The Coyote Under the Table/El Coyote Debajo de la Mesa by Joe Hayes Read Free Book Online

jamás.
    Y todavía hoy, en ese pueblo, cuando alguien hace algo que parece muy atrevido y se hace el valentón, la gente le dice: — Bueno, a lo mejor eres valiente. O puede que se te engancharan los pantalones en un clavo.

 
H OW T O G ROW B OILED B EANS

    T his is a story about two friends who grew up together in the same village. When they were grown, one of them married and stayed in the village, making the best life he could by farming and doing any sort of work that was available. The other left the village to travel around and try his luck in the larger world. He ended up wandering far away. The two friends didn’t see one another for many years.
    And then one year at the village fiesta, the friend who had stayed at home met up with the one who had gone traveling. The old friends shook hands. “It’s so good to see you,” said the villager. “Come home with me. Spend the night with me and my family.”
    So the two friends went home to spend the evening talking about old times. In the morning the friend from far away said he had to meet a man about some business. “But I’ll be back soon,” he said. He dug his hand into his pocket and brought out two coins.
    â€œHere. Take these two pesos. Go and buy a dozen eggs. Ask your wife to fry them for our breakfast. When I return we’ll all eat together.”
    So, while the one friend went off to his meeting, the other hurried to the market to buy eggs. His wife fried them and they set the table and waited for the friend to return. When an hour had passed and the friend still hadn’t appeared, the man said to his wife, “We may as well just eat these eggs ourselves. My old friend must have forgotten to come back.”
    â€œBut your friend paid for the eggs,” his wife said. “They’re not really ours.”
    â€œI know what I’ll do,” said the husband. “As soon as we finish eating I’ll go and buy another dozen eggs.”
    He did that. But they didn’t cook the eggs. Instead, the man put them in the nest of one of his own hens so that she could hatch them. “I’ll keep track of everything that comes from these eggs,” the man said, “and if I ever see my old friend again, I’ll share it with him.”
    The dozen eggs produced eleven young hens and one rooster. In a year’s time the hens were all laying eggs of their own and hatching out more babies. The man sold all the eggs he could, and then began selling the chickens as well.
    With the money he made he bought a cow, and the cow had two calves. They grew and had young of their own.
    He sold some of the cattle and bought sheep. Then with the money he made from selling cattle and sheep he bought land.
    He became one of the wealthiest men in those parts. But he always told everyone, “Part of this belongs to my old friend. It all comes from my friend’s dozen eggs. If I ever see him again, I’ll divide it with him.”
    At the village fiesta ten years later, the friends met again. As before, they shook hands, and the man who had stayed home invited his friend to spend the night. They went to the big house where the villager now lived. It stood in the middle of fertile green fields. Beyond the fields, sheep and cattle were grazing.
    â€œDo you remember the two coins you gave me to buy eggs that morning ten years ago?” the one friend asked the other. “All this comes from that dozen eggs.” And he explained just what had happened. “And now,” he told his friend, “I want to divide everything with you. Half of all this is yours!”
    But the friend from far away said, “No. You’re mistaken. If all this comes from the two pesos I gave you to buy eggs, it all belongs to me. I won’t settle for anything less.”
    â€œBut that isn’t fair,” said the other. “I’ve worked hard all these years. I’ve invested your dozen eggs