The Most Precious Thing

Long ago a young man and a young woman fell in love with each other and decided to marry. They had almost no money, but their trust in each other gave them faith that their future together will be bright, as long as they had each other.

Before the wedding, the girl came to her fiancé with a request. "I cannot imagine our ever wanting to be apart," she said. "But it may be that, in time, we will tire of each other, or that you will be angry with me, and want to send me to my parents' house. Promise me that if this should happen, you will allow me to carry back with me the thing that has grown most precious to me."

Her fiancé laughed, and could see no sense in what she asked, but the girl was not satisfied until he had written down his promise and signed his name to it. Then the two were married and began their life together.

They set their minds to improving their worldly position. The were both willing to work hard at it, and soon their patient industry found reward. Their first successes made them even more determined to put poverty behind them, and they worked harder than ever before.

Time passed, and they become comfortable, then well-to-do, and finally rich. They moved to a bigger house, found a new set of friends, and surrounded themselves with all the trappings of fortune.

But in their single-minded pursuit of wealth, they began to think more of their things than of each other. More and more, they quarreled about what to buy, or how much to spend, of how they should go about increasing their riches.

One afternoon, as they were preparing a feast for several important friends, they argued about some trivial matter - the flavour of the gravy, or perhaps the order of seating at the table. They began shouting at, and accusing each other.

"You care nothing for me!" cried the husband. "You think only of yourself, and the jewels and fine clothes you wear. Take those that are most precious to you, as I promised, and go back to your parents' house. There is no point in our going on together."

His wife suddenly went pare, and stared at him with a distracted look in her eyes, as if she had just seen something for the first time.

"Very well," she said quietly. "I am willing to go. But we must stay together one more night, and sit side bu side at our table, for the sake of appearances in front of our friends."

The evening arrived. The feast began. It was as bountiful as their ample means allowed. When, one by one, the guests had succumbed to its influence, and her husband, too, had fallen asleep, the good woman had him carried to her parents' cottage and laid in bed there.

When he woke up the next morning, he could not understand where he was. He raised himself up on his elbow to look about him, and at once his wife came to the bedside.

"My dear husband," she said softly, "Your promise was that if you ever sent me away I might carry with me the thing that was most precious to me. You are that most precious thing. I care for you more than anything else, and nothing but death shall part us."

At once the man saw how selfishly they had both acted. That same day they returned home and began to devote themselves once again to each other.

Words of love should be matched with deeds of love.


From the little book: Love stories of a different kind