A long long time ago when tiger used to smoke with a long bamboo pipe and deer could talk to human, a young man lived in a mountainous region near Hamhung(in N. Korea) with his mother. Sadly, his father was taken away by a tiger when he was a little boy presumed to have been killed, and he and his mother lived in a small cottage at a foot of a mountain surrounded with a lots of acorn trees. He made living chopping wood and selling them at a market place. The cottage was surrounded with beauty of nature. In spring time, all sorts of beautiful wildflowers would blossom, attracting butterflies fluttering in the air. In summer timer, a stream running nearby would make beautiful sound of water flowing upon big and little rocks on the bed, making the whole place drenched with coolness of summer. The boy grew up in the place listening to the sounds of birds chirping and and owls hooting, smelling the scent of flowers blossoming and watching acorns falling off the trees, which melt his body and soul. Sometimes, in fine weather, he would lie down on rocks near the stream and looked up in the sky watching clouds moving slowly. In fall, acorns and leaves falling down from the trees caressed the young man's heart gently. When the snow falls in winter time, the mountain covered in snow offered a breathtaking view making the boy to hop outside and walk for a mile as though he was anxious of meeting someone so dear arriving at a distant place in the mountain. However, when the cold wind blew harshly knocking and shaking the little door of his room, he felt the terrible loneliness and terror encroached upon him; he had no father and he wished that he had someone to hug and cuddle in those wintery windy nights. The life was harsh for the woodcutter in the depth of winter for he could not go out to chop woods in cold weather; as the day length became short for he could get easily lost in the mountain covered in snow. Sometimes, in heavy snow, he and his mom would be cut off from the village for several weeks, but the woodcutter learned how to survive winter with the dry food that was set aside. When the weather gets cold, he would get the heating started for the room by burning woods in the inlet of Ondol.
On one fine spring day, when the warmth of spring was about to bring the mountain burst into its colorful scenery, while he was chopping wood in the mountain, he came across with a deer caught in branches of trees. The deer's anther was stuck and she could not make herself free. Seeing the scene that the deer was in wedged state, the woodcutter approached gently, but deer would get frightened, and tried harder to free herself up. The wood-cutter said "Hush, my dear, I am not going to hurt you. I will untangle you and you will be free in a minute." As the wood-cutter freed the deer, the deer immediately ran up and pranced around, savoring the freedom. The woodcutter chuckled, seeing the deer looked so happy. After awhile, the deer came back near to the woodcutter who was mindful of cutting wood and said, "I feel grateful to you that you saved me." The wood-cutter said "You're welcome." The deer then said, "Why didn't you capture me? I could be made to a nice feast." The woodcutter replied, "If I kill you and carry you with me, the tiger would come after me. Besides, you are much too heavy for me. I can barely carry the wood has been chopped off for the day." The deer told the woodcutter, "Well, I want to thank you for saving me." Noticing the wood-cutter's pants in needing good mending work, the deer continued speaking to the wood-cutter, "Are you married?" The wood-cutter looked puzzled and asked, "What is married?" The deer replied,"Well, It's forming a new family as one grows into an adult with someone he/she loves like you Dad and Mom. You live with the person have have children together and live until you die." "No, I am not. I am living alone with my mother down at the foot of the mountain," said the woodcutter and pointed his index finger where his house is located. "Hummn...A young man with no wife," murmured the deer, and deer said to the woodcutter, "I want to thank you for saving me again...I could have been an easy prey of Tiger. I will see you around." and the deer disappeared into the wood.
For the rest of the day, the wood-cutter chopped wood and brought wood to his home, and as he was putting the wood into the barn, he was startled by a deer standing next to the door. It was the very deer whom he had saved this afternoon. The deer said to the wood-cutter, "Thanks for saving me in the wood. So, in my gratitude, I will give you a piece of information that you might like to hear." and she continued speaking "My deer friends in the wood told me that there will be angels descending from the heaven on July 7th and descend to the earth by a pond deep in the mountain to take a bath. After they finish taking the bath, they will return back to heaven." "What do you mean by that?" said the wood-cutter. "You are not married, and you need a wife, don't you? I am going to help you find a wife under the condition that you're not going to harm me or any of my friend in the wood. Will you promise me that?" said the deer. "Yes, I can promise that, but I can't not afford to live in this house with another person since I don't have any large room to share with her," said the wood-cutter. "Don't worry. My friends in the forest will take care of that. All you have to do is following my instruction," and the deer laid out instructions to the wood-cutter, " On the evening, at 7:00 PM, the angels will descend from sky and they will take off their clothes to take a bath. You are to sneak upon them and steal one of their clothes while they are taking a bath. Once you take a cloth, you're to hide it some place where she can not find it, don't let anybody know of this." The deer said, "The pond is located deep in the mountain over there; it is not the same mountain you go to chop wood," and the deer gave him detailed information where the pond was located. After giving the information, the deer said, "Good Luck," and the deer scurried away into the forest.
