Hey, Ho – Ground, Open Up!

There were once two brothers whose father died. He left an inheritance, but they did not split it fairly. The elder brother decided he was owed more because he was first-born. He took all of the woolly sheep, sleek horses - well, in fact he and his wife took the whole farm!

He made his younger brother and his wife move to a little cottage next door and only left him what he didn’t want for himself: a few crumbs of bread, pieces of broken dishes, and two lousy oxen.

The younger brother didn’t want to starve, but he had to come up with a plan. He had a gift for wood carving, so he went to the nearby forest with his oxen hitched to a small cart, and chopped down several maple trees.

He used the reddish wood to make pretty spoons and plates, and then he sold them at the village market. He was doing well while there were still maple trees in the forest. He was able to keep making his goods for the market, which always sold since the spoons and plates were made with such skill.

Then one day, he came to the forest and he couldn’t find a single proper maple tree anywhere, not even a sapling! As he was sadly searching the forest far and wide, losing hope, he heard footsteps. He quickly hid, and what did he see?

Twelve bald muscled men with bandannas around their necks. “Bandits!” thought the younger brother. He saw that each man had a big cloth bag full of things they carried over their shoulders.

They stopped in front of a tall sharp rock and one of them called in a very deep voice: “Hey, ho – ground, open up!”

The ground rumbled like…