The Lord was angered at mankind, and for three years there was a great famine over all the world; nowhere in the world was even a grain of corn produced, and what people sowed failed to come up from a drought so great that for three years there was not a drop of rain or dew.  For one year more people managed to live somehow or other, thrashing up what old corn there was; the rich made money, for corn rose very high.  Autumn came.  Where anybody had or purchased old seed, they sowed it; and entreated the Lord, hoped in the love of God, if God would give fertility, “if God would forgive our sins.”  But it was not so.  They did not obtain the love of God.  When they cast the seed into the holy earth, that was the last they saw of it; if it germinated somewhat, if it sent up shoots, it withered away close to the ground.  Woe! and abundance of it!  God’s world went on, sorrowed and wept, for now it was manifest that death by hunger was approaching.  They somehow got miserably through the winter.  Spring came.  Where anybody had still any grain, they sowed it.  What would come to pass?  No blessing was poured forth, for the thought began with wind.  Moreover, there was but little snow in the winter, and everything dried up so that the black earth remained as it was.  It now came to this—­all the world began to perish!  The people died; the cattle perished; as misery carried them, so did the people proceed.

There was at that time a powerful emperor in a certain empire:  as the young ordinarily cleave to the young, so would he associate only with young men.  Whether in council or in office or in the army, there were none but young men; no old men had access to anything anywhere.  Well, as young men, unripe in understanding, were the councillors, so was their counsel also unripe.  One year passed; a second passed; then, in the third year, they saw that misery was already on every side, that it was already coming to this, that all the world would perish.  The young emperor assembled his young council, and they began to advise after their fashion; they advised, they advised, and ah! the resolutions they came to were such that it is a sin even to give an account of their resolutions!  Well, the emperor made proclamation after their advice, that all old people were to be drowned, in order that, said he, bread might not be wasted in vain, but there might be a supply of bread for the young; and that no one should venture, on pain of death, to maintain or harbour any old man.  Well, heralds went about throughout the whole country, and promulgated the emperor’s command everywhere—­yea, brigands seized old people where they chose, and drowned them without mercy.

There were then in a certain place three own brothers, who had an aged father.  When they heard of this edict, they told their father; and their father said:  “My sons, such is the will of God and the will of the emperor; take me, let me perish at once, only that you, my children, may live on.  I am already with one foot in the grave,” “No, our own daddy! we will die, but we will not give you up,” cried the good sons with one voice, and fell upon his neck; “we will keep you; we will take from our own mouths, and will nourish you.”