The Tale of the Farmer and the Fisherman

As a young boy, a wood cut that hung in my Aunt Billie’s family room intrigued me. When she passed away, it was handed down to me and presently hangs in the barn at Merry Mount. Every day when I feed the barn cats, I look at it.

Examine it carefully; it is the inspiration for the short story that follows.

The Tale of the Farmer and the Fisherman

Once upon a time there lived two men in a small fishing village in Peru: a farmer and a fisherman.

The Farmer was a gregarious type who owned a small parcel of land on which he grew vegetables and fruit trees, and where he kept a barn that sheltered chickens, a cow, and a herd of llamas. These animals provided eggs, milk, and fiber that fully sustained him, and also provided extra so that he was able to share and barter with his neighbors.

The Farmer’s favorite animal was an alpha llama he called Alfredo. Alfredo watched as a sentinel over the other llamas, in fact, over the entire farm, but he was particularly fond and protective of the Farmer. Alfredo knew the Farmer’s closest friends and neighbors, but was very wary of strangers. No person came too close to the Farmer without Alfredo positioning himself adjacent to the Farmer. The residents of the village loved to chat with the friendly farmer, but they knew to keep their distance from Alfredo.

By contrast, the Fisherman was a loner and lived in an overturned hull of a ship wrecked on the seashore away from the village. The Fisherman began his solitary existence each day before dawn when he launched his boat out to sea. Before noon, his nets were usually full of fish and he would return to shore where he dutifully emptied the nets, put aside select fish for his meals, and hauled the rest to the village fishmonger. When villagers greeted him along the way, the Fisherman would give them a slight nod of the head, but rarely spoke. He would then return to his hut on the beach, have a lunch of smoked fish and bread, and settle down for an early afternoon nap. By 4:00 pm, he would awaken, build a fire on the beach, and smoke his morning catch. Just before sunset, he would mend his nets, prepare them for the next morning, and would end his day sipping a ‘pishku’ under the stars. He would listen carefully to the winds and the waves that provided clues to what weather he would face by dawn.

One early evening in autumn as he was preparing the nets, the Fisherman discovered that his sweater was becoming tattered. So he decided it was time to visit the Farmer, for he had overheard a villager say that the yarn spun from the Farmer’s llamas made the warmest sweaters. The following day, after he had delivered his catch to the fishmonger, he went to visit the Farmer.

Upon arrival at the farm, Alfredo who had smelled the Fisherman from afar met the Fisherman at the entrance gate. The Farmer who was gathering carrots from the garden, looked up to see Alfredo stomping wildly at the Fisherman protected only by the gate. The Farmer called off Alfredo and in a friendly voice addressed the Fisherman, “Good afternoon, Chap. How may I help you?” The Fisherman answered in a gruff voice, “I understand that you might consider bartering some freshly caught fish for some llama yarn.” “Well, of course”, replied the Farmer. “How many skeins do you need?” “Enough to knit a warm sweater,” answered the Fisherman. “Do you happen to have wool from this unfriendly creature in front of me? I like his demeanor and the color of his coat.” The Farmer replied, “I usually reserve Alfredo’s wool for myself, but you seem to have a strong intent, so I will make an exception for you.” The Fisherman grunted, “Ok” and the Farmer, followed by Alfredo, went to his abode to retrieve the skeins of Alfredo’s wool. When he returned to the Fisherman, the Farmer exchanged the wool skeins for a few fish and cheerfully remarked, “Glad to make you acquaintance” to which the Fisherman replied, “Goodbye” and he quickly hobbled down the road.

Several weeks later, just before the onset of winter, Alfredo again smelled the Fisherman approaching from afar and began a frenzied gallop toward the gate accompanied by puffing and snorting. The Farmer noticed Alfredo’s romp of warning and looked up to see the Fisherman pulling a cart up the road. As he approached, the Farmer noticed that the Fisherman was wearing a beautiful sweater of a tightly knitted stitch. When he arrived at the gate, the Fisherman uttered, “I have brought you a smoked tuna of the highest quality, it should serve you throughout the winter.” And with that he handed the Farmer a sixty-pound tuna. Before the Farmer could voice his appreciation, the Fisherman exclaimed in a proud voice, “Live and Let Live, we are now even!” and with a wink of his eye, the Fisherman turned and hobbled down the road toward the sea.

The End

CPW