--- title: Mercury and the Woodman — The Aesop for Children · full text with trees description: Mercury and the Woodman, «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: A poor Woodman was cutting down a tree near the edge of a deep pool in the forest. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Aesop for Children](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/) / Mercury and the Woodman # Mercury and the Woodman Mercury and the Woodman of «The Aesop for Children» by Aesop: the whole text, 30 sentences and 436 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 1 of them are in the tales treebank and were checked by a teacher model. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/1/) — A poor Woodman was cutting down a tree near the edge of a deep pool in the forest. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/2/) — It was late in the day and the Woodman was tired. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/3/) — He had been working since sunrise and his strokes were not so sure as they had been early that morning. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/4/) — Thus it happened that the axe slipped and flew out of his hands into the pool. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/5/) — The Woodman was in despair. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/6/) — The axe was all he possessed with which to make a living, and he had not money enough to buy a new one. — checked by a teacher - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/7/) — As he stood wringing his hands and weeping, the god Mercury suddenly appeared and asked what the trouble was. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/8/) — The Woodman told what had happened, and straightway the kind Mercury dived into the pool. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/9/) — When he came up again he held a wonderful golden axe. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/10/) — "Is this your axe?" - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/11/) — Mercury asked the Woodman. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/12/) — "No," answered the honest Woodman, "that is not my axe." - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/13/) — Mercury laid the golden axe on the bank and sprang back into the pool. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/14/) — This time he brought up an axe of silver, but the Woodman declared again that his axe was just an ordinary one with a wooden handle. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/15/) — Mercury dived down for the third time, and when he came up again he had the very axe that had been lost. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/16/) — The poor Woodman was very glad that his axe had been found and could not thank the kind god enough. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/17/) — Mercury was greatly pleased with the Woodman's honesty. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/18/) — "I admire your honesty," he said, "and as a reward you may have all three axes, the gold and the silver as well as your own." - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/19/) — The happy Woodman returned to his home with his treasures, and soon the story of his good fortune was known to everybody in the village. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/20/) — Now there were several Woodmen in the village who believed that they could easily win the same good fortune. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/21/) — They hurried out into the woods, one here, one there, and hiding their axes in the bushes, pretended they had lost them. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/22/) — Then they wept and wailed and called on Mercury to help them. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/23/) — And indeed, Mercury did appear, first to this one, then to that. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/24/) — To each one he showed an axe of gold, and each one eagerly claimed it to be the one he had lost. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/25/) — But Mercury did not give them the golden axe. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/26/) — Oh no! - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/27/) — Instead he gave them each a hard whack over the head with it and sent them home. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/28/) — And when they returned next day to look for their own axes, they were nowhere to be found. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/29/) — \_Honesty is the best policy. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/93/30/) — \_ - ← previous: [Three Bullocks and a Lion](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/92/) - next →: [The Frog and the Mouse](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/94/) - ↑ back to [The Aesop for Children](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg19994/)