Well, we’re still with Pourrat for one more week at least. Today’s story is The Grain Merchant.
A French grain merchant has a son named Jean. After Jean has finished merchant school, he is sent to England to sell grain. He sells the grain successfully, but then meets a young woman and her nurse being kidnapped. He offers the kidnappers all the money he’s earned to set them free.
The kidnappers accept, and then he just…takes the women home? Not to their home they’ve just been kidnapped from, but to his own home, in a whole different country.
His father is proud of him for rescuing these women, but less than impressed with his merchant skills. The women stay home with the father, and Jean goes back to merchant school.
Six months later, his father decides it’s time for him to try again. He goes back to England with another ship full of grain. The young woman he rescued gives him a red kerchief, and says that if he presents it to the king, he’ll get a really good price for his grain.
Jean gets to England. It turns out the king is this girl’s dad, who’s been desperately searching for her for six months.
She just never mentioned to anyone that she was a princess. No attempt was made to return her home, and it doesn’t sound like she asked to go home or anything. This is just…such a mess. Why didn’t she tell Jean her identity immediately and ask him to take her back to the palace, instead of going all the way to France and just chilling there for six months?
The king says that if Jean brings his daughter home, he can marry her. He also buys all the grain.
On his way home, Jean sees a dead man being dragged through the streets by a crowd. He asks what’s going on. The guy can’t have a Christian burial because he owed too much money when he died. So Jean pays back all his debts and makes sure he’s buried properly.
For the second time, he returns home with no grain and no money. His father says he’s not a very good merchant, but he should make a great prince. Jean, his valet, the princess, and her nurse head back to England.
A huge storm comes while they’re on their way. In the chaos, the valet knocks Jean out and throws him overboard. He threatens the princess and the nurse and makes them swear not to tell anyone. The princess is so heartbroken at Jean’s death that she doesn’t care about anything anymore, and doesn’t fight the valet.
Somehow, when they get back to England, the king fails to notice that this is a completely different guy from the one he talked to last time.
But of course, Jean isn't dead. He’s washed up on shore far away.
A crow—apparently a very large one—lands beside him, and offers to fly Jean back to the princess if Jean agrees to give the crow half of his first child on their second birthday. There is no discussion of the logistics of giving the crow half a child.
Jean says no, absolutely not, I would never do that to my child.
The crow says that if he doesn’t, the princess will be forced to marry the evil valet.
Jean agrees that if his first child is a son, the crow can have half, but if it’s daughter, Jean gets to keep all of her.
The crow flies him to the palace, Jean and the princess are reunited, the valet is dealt with, and they get married.
Of course, nine months later they have a son.
Jean waits until the night before the kid’s second birthday to tell his wife about the deal he’s made, and she’s remarkably chill about it. They spend the night preparing to say goodbye to their son, expecting that the crow will kill him and tear him to pieces—which I guess explains how he would take half of him.
But when the crow arrives and sees them prepared to keep the bargain, he transforms into a man. He explains that he’s the man in debt whose burial Jean paid for. He was offered the opportunity to save Jean when he was cast out of the ship, but only on the condition that Jean’s honor be tested again with the deal for the baby. By being willing to keep his promise and give up the child, Jean has passed the test. The crow man returns to heaven. Jean and the princess keep their baby, and live happily ever after.
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