There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard. He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew that his three sons despised the farm work, and were eager to make wealth through adventure.
When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, “My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish to get it.”
The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden, but he would tell them nothing more.
After the farmer died, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold. Since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.
They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing.
The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.
And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, “There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish to get it.”
【助读词汇】
-olive n. 橄榄树，橄榄
-orchard n. 果园
-despise vt. 轻视
-bitterly adv. 苦苦地，悲痛的，厉害的
【参考译文】
从前有一个农民，他有一座漂亮的橄榄园。他非常勤劳，而且农场在他的照管下非常繁荣。可他知道自己的三个儿子瞧不起农活，都渴望通过冒险致富。
当这个农民老了，感到死期快要来临时，将三个儿子叫到身边说：“儿子们，橄榄园里藏有一罐金子。你们想要，就去挖吧。”
儿子们想让父亲告诉他们金子藏在果园的哪一块地方，可他什么也没再给他们说。
那个农民死后，三个儿子就开始工作去寻找那罐金子。因为他们不知道金子藏在什么地方，所以他们一致同意排成一行从果园的一头开始挖起，直到其中一人挖到金子为止。
他们挖啊挖，一直到把果园从一头挖到了另一头，果树周围和果树之间也都挖到了，可还是没有找到那罐金子。看来一定是有人已经把那罐金子偷走了，要么就是他们的父亲一直在异想天开。三个儿子对他们白干了一场相当失望。
到了下一个橄榄季节，果园里的橄榄树结出的果子比以往的都多；卖完果子后，三个儿子赚了整整一罐金子。
当他们从果园里得到这么多钱后，突然明白了聪明的父亲所说的“果园里藏有金子，想要就去挖吧”这句话的含义。
【人生启迪】
“勤劳致富”，这是众人皆知的通理。人世间致富的方法有很多，但通过hard work来致富是让人最踏实的。当然，如果我们在“勤劳”的同时还能充分发挥自己的聪明才智，那自然就是“致富”的最高境界了。