Dietrich and Friedrich ride around the country and end up in the village of Schilda, where they observe the local citizens. One father is explaining Einstein's Theory of Relativity to his son (played by Braydon), another is relating the history of the emperors of Germany and a third is explaining the source of the northern lights. The messengers are so impressed with this village that they report their findings to the king and he commands them to bring the village men to court to become his advisers. The citizens are reluctant to go, even with the promise of 100 gold pieces each and a weeks vacation at home annually, but the king gives them no choice. The men go off to court and return after one year, accompanied by the king's messengers. The village has missed them terribly: the children had no one to mend their broken toys, no one could farms well as they could and no one could get in the winters wood supply. The women insisted the men remain and one man had a brilliant idea: they would pretend to be stupid so the king would not want them to return.
Monday: First Trick- The Citizens of Schilda Build a Town Hall.The citizens decide to build a town hall out of the trees on the mountain. The men climb the mountain chop down the trees and laboriously carry them down the mountain on their shoulders. The last man slips and his tree trunk rolls down the mountain all by itself. The villagers note how much easier that was, so they carry all the tree trunks back up the mountain and roll them down again.
Tuesday: Second Trick- The Citizens Bring Light to the Town Hall
The new town is all finished but when the citizens enter it, they find it is pitch black inside. One citizen suggests it is dark because the town hall is in the shade of the big tree, so everyone helps push it out into the sunshine. They find it is still dark, so the mayor sends everyone home to get containers. Bringing sacks, pots and pails, the citizens try to trap the sunlight in their containers and let it loose inside the town hall. Needless to say, it remains dark inside. Finally one citizen realizes that they need holes for the sunshine to come in, so they chop holes in the roof. They are delighted to find that the building is nice and light inside and they hold a town council meeting. Unfortunately, it begins to rail and everyone inside gets soaked. To solve this problem, the mayor declares that council meetings will be held only on sunny days. The messengers tell each other that these are the stupidest people in the land.
Wednesday: Third Trick- The Citizens of Schilda Trample the Wheat
The wheat is nearly ripe and the head farmer wants to go out into the field to check the ripeness of the heads of wheat. He is stopped by another citizen who says that the farmer will trample on the wheat and ruin it if he walks out in the field. So the citizens solve that problem by using four men to carry the farmer in a chair through the wheat field so he won't trample the wheat. As the four carrying the farmer completely ruin the field, one woman remarks that somehow that didn't work exactly as they had planned.
Thursday: Fourth Trick- One Person gets lost
The whole town decides to go on a picnic and off they go, singing and dancing. They have a great time eating and playing, When it is finally time to go home, the mayor wants to be sure they have everyone, so he counts the people. Instead of the 15 they came with, he only counts 14. Several different citizens count and recount, but they always come up with one short. Finally one citizen suggests that each person stick his nose in the sandbox and the mayor count the holes. They do this ad of course they come up with 15. No one was lost!
Friday: Fifth Trick- The Citizens of Schilda Hide Their Treasures
While the children are playing, they spot soldiers approaching (one which was Ethan) and run and tell their parents. The mayor has two of the citizens bring the town treasure chest and the church bell, their most precious treasures, and hide them from the marauding soldiers. The men row a boat out on the lake and sink the chest and bell in the middle. The soldiers search the houses, but can't find anything, so they leave. The mayor asks the men if they marked the place they sank the treasure. They said, "Of course we did. We put a red X right on the boat where we dropped the treasure in the water."
Saturday- The citizens realize that their week's vacation is over and gather up their belongings to return to the capital. However, the messengers tell the citizens that they have been watching Schilda closely all week and have determined that the men are too stupid to serve as king's advisers any longer. The messengers depart, leaving a very happy village of Schilda.
The moral of the story here- Schildburger are smarter than they appear!
The kids did the whole play in German and did an absolute great job.
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