasure at being the general's lady palled, and she said to the Old Man: "What is a general? If the tsar wishes, he can exile you to Siberia. Go to the tree and ask it to make you the tsar and me the tsarina". The Old Man came to the tree and got set to cut it down with his axe. "What do you want?" asked the tree. "Make me tsar and my Old Woman tsarina" "I grant that your wish shall be fulfilled". The Old Man came home to find envoys waiting for him: "The tsar has died, and you have been chosen to succeed him".

They did not reign long: the old Woman thought it was not enough to be tsarina. So she called the Old Man and said: "What is a tsar? If God wishes he can send death on you, and you will be committed to the earth. Go to the tree and ask for us to be made gods".

The Old Man went to the tree. As soon as the tree heard this crazy talk, it rustled its leaves and said in reply to the Old Man: "May you become a bear and your wife a shc-bear". Immediately the Old Man turned into a bear and the Old Woman into a she-bear, and they both ran to the forest.

AN ITALIAN TALE

Money Can Do Anything

Once upon a time there lived a young Prince whose treasury was as inexhaustible as the sea. He decided to build a palace for himselfjust opposite the King's palace, and a still more magnificent one. When the palace was finished, the Prince ordered the words "Money can do anything" carved on the gates.

Once these words caught the eye of the King as he was taking the air. The King immediately gave orders to summon the prince, who had but recently come to the city and had not yet been introduced to the court. "Congratulations", said the King. "The palace you built is a real wonder. Mine seems a humble hut beside it. Congratulations! But do tell me, was that you who ordered to make the inscription "Money can do anything"?

The youth was beginning to realise where his vanity had led him. "Your Majesty", he replied, "if you do not like the inscription, I will have it erased immediately!" "No, that is not necessary. Just explain to me the meaning of the inscription. Do you believe that with the help of your money you could kill me?" "Oh, Your Majesty, forgive me. I will have the inscription destroyed immediately! And if you do not like the palace, I will have it smashed into dust". "I told you I like it. Let it stand. But since you believe that money can do anything, prove it. I'll give you three days. Try to talk with my daughter. Marry her, if you can. Otherwise you shall be beheaded. Done?"

Despair seized the Prince. He did not eat, drink or sleep, racking his brain day and night, trying to think of a way to save his life. There was no hope of talking to the King's

daughter, who lived in a castle guarded by a hundred soldiers. On the second day the Prince sat down to write his will.

That very day his old nurse called on him. She used to nurse the Prince when he was a child, and he let her live in the palace. When she saw him so sad, she asked what was the matter. By and by he told her about his predicament. "So what?" said the old woman. "You have decided that everything is lost? Don't be silly. Leave it to me".

She immediately shuffled along to the best-known silversmith in town and told him to make a hollow silver goose a little larger than the size of a man. She said that the goose ought to be able to open and close its beak and was to be ready by the next day. "By tomorrow? You are out of your mind!" cried the silverstmith. "It has to be ready by tomorrow absolutely", and the old woman dangled a purse full of gold before him. "Take the downpayment now, and I shall give you the rest tomorrow". The silversmith gaped. "Well, that is another matter", he said. "I shall try".

On the following day the goose was ready, and it was a real beauty. The old woman said to the Prince: "Take your fiddle and get inside the goose. As soon as we are in the street, start to play". And so they set out through the city streets, the old woman pulling the silver goose by a ribbon and the Prince playing his fiddle inside the goose. People gaped at the sight. And everybody flocked to see the wonder.

Word about the silver goose reached the castle where the King's daughter lived, and she asked her father's permission to see the old woman and her goose. "Tomorrow is the deadline set for the petty boaster, and after that you will be free to go out into the street and look at the goose". But the Princess had already heard that the old woman with the goose was leaving the city on the following day. To let his daughter see it, the King had to allow the goose to be brought into the castle. This was exactly what the old woman needed.

As soon as the Princess was left alone with the silver goose, listening, enchanted, to the music which issued from its beak, the goose suddenly opened and a man jumped out of it. "Do not be afraid", he said. "I am the Prince who had to talk to you or be beheaded on your father's orders. You will save me if you say that you have talked to me".

On the following day the King summoned the Prince. "Well, has your money helped you to talk to my daughter?" "Yes, Your Majesty", replied the youth. "Do you mean to say that you have talked to her?" "You can ask her". The Princess was called and she said that the youth had been inside the silver goose which the King himself had allowed to be carried into the palace.

The King took off his crown and put it on the Prince's head. "You have not only money, but a sharp brain. So be happy, and I give you my daughter as wife".

DISCUSSION

Comment on thefollowing proverbs.

A good fortune is a great slavery.

A man without money is like a ship without sails.

A rich man is never ugly in the eyes of a girl.

A proud mind and a poor purse are ill-met.

Money is power.

Money rules the world.

Who has nothing fears nothing.

Money has no smell.

He is not poor that hasn’t much, but he that craves much.

Money often unmakes the men who make it.

Money makes the man.

Muck and money go together.

Write what you think of thefollowing:

1.Money gives freedom.

2.People who think that money can buy everything, can themselves be easily bought with money.

3.Meanness ruins the soul.

4."Money is the fruit of evil as often as the root of it." (Henry Fielding)