THE SMITHY
Reading edition
A HINDU FABLE
BY P. V. RAMASWAMI RAJU (ADAPTED)
Once words ran high in a smithy.
The furnace said: “If I cease to burn, the smithy must close.”
The bellows said: “If I cease to blow, no fire, no smithy.”
The hammer and anvil, also, each claimed the sole credit for keeping up the smithy.
The ploughshare that had been shaped by the furnace, the bellows, the hammer and the anvil, cried: “It is not each of you alone, that keeps up the smithy, but ALL TOGETHER.”