When the much anticipated day arrived, the wood-cutter told his mother that he will be coming home late and he embarked on his journey carrying extra rice balls and straw shoes that had been prepared on the forthnight. He left home at the dawn and he walked miles and miles climbing up the mountain until he reached the pond in the afternoon. He sat under a tree and eat one of the rice balls along the way. The weather was very nice. When he reached the pond, the cool breeze was blowing taking away sweats and made him fall fast asleep.
He woke up as the sun was setting in the western sky with a glow of its golden lights; he was awaken by a bout of cold breeze and giggling voices heard coming a far. Listening human voices was strange to him in the deep mountain for he had never heard or met anybody in the wood before. The only sounds that he were familiar with were sound of water dripping on branches of trees or flowing in creeks, or rustling sound of tree branches being swayed in winds, or birds' chirping sound echoing in the valleys.
Darkness soon fell in the forest and a bright full moon was shinning upon the pond. The woodcutter came out and walked toward the place where the sound was coming. As the sound became much clearer, the woodcutter reached very close to them, blocked by little trees. As he parted the branches, he saw a bunch of ladies taking bath in a pond. The pond was hidden in a densely wooded area, which was surrounded by trees and bushes. The wood-cutter saw the angels taking a bath under moonlight afar. The moonlights were so bright and the water was sparkling like golden necklace. The woodcutter was mesmerized with the beauty of the scene. The woodcutter noticed that their clothes had been left on wood branches nearby. The wood-cutter lower himself and crawled to the tree without making any sound and took one of clothes hanging on lowest branch of the tree as the deer told him so. As soon as grabbing the clothes, he scurried away quickly not be be seen. The wood-cutter then moved away from the area to a spot where he had been waiting, hiding from them. After the angels had finished taking the bath, they all came to the tree and one by one took their clothes and got dressed. As they completed getting dressed, they waited for others to finish up getting dressed. Suddenly, one of the angels said, "Where is my clothes? It's missing. I am sure I hanged 'em here," and she was looking around the area. Upon hearing this, all the other angels started searching for the missing clothes in surrounding area thinking that wind might had blown it away and it can be found easily. Contrary to their thinking, the clothes could not be found. When it came to no avail, the angels grew anxious. It past a long time since their giggling at the pond. The older angels told the youngest, "Since you can't come with us without the clothes, we are to leave you here alone. You can come later after finding the cloth. Father will be mad if we are late." The angels formed a circle holding hands to each other and flew up to heaven, leaving the youngest angel alone. As the angels were ascending to heaven, the youngest remained on the ground feeling dejected and started crying in despair.
The woodcutter was watching them behind a boulder and came out after watching them disappeared into complete darkness, massaging his sore neck. He walked back to the pond. As he was approaching, he heard the sound of someone sobbing. He parted the branches to peer in the very spot where he had stolen a clothes. He saw a young girl crying, as the deer told him, unable to return back home. He waited until the angel stop crying, but her crying would never stop. So, he decided to show himself up. As the woodcutter came out, the angel was frightened and stopped crying. The woodcutter asked her why she was crying as if he knew nothing of the cause. The angel told him that her clothes that was left on the tree branch was blown away by wind, and it was nowhere to be found. As the night fell deeper in the forest, the woodcutter told her that he would help finding the clothes when the lights return tomorrow, and asked her to come along with him and stay at his house for the night. The woodcutter took off his jacket and put on the angel's shoulder as it was getting colder in the mountain. The angel followed the woodcutter and they went down the mountain. The friends of deer helped them guiding the way down in the dark by chirping and hooting sound. The woodcutter asked the angel,"Are you feeling cold?" The angel replied,"No, not really." It was a balmy night as they were coming down the mountain. There were myriad of stars twinking in the sky as though they were cheering the two. When they reached a platau, moon was getting brighter and the angel's beautiful face was shone on the moonlight. The woodcutter had goose bumps all over his body as her teary eyes sparkled in the reflection of the moon. The woodcutter could not resist his feeling to her hand, and he felt as though a bolt of lightening had just hit on his head.
When they safely arrived to the wood-cutter's house, the wood-cutter's mother greeted him; she was still wide awake waiting for his son who had not returned to home. As the mother staring at the path in the wood, she saw her son trudging in the dim moonlight and she was relieved to see his son in good shape. The mother was surprised to see his son carrying someone on his back. The mother ushered them into the room. The mother quickly ran out of the room and brought some water for them to drink. The girl from the heaven looked tired after sobbing at the lose of her clothes and she took a sip of the water. The woodcutter told everything about how the girl led to coming his home except the part that he hid the girl's cloths. With much delights, the woodcutter's Mom felt a great joy that his son finally has a wife. The woodcutter's Mom prepared a dinner for them. As the night fell into the forest, owls were hooting and crikits were humming. The woodcutter laid out bedding on the floor for bedding and asked the girl to lay down on Yo. As the girl lay down, the woodcutter cover her body with Yibul to keep her warm. As she was laying down, the stream by the house played the music of cacophony in the darkness. The angel fell asleep, but the woodcutter could not fall asleep with all the excitements. All the things happened this afternoon at the mountain seemed unreal to me, and he went out and to get some fresh air.
