Once upon a time a man had a big house, and in the house there was a big oven¹, but this man's family was small -- only himself and his wife. When winter came, the man tried to keep his oven going all day, so that the entire stock² of his firewood was consumed³ in a month. Now, with nothing to feed the fire, it was cold in the house.

 

Then the man began to break up his fences, and use the boards for fuel. When he had burnt up all of his fences, the house, now without any protection against the wind, was colder than ever, and still they had no firewood. Then the man began to tear down the ceiling of his house, and burn that in the Oven.

 

A neighbour noticed that he was tearing down his ceiling, and said to him: "Why, neighbour, have you lost your mind -- pulling down your ceiling in winter? Your and your wife will freeze to death!'

 

But the man said: "No, brother, you see I am pulling down my ceiling so as to have something to heat my Oven with. We have such a curious one; the more I heat it up, the colder we are!"

 

The neighbour laughed, and said: "Well, then, after you have burnt up your ceiling, then you will be tearing down your house. You won't have anywhere to live, only the oven will be left, and even that will be cold!" "Well, that is my misfortune," said the man." All my neighbours have firewood enough for all winter, but I have already burnt up my fences and the ceiling of my house, and have nothing left."

 

The neighbour replied:" All you need is to have your oven rebuilt." But the man said :" I know well that you are jealous⁴ of my house and my oven because they are larger than yours, and so you advise me to rebuild it." So he turned a deaf ear to his neighbour's advice, and burnt up his ceiling, then his whole house, and in the end had to go and live with strangers.

 

从前，有个人拥有一幢大房子，里面有个大火炉。可他家人口很少——只有他和他的妻子。冬天来了，这个人想尽办法不让炉子灭掉，一个月就把柴禾全烧光了。没什么可以烧的了，屋子里很冷。

 

然后，他开始拆除篱笆，把木板当柴烧。烧了篱笆，房子没有了挡风的屏障，比以前更冷了。可他们又没有柴烧了。接下来，这个人开始拆除天花板，放进炉子里烧。

 

邻居看到他在拆天花板的，对他说：“哎呀，邻居，你疯了吗？大冬天拆天花板，你和你妻子会冻死的。”

 

可是，这个人说：“不，兄弟，我拆天花板是为了烧炉子。我们的炉子真是怪，越烧越冷！”

 

邻居笑道;"哦，那么，你烧完天花板就会拆房子了。那时你就没地方住了，只剩下那只火炉，可连它也是冰冷的。“哎，这是我的不幸，”这个人说，“所有的邻居都有足够的柴火过冬，而我已经烧掉了篱笆和天花板，什么也不剩了。”

 

邻居回答道：“你只要重弄个炉子就行了。”可是，这个人说：“我很清楚，你是嫉妒我的房子和炉子，它们比你家的大，所以你劝我重弄个炉子。”结果，他把邻居的劝告当作耳边风，烧掉天花板后，又把房子也给烧掉了。最后，他只得背井离乡，流落异地。

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