SHORT STORY (2) RICH BY ACCIEDENT

RICH BY ACCIDENT

My uncle was a hard working farmer. Every morning he got up early, milked his cows, worked all day on his farm, milked his cows again in the evening, watched a little television, and then went to bed early. He followed the same routine ten months of the year. During the winter, he would take a short vacation to practice his passion; ‘trout fishing’.

To compensate for the few opportunities my uncle had to go fishing, he would spend hours reading fishing magazines. One day, he showed me an article about a place where it was said that it was possible to prepare a delicious fishmeal by simply holding a frying pan over the water. Trout would fight amongst themselves to be the first to jump into it. It was then just a matter of transferring the frying pan to an open fire and adding a little butter. When I told my father about the article and my uncle’s plans to visit the river during his next vacation, he simply smiled and said that my uncle had always been something of a dreamer.

That winter my uncle packed his family into their car and they went off to see for themselves  the “El Dorado” of trout fishing described in the magazine.

When my uncle returned from his vacation, he visited us. He produced a photograph album containing photo’s showing him holding many beautiful trout. He told us that there were so many trout in the river he had visited, that a person could walk from one bank to the other, stepping on their backs, without getting their feet wet. His photos certainly proved that the fishing had been good. The last photo in album surprised us all. It showed my uncle, aunt, cousins and a strange man sanding beside a “For Sale” sign.

‘Guess what’, my uncle announced? ‘We have bought the farm the river runs through!’  

It was clear that my father thought my uncle had finally gone mad.

A couple of weeks later my uncle moved.

  

It was almost a year before we saw him again. His new farm was very different from his old one. It was nearly all vertical and was home to almost 3000 sheep. It took an hour to climb the steep hillside to reach the top paddocks.  The effort however was worth it, as from the top the view was fantastic. Way below you could see the river winding through the valley. My uncle swore that from up there he could see hundreds of trout waving to him. (His eyesight must have been better than mine because I couldn’t see any).

My uncle appeared to be very happy. He would get up early, work until around 2 pm and then when it was too hot to do anything more, head off to the river to do a spot of fishing. I went with my uncle on many fishing expeditions. We always returned with at least two trout. 

For the next couple of years things went very well for my uncle. The price of wool was good and climatic conditions were excellent.  Then one day the bottom fell out of the wool market. Soon after, the region suffered its worst drought in living memory. When we visited my uncle that year, he was not his normal self. He looked very tired and worried. My aunt said he had not slept well in weeks. Most of their sheep, (those that had not died of thirst and starvation that was), had been trucked to other regions as there was nothing left for them to eat on the farm.

On the second day of our visit, my aunt suggested I ask my uncle to take me fishing. It appeared he had not been fishing for ages and my aunt thought it might cheer him up a little.

That afternoon we made our way to the river, found a shaded spot under a tree, and began fishing. For some time, there was no conversation between us. My uncle appeared sad and deep in thought. Then to my surprise, I noticed he was not concentrating on the river, but on the sun scolded hills that surrounded us. All of a sudden, he jumped up smiling.

‘Look at the hills.  What do you see,’ my uncle asked excitedly?

‘I just see dry grass, the remains of some dead sheep and the odd green pine tree,’ I responded confused.

 ‘It’s those odd pine trees that have me thinking,’ my uncle said. ‘Here we are in the middle of the worst drought in living memory, but those pine trees aren’t affected. I’m going to plant my whole farm in pine trees,’ he announced.

Later when I told my father what my uncle had said about planting pine trees, he just laughed. ‘Your uncle has always been something of a dreamer,’ he said.  ‘Imagine he gave up dairy farming to go sheep farming and look at his situation today.  Besides, it takes twenty-five years for pine trees to mature. Your uncle will be almost retired by then!’

For someone like me who was only ten, I had to agree with my father. Twenty-five years was two and a half times my age. An eternity!

When we visited my uncle, the following year the drought had passed and the farm was looking green and lush. Times were still difficult however. It would to take several seasons to build up sheep numbers again. Despite this, my uncle walked with a spring in his step and was always smiling. At the first opportunity, he took my father and me around the farm in his old farm truck. When we got to the back of the farm, he proudly showed us his latest investment. There in neat regimental lines, climbing the hillside were 40,000 recently planted pine seedlings. My uncle gave us a speech about how forestry was the future of farming. When he thought my uncle was not looking, my father smiled and winked at me.

That afternoon when my uncle and I were fishing, he turned to me and said: ‘Your father doesn’t think much of my forestry idea, does he? In twenty-five years, we will discover who is right and who is wrong. During a lifetime, a person must do three things: have a child, write a book, and plant a tree. I have had children. I don’t know about writing a book, but before I die I intend to plant thousands of trees.’

Each year there after, when we visited my uncle he would proudly show us his latest plantings. The space they took up however meant that there was less and less grass available for sheep to eat. The result was that my uncle’s income steadily declined and he became our poorest relation. The rest of the family made jokes about his situation and nick named him ‘Pine Tree Bert’. My uncle remained firm however and never gave up his belief in trees.

Then when I was twenty-five my uncle’s region was hit by another devastating drought. Where as my uncle’s neighbors watched their sheep dying of starvation and thirst, my uncle went fishing. The drought did not affect his now deeply rooted trees at all. What few sheep remained on the farm found food and protection from the blazing sun in his pine plantations.

On my 35^th birthday, my uncle telephoned and invited me to come and spend a few days fishing with him. I was delighted with the idea and eagerly accepted his invitation.  We talked for a while about fishing conditions and then just before hanging up the phone he said to me: ‘And when you enter the valley take care of the trucks on the road!’

 It never occurred to me to ask what trucks my uncle was referring too. Imagine my surprise a few days later, upon entering his valley, being met by a procession of heavily laden logging trucks traveling in the opposite direction.  My uncle was harvesting what he had planted twenty-five years before. (How quickly the years had passed)!

Overnight my uncle went from being our poorest relation to our richest. My father admitted he had been wrong about the future of forestry and that perhaps my uncle had not been such a dreamer after all. Today my uncle and aunt spend their retirement years traveling around the world. I often receive post cards from them from some distant and exotic fishing location.

Last month I turned thirty-seven. To celebrate my wife and I bought some land from my uncle. Next week forestry contractors will begin planting 50,000 pine seedlings.

Everyone is telling us ‘It takes twenty-five years for pine trees to mature. You will be almost retired by then!’

We just nod our heads and smile!

 Comprehension Check:

(1)   What type of farm did Bert (my uncle) have before he bought his sheep farm?

(2)   Why did Bert move?

(3)   How many sheep did Bert have on his new farm?

(4)   What happened to Bert’s sheep during the second drought?

(5)   Do you think Bert was a dreamer or a person with a vision?

(6)   Have you ever thought about doing something similar to what Bert did?

(7)   Why do you think some people become wealthy during their lives and others don’t?

(8)   The following is a quote from Bert. What do you think about it?

“We live our lives back to front. When we are young, we have the energy and the 

 desire to do many things, but never have the money to do them. When we are old

 we have the money to do things, but no longer the energy or desire to do them.”

ANSWERS

Comprehension Check:

(1)   What type of farm did Bert (my uncle) have before he bought his sheep farm?

A dairy farm

(2)   Why did Bert move?

He loved fishing.

(3)   How many sheep did Bert have on his new farm?

Almost three thousand.

(4)   What happened to Bert’s sheep during the second drought?

They found shelter and food in the pine forest.

(5)   Do you think Bert was a dreamer or a person with a vision?

A person of vision.

TO PRINT