Pa’s Prayers

Pa Jacob, though very old and had never seen the walls of a school, was quite intelligent. He had a way of consoling himself. Each evening, when his sons came from the big cities and began to talk about education and civilization, he would tell them he did not have book knowledge because there were no schools in his days. He would start a joke by telling them that if he had been to school, he could have made a car that could fly in the air and carry him to his farm far in forest. But in spite of all this, Pa took great time to think about the things he heard, for though he had never been to the city before, he knew what it was all about. At least out of his five sons, four were successfully rich and drove big and shinning cars. As they came and talked for a long time before they gave him money, Pa took time to pick some phrases from their talk.
There was this particular sentence Pa was fond of, especially when praying for people. It was true that he might not know its meaning but each time he needed to pray he would repeat what his sons usually mentioned when they were giving him money or other gifts. They would say, ‘Father, things are not easy in the city out there, but you can manage this little piece of gesture,’ and present Pa with money, sometimes, very huge amount of money that is enough to cloth a king.
‘May it not be easy for you in your efforts as it is with my rich sons in the big city. It shall never be easy with you as it is with my sons, who drive big cars with cold breeze in them,’ Pa would say very proudly and tell his recipient how wonderfully he would have spoken English if he had seen school.
One morning, the last of Pa’s of sons was preparing to leave for the city. Pahad made him kneel down and he began to pray for him.
‘As you leave for the city today, it shall not easy with you so much as it is not easy with your brothers who live in the big cities and drive in big cars.’
His son opened his eyes and looked at him, but Pa did not care a wink. He continued saying, ‘It shall never not be well with you’ until the boy, angered by the whole process, stood up and refused to affirm his father’s prayers. It was just then he told his aged father that the phrase he was addicted to was only a mannerism formed by residents of big cities to prevent people from suspecting the wealth and was not supposed to be a prayer.

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