II
The woodcutter went out and sat by the water scream nearby his house. The bright moonlights was shining showed him the way to the stream. While he was gazing at the sparkling water stream, he was startled by a voice of the deer whom he had spoken yesterday. The deer told to the woodcutter, "You should never give her clothes back, and my friends will build a place right next to your house so that you can live together with the angel," and the deer left into the wood. A flash of thought went across his mind that the angel is still sleeping in the room. The woodcutter quickly went back into the room to find that everything is still real, and finally sucumbed to falling into sleep, unable to resist overload of fatigue. He slept a long hours, and he had dreams of the angels in the heaven crying for their lost younger sister. when he woke up, it was a dusk; he felt refreshed. He looked around, but he could not find her next him. So, he went out looking for the angel. He went into the wood nearby, and he found the angel crying in the wood. The woodcutter carried her back in the room and laid her on the Ondol floor.
As night turned day many times, the angel was still feeling sad and terrible homesick; she would not eat and speak. Seeing her in this situation, tihe woodcutter had to make empty promises that he would go back to the pond and look for the clothes. Each morning, as he left home, he lied to her that he would look for the missing clothes. The woodcutter thought about her and how to change her so that she can be happy and make her staywith him.
The woodcutter came up with all sorts of ideas; he tried to entertain the angel by making himself walk on sticks; he made a mask and danced in front of her, but none of them could make the angel smile. The woodcutter thought of an idea throwing a party. He invited lots of people in the market place and neighboring town came over to see the angel. The woodcutter danced and his mother was happily serving the guests with food and drinks. There were people playing musical instruments, and the whole feast and the activities seemed slowly cheering the angel up. When the angel first smiled, the woodcutter was the first one to noticed that and he thought that his plan seemed to be working allright. Thereafter, the woodcutter enjoyed the time with the angel.
On one morning, when the woodcutter woke up, he found that a nice addition built next to his house overnight. The addition had a room and a barn, that filled with many bags of rice, corn, barley, chestnut, that he did have to work for years. In the room, there were furniture including a nice dresser. The woodcutter had never received such thing, and he shouted to his mom overjoyed. The woodcutter's mom was delighted to have a new barn that was filled with crops for her family to consume for years.
As days went, the angel's face started slowly turning brighter and she seemed to be enjoying the family she was staying with. The woodcutter was nice to her and his mother was happy to have a daughter-in-law too. Both of them felt great comfort in having her around. The woodcutter taught her how to read and write. The angel was quick to learn what has been taught, she even learn how to prepare meals and how to do chores helping out her woodcutter's mom. Most of time, the angel showed happy face to them, but once a while, the woodcutter caught flash of sadness in her face. Sometimes, she was found in the wood crying alone, and the woodcutter had to bring her back home.
As the days went by, the angel was pregnant and delivered fine twin babies. Seasons changed and years went by and the angel delivered two babies for the woodcutter; the woodcutter and his mother were very happy. The five people enjoyed living together. The woodcutter watched the babies growing and he took them to the wood to show the deer and his many other animal friends in the forest. The babies grew into toddlers and walked in the wood playing with deers and their friends. The woodcutter could not believe how happy he and his mother have become. The angel weaved nice clothes for woodcutter's mom, and the old lady was delighted having her as a daughter-in-law. They planted sweet potato and eat in summer. The the backyard, stalks of sweet corm were growing fast, and they harvested it and eat together. The boys went to the stream and caught fish with their father while their mom was preparing for the dinner.
The happy days were going without stopping until one day, the woodcutter's mom had died all of a sudden of her old age. The woodcutter's family bid her farewell and buried her nearby the house. The angel did not know the meaning of death for she had never experienced where she came from. The angel watched the woodcutter's mom being buried and saw the sad expressions on the woodcutter. Woodcutter told her that humans are mortal, and the dead body has to be buried.
