Short Story by Leo Tolstoy, Summaries of Storytelling

Short Story by Leo Tolstoy

wo brothers set out on a journey together. At noon they lay down in forest to rest. When they woke up they saw a stone

lying next to them. There was something written on the stone, and they tried to make out what it was.

“Whoever finds this stone,” they read, “let him go straight into the forest at sunrise. In the forest a river will appear; let him

swim across the river to the other side. There he will find a she-bear and her cubs. Let him take the cubs from her and run up the

mountain with them, without once looking back. On the top of the mountain he will see a house, and in that house will he find

happiness.”

cannot find the river. We shall be lost. And if we do find the river, how are we going to swim across it? It may be broad and swift.

In the third place, even if we swim across the river, do you think it is an easy thing to take her cubs away from a she-bear? She will

seize us, and, instead of finding happiness, we shall perish, and all for nothing. In the fourth place, even if we succeeded in

carrying off the bear cubs, we could not run up a mountain without stopping to rest. And, most important of all, the stone does not

tell us what kind of happiness we should find in that house. It may be that the happiness awaiting us there is not at all the sort of

happiness we would want.”

“In my opinion,” said the younger brother, “you are wrong. What is written on the stone could not have been put there without

reason. And it is all perfectly clear. In the first place, no harm will come to us if we try. In the second place, if we do not go,

someone else will read the inscription on the stone and find happiness, and we shall have lost it. In the third place: if you do not

make an effort and try hard, nothing in the world will succeed. In the fourth place: I should not want it thought that I was afraid of

Then the younger brother set off, and the elder remained behind.

o sooner had the younger brother gone into the forest than he found the river, swam across it, and there on the other side

was the she-bear, fast asleep. He took her cubs, and ran up the mountain without looking back. When he reached the top of

the maintain the people came out to meet him with a carriage to take him into the city, where they made him their king.

He ruled for five years. In the sixth year, another king, who was stronger than he, waged war against him. The city was

conquered, and he was driven out.

Again the younger brother became a wanderer, and he arrived one day at the house of the elder brother. The elder brother was

living in a village and had grown neither rich nor poor. The two brothers rejoiced at seeing each other, and at once began telling of

all that had happened to them.