The Poor Boy in the Grave

Once upon a time, there was a poor shepherd boy whose father and mother were dead. He

was placed in the house of a rich man and woman, but they were not very nice. He was

physically and emotionally abused. One day, he was asked to watch a hen and her chicks one

day. He tried very hard, but a hawk snatched the hen. He called after the hen, but it was no use.

The man was very mad at the boy and gave him a beating. The boy tried to watch the chicks

without their mother, but that was very difficult so he tied them together thinking a bird could

not carry them all away at once. He was wrong. A bird did carry them away. He has been beaten

again.

The man said he was too stupid to be a shepherd boy so now he was going to be a

messenger. He gave the boy a basket of grapes and sent him to the judge. There was also a letter

in the basket. The boy was so hungry that he ate two of the grapes. When the boy got to the

judge’s house, the judge read the letter and counted the grapes. He knew that two were missing.

He sent a message back to the man saying that he wanted the exact number of grapes. The man

sent him back out with more grapes, but the boy once again ate two. He hid the letter under a

rock. When the judge asked about the grapes the boy said he could not have known about it

because he put it under a rock. The judge thought this was kind of funny and reminded the man

to feed the boy and take better care of him. The man was not happy to be censured by the judge

and beat the boy.

The next day the boy was assigned the task of cutting hay. The boy was determined to get

to work right away to get all the hay chopped. He cut rapidly, but without realizing that he had

cut his coat. He was distraught. He knew the man would kill him. The boy had heard the
farmer’s wife say that she had a pot of poison under her bed. The boy found it and ate it up, but it

was honey. The wife said it was poison to keep the boy away. When he did not die, he

remembered the poison the man kept in his closet. The boy drank this up also, but it wasn’t

poisoned either, it was Hungarian wine. He became drunk and wandered around. He decided that

he must go and pick himself out a grave at the churchyard. The boy found a newly dug grave and

lay down in it. He heard music coming from a nearby wedding and imagined he was already in

paradise. The boy went to sleep, but never woke again. The heat of the strong wind and the cold

night dew killed him. The man feared being brought to justice. He fainted and his wife ran to his

aid, but she had been standing by the hearth with a pot of hot fat. The house caught fire and was

burnt down. The man and his wife lived in misery and poverty for the rest of their lives.

This is a unique fairytale because it touches on child abuse suicide. This boy was treated

terribly. When he went into the foster system and was taken in by a rich family. He might have

envisioned that he was going to get some people who cared for him after his parents died, but

that was not the case. The family had the means to feed him and keep him healthy but they chose

not to. They used him as a free laborer. They did not have to pay him and he was forced to stay

with him. His foster family abused him because they had the opportunity too. The foster care

system is not a modern invention. Children who did not have their own parents to take care of

them went into the foster care system. In many cases, it might have been an aunt or a

grandparent, but other childless couples would also take on children who were not their own.

The most serious topic in this story is suicide. He is so scared of the retribution and abuse

he will receive from his foster parents for not doing exactly as they pleased. The poor boy’s

constant abuse led him to fear his foster parents. He was so scared of being beaten that he
decided that death was going to be his way of saving himself. They caused the child to feel

unsafe in his foster home. He died of exposure because he was afraid he was going to be killed.

He was trying to look for the poison that his foster parents were hiding. Instead, he found sweet

treats that did not kill him. He thought he was dying because he was drunk so he decided to die

in an empty grave. Exposure ended up killing him but he did want to die. He wanted to escape

from the abuse that he was forced to endure.