The story is told by a young guide who accompanied a group of tourists who wanted to visit the famous house in the Knoxville Valley.
“Remember the story about the Knoxville Collapse? No? Well, haven't you ever heard how a single house in the entire Knoxville Valley was nearly destroyed? And he didn’t die only because when the landslide was already near the house, it split in two and went around the house on both sides, without even touching a chip in its wooden cladding.
But the most interesting thing is that an old grandmother lived in this house at that time, who could no longer walk and moved in a wicker chair on wheels. She sat in her chair and watched as a terrible landslide descended past her from right and left.
There are many legends told about the Knoxville Collapse and the old lady in the wicker chair.”
Now there lives in this house a very nice fellow named Ezra Moore. When I visited this legendary place with my tourists, they were especially interested in the wicker chair on wheels that stood in the middle of the room. Everything is shabby, with wickerwork sticking out here and there, scratched and warped.
-What kind of ruin is this? - asked one of the tourists.
“Oh, that’s my great-great-grandmother’s chair,” Ezra Moore answered proudly. “The same one she was sitting in when the collapse happened.” Surely you have heard this amazing story?
No one heard, and he told it for the hundredth time, adding that this house was inherited by him after the death of his great-great-grandmother.
You know, there is nothing more valuable to idle summer tourists than a souvenir that they will take away as a souvenir of their visit to this or that place.
So Ezra explained to them that this famous chair owes its pitiful condition to visitors who were too greedy for souvenirs. And my unfortunate travelers, too, let’s ask Ezra to allow them to pick out at least a piece of old weaving as a souvenir.
“Take it, whatever you can do,” the generous Ezra graciously allowed. “He’s already been torn apart.” Some even slowly tear off here and there, as soon as I turn away. I even had to get a sharp knife to cut them off more accurately. Here you go, use it if you want!
My tourists immediately got to work, and while they were getting souvenirs for themselves, Ezra quietly beckoned to me with his finger. He and I went into the kitchen and sat comfortably at the counter.
“You see, Willie,” he told me, “when I figured out the habits of summer tourists and realized that they simply had a passion for all sorts of souvenirs, I decided to help them. For example, my great-great-grandmother’s chair. Every year I buy a dozen chairs. I scrape them, scratch them, pour water on them, throw them, kick them - in a word, I treat them conscientiously until they grow old and become suitable for displaying them in front of tourists. And they themselves finish them off. One after another. This season it is my great-great-grandmother's third chair. Well, they don’t remain in my debt either - a quarter for each straw, the price is standard.
You can’t say anything, he acted like a true Yankee. Not very honest, but resourceful.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru