"The Golden Windows" Classic Reading (Fable/Morality Tale)
English (US)
Spanish (ES)
06 min 49 sec
Do you value what you have in life?
In this short tale, we are told the story of a boy who longs to find the house with golden windows that he sees every day by sunset from his humble home. On the day his father allows him to rest, he takes off in search of the fabled house.
In this Video Lesson, you will learn a lot of household and countryside-related vocabulary. Even though some of these words are uncommon and literary in nature, Beginner-level students will the narrator's slow-paced speech quite easy to follow.
Did you understand the moral of this short story? Did you find it valuable?
Don't forget to show this video to your friends so you can practice together by discussing it.
Stay learning!
Durante todo el día, el niño pequeño trabajó duro en el campo, el granero y el cobertizo, porque su gente eran agricultores pobres y no podían pagar a un trabajador.
Traído el ocaso, llegó una hora que era toda suya, porque su padre se la había dado.
Luego, el niño subía a la cima de la colina y miraba hacia otra colina que se elevaba a algunas millas de distancia.
En esta colina lejana había una casa con ventanas de oro claro y diamantes.
Brillaban y resplandecían, de modo que al niño le guiñó un ojo al mirarlos.
Pero, después de un tiempo, la gente de la casa puso persianas por lo que parecía. Y luego se parecía a cualquier granja común.
El niño supuso que hicieron esto porque era la hora de la cena.
Y luego, entraba en la casa y cenaba pan y leche, y así a la cama.
Un día, el padre del niño lo llamó y le dijo:
"Has sido un buen chico y te has ganado unas vacaciones. Tómate este día como tuyo.
Pero recuerda que Dios te lo dio y trata de aprender algo bueno".
El niño agradeció a su padre y besó a su madre. Luego se guardó un trozo de pan en el bolsillo y se dirigió a buscar la casa de las ventanas doradas.
Fue agradable caminar. Sus pies descalzos hicieron marcas en el polvo blanco.
Y cuando miró hacia atrás, las huellas parecían seguirlo y hacerle compañía.
Su sombra también se mantenía a su lado y bailaba o corría con él a su antojo, por lo que era muy alegre.
Poco a poco, sintió hambre y se sentó junto a un arroyo pardo que corría a través del seto de alisos junto al camino, y comió su pan y bebió el agua clara.
Luego esparció las migajas para los pájaros, como su madre le había enseñado a hacer, y siguió su camino.
Después de mucho tiempo, llegó a una alta colina verde. Y cuando hubo subido la colina, allí estaba la casa en la cima.
Pero parecía que las persianas estaban levantadas. No podíamos ver las ventanas doradas.
Llegó a la casa, y entonces bien podría haber llorado, porque las ventanas eran de vidrio transparente como cualquier otra, y no había oro en ninguna parte alrededor de ellas.
Una mujer llegó a la puerta y miró amablemente al niño y le preguntó qué quería.
"Vi las ventanas doradas desde la cima de nuestra colina", dijo, "y vine a verlas.
¡Pero ahora solo son de vidrio!"
La mujer negó con la cabeza y se rió.
"Somos campesinos pobres", dijo, "y no es probable que tengamos oro en nuestras ventanas, pero es mejor ver a través del vidrio".
Le pidió al niño que se sentara en el ancho escalón de piedra de la puerta y le trajo una taza de leche y un pastel, y le pidió que descansara.
Y luego llamó a su hija, una niña de su misma edad, y saludó amablemente con la cabeza a las dos, y volvió a su trabajo.
La niña estaba descalza como él, y vestía una bata de algodón marrón,
pero su cabello era dorado como las ventanas que había visto, y sus ojos eran azules como el cielo al mediodía.
Condujo al niño por la granja y le mostró su ternero negro con la estrella blanca en la frente,
y él le habló de la suya en casa, que era roja como una castaña con cuatro patas blancas.
Luego, cuando hubieron comido juntos una manzana y se hicieron amigos, el niño le preguntó acerca de las ventanas doradas.
La niña asintió y dijo que sabía todo sobre ellos. Sólo que se había equivocado de casa.
"Has venido por el camino equivocado", dijo.
"Ven conmigo, y te mostraré la casa con las ventanas doradas, y luego lo verás por ti mismo".
Fueron a un montículo que se alzaba detrás del cortijo y, mientras avanzaban, la niña le dijo que las ventanas doradas sólo se veían a cierta hora, cerca de la puesta del sol.
"Sí, eso lo sé", dijo el niño.
Cuando llegaron a la cima del montículo, la niña se volvió y señaló, y allí, en una colina lejana,
había una casa con ventanas de oro claro y diamantes, tal como las había visto.
Y cuando volvieron a mirar, el niño vio que era su propia casa.
