Stories for Another Day
Once there lived a man named Jesper who was a calligrapher. With his pens, he did flowing, beautiful writing on documents and papers, in blue and green and red inks. When people needed special certificates, birth certificates or marriage certificates, or if they needed a sign which they could display in their shops to catch the attention of people passing by, they would come to Jesper.
For the most special documents, he might have to spend days working on a single page, getting it absolutely perfect. When the Duke of Aragon’s baby daughter was born, Jesper took nearly two weeks to finish her birth certificate. When it was done and the ink was dry, he rolled the parchment up carefully and took it to the duke.
The duke was pleased. “Your work is beautiful,” the duke said, as he gave Jesper his money. “What a pity your pens are so poor. If you used good pens like the best calligraphers, you could easily ask twice as much money for your work.”
Jesper went home and told his wife, Meera. She said, “I have seen a silver pen for sale in the marketplace that would make your work even more beautiful, but it costs three gold pieces! Where would we ever get so much money?”
Jesper said, “There’s plenty of work in me yet. If I work twice as hard, and we put a little aside from every job that I do, surely we can save enough, in time.”
Meera said, “I can try to get more work too.” Meera worked as a seamstress, making dresses and shirts and pants, and curtains and bedsheets for the people of the town. “I can sew at night, as well as during the day.”
Jesper got up earlier every day to begin his work before breakfast. He worked as fast as he could, still being careful to do his very best work. In the evenings he found work as a scribe, writing letters for people who couldn’t read or write. Mostly they could only afford to pay him a few copper coins, but every little bit helped, Jesper thought.
Meera sewed all day long, and in the evenings when she couldn’t use her old sewing machine because the neighbours complained that it made too much noise, she would sew by hand, sitting close to the lamp to be able to see her stitches.
After a long time they managed to save almost one gold piece, but then there was a bad storm that blew the roof off and damaged the walls of their house, and all their savings went to having it repaired. Meera looked at the empty tin where they kept their savings, and she felt so down-hearted that she couldn’t help turning to Jesper and saying, “Will we ever have enough saved to buy the silver pen?”
Jesper gave her a hug and said, “There’s plenty of work in us yet.” He set himself to work even harder, and even longer hours. He rose before dawn to help a farmer with his cows before he began his own work, although his fingers were nearly frozen from the cold. Their savings began to mount up slowly again. But then Meera fell ill, and Jesper had to stop working to look after her. The money disappeared quickly, paying for food and medicine. By the time Meera was well again, the tin was completely empty.
She shook the tin despairingly, but Jesper said, “Never mind, there’s plenty of work in us yet.” There were no more hours in the day when he could work so he wracked his brains to find ways to make more money, until he came up with an idea. With his old, worn-out pens he couldn’t make his lettering any better, so instead he decorated some of the letters with swirls and curlicues like climbing vines. He even began drawing tiny figures, birds and animals and flowers, here and there among the curlicues. People loved his new work, and gradually the money in the tin built up again.
One day he came home with great news. “The duke wants me to write out the invitations for his eldest son’s wedding. He’s promised me a whole gold piece for the work. And that’s not all – the news in the marketplace is that the duke’s own scribe is about to retire, and he will soon be looking for a new one. If only I had the silver pen, I think I would have a chance at getting the job as his scribe and calligrapher, and then our fortunes would be made!”
“Your work is the best in the whole town,” Meera said warmly. “I’m sure that if you had better pens, it would be the best in the whole country!”
Jesper cleared his table and set to work.
The next day Meera had good news of her own. “Lady Florida has asked me to make her daughter’s wedding dress! It will be very elegant, with yards and yards of lace and silk. She says she will pay me one gold piece!”
They hugged each other for sheer joy. They counted the money in the tin. There were lots of copper coins, and some silver. “There is almost as much as one piece of gold in the tin already,” Jesper said. “If all goes well with our work, we will have almost enough to buy the silver pen!”
Meera worked on the wedding dress on her old sewing machine every hour of the day. Long into the night, she sat by the lamp, sewing the finest stitches by hand. The wedding dress was finished on the same day that Jesper finished the the last of the invitations. Jesper set off to deliver them to the duke, while Meera wrapped the wedding dress carefully to take it to Lady Florida.
The duke was so pleased with Jesper’s work that he gave him two gold pieces instead of the one that they had agreed on. He said, as he gave him the money, “You know that I will soon be looking for a new scribe for my household. If you continue to do your work as well as this, I will certainly consider you for the job.”
Jesper was very pleased and excited. On the way home, he stopped in the marketplace to gaze at the silver pen on display and dream about creating the most beautiful work in the country for the duke and his household. On the next stall, he noticed a shining, new sewing machine for sale. Its treadle moved easily and quietly, and its needle was sharp and true. He thought of his wife working such long hours with her creaking old machine, with its worn-out wheel and gears.
He made up his mind. “There’s plenty of work in me yet,” he said to himself. He went home and took their savings out of the tin. With the money the duke had paid him, there was still not enough to buy the sewing machine, so Jesper got his good coat and took it to the marketplace and sold it. Then he bought the new sewing machine for Meera.
When he got home, he said, “My dear, you work so hard, for such long hours every day. I couldn’t bear to see you ruining your eyes, sewing by lamplight. The duke paid me two gold pieces instead of the one he promised me, so I took our savings and I bought this for you,” and he gave her the sewing machine. Meera was so overcome, she wept with surprise and joy.
Then she said, “Lady Florida was so pleased with my work, she gave me two gold pieces instead of the one she had promised me. But when I got home, I saw that our savings were gone, and your good coat was gone as well. I thought that thieves must have come and taken them. I couldn’t bear to think how disappointed you would be, so I sold my sewing machine, and with the money Lady Florida gave me, I bought this for you.” And she gave him the silver pen.
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