Second Diversion of the Fifth Day

Once upon a time there were two brothers, Gianni and Lisi. Gianni was well-to-do, and lived like a lord, but Lisi was so poor that he could hardly keep body and soul together. However, as rich as Gianni was in things, he was poverty-stricken in spirit, and was mean and stingy: he wouldn’t so much as get up off the toilet to help anyone in need. Lisi was a gentle and cheerful person, but his brother’s meanness made him feel sad, so he decided to leave that region and wander about the world looking for his bread.

One cold, wet night he reached a wretched-looking tavern. He had no money to buy any food or drink there, but he thought he might be allowed to sit by the fire and warm up, so he entered. Inside he saw twelve young men sitting around the fire. When they saw how ragged he was, and how blue with cold, they had pity on him, and they invited him to come and sit near the fire. Lisi accepted their invitation readily, and while he was rubbing his icy hands and feet to get some feeling back in them, one of the young men, who had a sulky and tempestuous face, said to him, "Well, my friend, what do you think of this weather.?"

Lisi laughingly answered, "Well, I have no right to think anything of it. It seems to me all the months of the year serve their purpose. People who wish for warm weather in winter or cool weather in summer don’t know what they are asking. If we wish for a dry day when it is raining, little do we think how much we need the water for our food, our drink, and our health. When we wish for a warm day when it is cold, we don’t think about how the cold weather helps to strenthen our bodies and kill off diseases that thrive in warm weather. It is better for us to leave the weather in the hands of God, who provides us with trees to shade us in summer, and wood to burn for fuel in winter." "You are as wise as Solomon," said the young man, "but you can’t deny that this month of March is the very devil for ice, and rain, and snow, and hail, and wind, and storms, and continual change, until it makes a fellow tired of being alive." "You’re too hard on poor March," smiled Lisi, "remember that March brings us plenty of good things, too, like the beginning of spring, and all kinds of plants sprouting up after their winter sleep. If nothing else," he laughed, "March makes us appreciate the warmth of the sun when it does appear!"

The young man was very pleased with Lisi’s words, because he was himself the month of March, who had arrived at the tavern with his eleven brothers. He wanted to give Lisi a gift for being unwilling to say a bad word about a month so unpleasant that not even shepherds, who are used to being outside, have a good thing to say about it. So the young man gave Lisi a beautiful little box, and said, "Do not lose this box, but whenever you need anything, just open it and ask, and the thing will come to you." Lisi thanked the month for the fine gift, and then putting it under his head as a pillow to keep it safe, he fell asleep in front of the fire.

The next morning Lisi bade the month brothers a cordial farewell, and went on his way. After a short time he decided to try the box, so he opened it, and said to it, "Please, good box, could I have a litter lined with wool, and a little brazier fire inside it, to keep me warm on this snowy day? Instantly a litter appeared, with two attendants, who helped him inside and carried him. He asked them to start out toward his old village, and when lunchtime came, he asked the box for some food, and all at once there was laid out a feast fit for ten kings.

One evening, as they were progressing on their journey, they arrived at a large, dark, impenetrable forest close to Lisi’s old home, and Lisi opened the box, and said, "Dear box, this is such a beautiful spot; could you provide something to help us rest for the night?" And the box instantly provided two beautiful scarlet tents, with feather beds, and blankets in one, and sumptuous food laid out on fine linens in the other. The next morning, when Lisi and his attendants had risen, and breakfasted, Lisi opened the box and said, "Good box, I would like to have beautiful clothes, because today I will see my brother." The words were hardly spoken when a black velvet robe with ermine trimming and a yellow silk lining appeared before him. He put the robe on, and journeyed on to his brother’s home.

When Gianni saw him so beautifully clothed and attended, he was covetous, and demanded to know what good fortune had befallen Lisi, so Lisi forthrightly told him about the men he had met in the tavern, and of the present he had received from one of them, but he told Gianni nothing of the conversation he had had with the youth. Then Gianni could hardly wait for the moment when he could make some excuse to get away from his brother, so, saying he was tired, he went out a back door, and instantly embarked on a journey for the tavern where Lisi had been so fortunate.

Reaching the tavern at last, Gianni found the twelve youths sitting around the fire as before, and he began to converse with them. When the youth asked him what he thought of the weather, he said "May God curse this wretched month of March. It is so foul a month that not even shepherds can stand it. I wonder the other months don’t rise up and do away with it." When the month of March heard these complimentary words, he was insulted, and spent the night thinking how to repay Gianni’s rudeness. When morning came, he gave Gianni a little switch, and said, "Whenever you want anything, say to the switch, "Switch, give me a hundred, and you will see a hundred pearls threaded in an instant."

As soon as Gianni reached home, he went into a secret chamber where he kept a safe, because he intended to hide his pearls there, and he said, "Switch, give me a hundred." All at once the switch began beating him mercilessly, so mercilessly that the sweat stood out in pearls on his face and ran down his body. His cries brought Lisi running, who did everything he could to stop the beating, but to no avail, until he finally thought of his box and brought it back to the room. When he asked his dear box to stop his brother’s beating, the box made the switch stop its work. Then Lisi asked Gianni what had happened to him, and Gianni told him the story.

Then Lisi began to laugh, and said, "It’s your own fault. You have been the cause of your own ill fortune because of your meanness and cross disposition. If you had had a pleasant word to say, instead of something nasty, you might have received a wonderful gift just as I did. But never mind. My box is good enough for both of us, and will certainly provide riches enough to satisfy any two brothers. I don’t hold your past cruelty against you, because in a way it was the cause of my present good fortune. So let us live together in harmony from now on."

When Gianni heard how generous and merciful his brother was to him, he was overcome with remorse, and begged his brother’s forgiveness. From that day forward the two brothers enjoyed the good fortune heaven had sent them, and lived in harmony, and Gianni always spoke well of all things, no matter how bad they were, because, as the saying goes, "a scalded dog is forever afraid of cold water as well as hot."