Entonces, le dijo a la niña que debía irse, y le dio su mejor guijarro,
el blanco con la banda roja que llevaba un año en el bolsillo,
y ella le dio tres castaños de Indias: uno rojo como el raso, uno manchado, y uno blanco como la leche.
Él la besó y prometió volver, pero no le dijo lo que había aprendido,
y entonces volvió a bajar la colina y la niña se paró en la luz del atardecer y lo miró.
El camino a casa fue largo y estaba oscuro antes de que el niño llegara a la casa de su padre,
pero la lámpara de luz y la luz del fuego brillaban a través de las ventanas, haciéndolas casi tan brillantes como las había visto desde la cima de la colina.
Y cuando abrió la puerta su madre vino a besarlo, y su hermanita corrió a echarle los brazos al cuello,
y su padre miró hacia arriba y sonrió desde su asiento junto al fuego.
"¿Has tenido un buen día?", preguntó su madre.
Sí, el chico había tenido un muy buen día.
"¿Y has aprendido algo?", preguntó su padre.
"¡Sí!", dijo el niño, "he aprendido que nuestra casa tiene ventanas de oro y diamantes".
Written by Laura E. Richards.
The Golden Windows.
All day long, the little boy worked hard in field and barn and shed, for his people were poor farmers and could not pay a workman.
Brought sunset, there came an hour that was all his own, for his father had given it to him.
Then the boy would go up to the top of the hill and look across at another hill that rose some miles away.
On this far hill stood a house with windows of clear gold and diamonds.
They shone and blazed, so that it made the boy wink to look at them.
But, after a while, the people in the house put up shutters as it seemed. And then it looked like any common farmhouse.
The boy supposed they did this because it was suppertime.
And then, he would go into the house and have his supper of bread and milk, and so to bed.
One day, the boy's father called him and said:
"You have been a good boy and have earned a holiday. Take this day for your own.
But remember that God gave it and try to learn some good thing."
The boy thanked his father and kissed his mother. Then he put a piece of bread in his pocket and started off to find the house with the golden windows.
It was pleasant walking. His bare feet made marks in the white dust.
And when he looked back, the footprints seemed to be following him and making company for him.
His shadow too kept beside him and would dance or run with him as he pleased, so it was very cheerful.
By and by, he felt hungry and he sat down by a brown brook that ran through the alder hedge by the roadside, and ate his bread and drank the clear water.
Then he scattered the crumbs for the birds, as his mother had taught him to do, and went on his way.
After a long time, he came to a high green hill. And when he had climbed the hill there was the house on the top.
But it seemed that the shutters were up. We could not see the golden windows.
He came up to the house, and then he could well have wept, for the windows were of clear glass like any others, and there was no gold anywhere about them.
A woman came to the door and looked kindly at the boy and asked him what he wanted.
"I saw the golden windows from our hilltop", he said, "and I came to see them.
But now they are only glass!"
The woman shook her head and laughed.
"We are poor farming people", she said, "and are not likely to have gold about our windows, but glass is better to see through."
She bade the boy sit down on the broad stone step at the door and brought him a cup of milk and a cake, and bade him rest.
And then she called her daughter, a child of his own age, and nodded kindly at the two, and went back to her work.
The little girl was barefooted like himself, and wore a brown cotton gown,
but her hair was golden like the windows he had seen, and her eyes were blue like the sky at noon.
She led the boy about the farm and showed him her black calf with the white star on its forehead,
and he told her about his own at home, which was red like a chestnut with four white feet.
Then, when they had eaten an apple together and so had become friends, the boy asked her about the golden windows.
The little girl nodded and said she knew all about them. Only he had mistaken the house.
"You have come quite the wrong way", she said.
"Come with me, and I will show you the house with the golden windows, and then you will see for yourself."
They went to a knoll that rose behind the farmhouse and, as they went, the little girl told him that the golden windows could only be seen at a certain hour, about sunset.
"Yes, I know that", said the boy.
When they reached the top of the knoll, the girl turned and pointed, and there, on a hill far away,
stood a house with windows of clear gold and diamond, just as he had seen them.
And when they looked again, the boy saw that it was his own home.
Then, he told the little girl that he must go, and he gave her his best pebble,
the white one with the red band that he had carried for a year in his pocket,
and she gave him three horse chestnuts: one red like satin, one spotted, and one white like milk.
He kissed her and promised to come again, but he did not tell her what he had learned,
and so he went back down the hill and the little girl stood in the sunset light and watched him.
The way home was long and it was dark before the boy reached his father's house,
but the lamp of light and firelight shone through the windows, making them almost as bright as he had seen them from the hilltop.
And when he opened the door his mother came to kiss him, and his little sister ran to throw her arms about his neck,
and his father looked up and smiled from his seat by the fire.
"Have you had a good day?", asked his mother.
Yes, the boy had had a very good day.
"And have you learned anything?", asked his father.
"Yes!", said the boy, "I have learned that our house has windows of gold and diamond".
