About Need
Once upon a time, there lived a poor peasant in a village. One frosty day, he was working outside in his thin, worn-out clothes, chopping wood, but he couldn’t warm himself; his face was flushed from the cold.A gentleman rode into the village and stopped near the peasant:
- "What harsh weather you’re working in!"
- "Ah, sir, it’s necessity that’s chopping!"
The gentleman was surprised and asked his coachman:
- "Coachman, what is this 'necessity'? Do you know it?"
- "I’ve only just heard of it, sir."
The gentleman then asked the peasant:
- "What is this 'necessity,' my good man? Where is it?"
The peasant replied:
- "Why do you ask, sir?"
- "I’d like to see it for myself."
The peasant looked around and saw a blade of grass standing on a hillock in the open field, covered in snow.
- "There," said the peasant, "on the hillock, sir, stands necessity! See how it sways in the wind, and no one pays it any mind!"
The gentleman said:
- "Do you have time to show it to us?"
- "Certainly, sir."
They hitched up a troika of horses and rode out into the open field to see necessity. They reached the hillock, but there was another blade of grass further away. The peasant pointed:
- "Over there, sir, it’s off to the side. We can’t go there—the snow is too deep."
- "Keep an eye on the horses," said the gentleman, "I’ll go take a look."
The gentleman got down and started walking, but the coachman said:
- "Sir, take me with you—I’d like to see it too."
So both of them trudged through the snow. They passed one blade of grass, found another, but still couldn’t see necessity. Meanwhile, the peasant was no fool—he unhitched the horses, mounted one, whipped the others, and galloped away. That was the last they saw of him.
The two fools wandered through the snow, finally made it back to the road, and approached the carriage, only to find the horses gone. They thought and thought... What to do? The horses were gone, but they couldn’t just abandon the carriage. The gentleman said to the coachman:
- "You hitch yourself to the shafts, coachman, and I’ll help from the side."
The coachman replied:
- "No, you’re stronger, sir—you take the shafts, and I’ll help from the side."
Well, there was nothing else to do, so the gentleman hitched himself to the shafts. They pulled and pulled, stopped and started again. Meanwhile, the peasant had hidden the horses and came to meet them.
- "What’s this, sir? Are you pulling the carriage yourselves?"
The gentleman said angrily:
- "Go away! Necessity is pulling."
- "What necessity?"
- "Go to the field—it’s standing on the hillock over there!" And he kept pulling and pulling. He finally made it home, barely alive. He had seen necessity: he’d lost his troika of horses.
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