On the day, after he was very druken, and he inadvertently said what happened to her clothes to his wife. He murmuered that he was the one who hid her clothes. The secrete that he hid so long and jumped out and reververated, thinking that his wife would not be able to go back as she have a family on earth. The angel asked the woodcutter,"Where is the clothes?" The woodcutter responded,"it is hidden in one of the jars in the barn," and he fell on the floor soundly sleeping. After hearing what the woodcutter said, the angel rushed out and hurridly went into the barn and started searching for the porcelain jar that the clothes is stored; she opened up all the lids until she found one empty. She drew a candlelight inside the jar and found her old clothes inside the jar sitting at a corner. With much delights, the angel took it out and brought it inside the house into her room where the woodcutter and her two boys were sleeping soundly. On that night, the angel could not go to sleep for she had been thinking that her clothes was lost forever and she could not go back home all along, and now it was no longer hold true. She tried putting it on at the great urge to go back home, but then she took it off seeing her boys sleeping with their father. Then, she took off the clothes and put it away. On the following day, the angel pretended that nothing has happened and continued doing her usual activities taking care of the boys. The woodcutter was saddened by his mother's death, and completely forgotten what he had said to his wife last night. The woodcutter had a fuzzy memories of what he had said to his wife, and asked her "Did I said something out of ordinary last night?" To the question, the angel said, "No nothing extraordinary, my dear." On the next day, the woodcutter was still quite not sure whether he had confessed to her the secret of the clothes, and asked the angel, "Did I say something extraordinary the night beforere yesterday?" To the question, the angel said,"No my dear, you did not say anything extraordinary. Just go to sleep." At nights, the angel could not sleep at the thought of finding her clothes back for she missed her family in heaven. One night, she took out the clothes from the dresser and put on the clothes that she had lost at the pond. And then started writing a letter to her husband.
III
Dear my husband,
I am from heaven, and I had been curious to find out what kind of life the people on earth lead,
and it has been such a pleasure living with you for the past several years.
The unfortuate incident of losing my clothes led to finding my love on earth, that I will always
cherish in my heart.
It has been such sweet time in my life with you.
I will miss you...And I will cry missing you.
I will take our sons with me, and I'll take a good care of them.
I know that you will miss them very much.
I'll ask my father so that you could come join us in the heaven.
I wish that you stay healthy and strong until we meet again.
After finishing writing the letter, the angel left it by the woodcutter's hand. Then, the angel went into her children's room and held her two sons, one on her back in Podegee and other son on her arm. She walked to outside in the front yard. The angel looked to the room where the woodcutter was sleeping and she closed her eyes. and tears started flowing on her eyes. After a while, the angel, along with sons were lifted in air and started asending to the sky. As they were ascending, the moonlights were shining brighter as if showing the way. Owls hooted at the scene waking up sleeping animals in the forest.
IV
The angel ascended to heaven taking her two sons that night. In the morning, the woodcutter saw the letter and found out that she had left with his two sons. The woodcutter was dejected and filled with sorrow. The woodcutter spent two years living in the cottage alone solely missing the angel and his sons.
One day, a letter was dropped in his Tetmaru. It was sent from her wife in haven:
Dear my husband,
I know that you are well.
Your sons are doing fine.
I miss you.
I told my father about the time I had spent on earth, and I've been given a permission to have you
come to the heaven to join us.
However, it will not happen right away; you have to wait thirty years from now.
When the time comes, I'll let you know.
For the mean time, I hope that you don't think of us too much of us, and live your life normally as if we haven't met each other.
I hope that your live happily while you are on the earth.
Love,
Dal-Ah
Upon reading the letter, the woodcutter beamed with joy. The letter gave him a tremendous hope that he will be meeting his wife again.
The woodcutter kept the the letter in dresser, and read ever so often, whenever he felt like to read.
From then on, even in cold wintery nights, the woodcutter would never feel lonely.
The friends in the wood helped him and he never had to sleep without heat.
In his dream, he saw the angel in his dream with his sons all smiling.
When he woke up, he was surprised that Ondol floor was hot; someone had heating started.
The strange thing is that the people in the distant village never mentioned about his old wife and his
sons as if nothing had happened to him; they all treated him as if he were the very boy who grew up
in the place with his old mother; nobody asked him any his personal questions.
The woodcutter lived the next thirty years selling the woods living in the same cottage.
When he reached 55 years old, a letter was dropped on the floor. He opened up the letter, and it says that:
Dear My husband,
It is time we meet again.
On the July 7, you are to go up in the pond and wait for a bucket coming down from sky.
You're to wait at the very spot where we met together.
At 7 O'clock, there will be a bucket attached to a rope will be descended from the heaven.
You're to hop in the bucket.
The bucket is small, and don't carry anything with you.
The woodcutter had gray hair and his face was wrinkly. When the day arrive, the woodcutter
embarked on the journey like the day when he met the angel. He thought of his mother who
had prepared fist rice.
At 7 O'clock, a bucket was descended as the letter was written, and he hopped in the bucket.
The bucket was then slowly lifted going up and up. As he was ascending, he saw the western sky glowing in all sorts of hue, and he saw his old cottage and he saw deers standing in the front yard.
The woodcutter met his wife and his sons and lived a very happy life for 700 years.
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