Part 15

Next day the Tsarevna entered the palace and thought: "The Tsarevich really will fall into my clutches now." And she showed the Tsarevich the three golden hairs and the three silver ones: "Well, Tsarevich, hast managed to pick up such wonderful things as these?"--"Well, Tsarevna, that's a lot to boast of, I must say! Why, I'll give thee whole handfuls of such rubbish if thou wilt." And the whole palace resounded with cries of amazement when the Tsarevich drew from his breast the grandfather's hairs. The thrice-wise Helena was very wroth; she rushed off to her bedroom, looked into her magic books, and saw that it was not the Tsarevich who was so knowing, but his favourite servant, Ivan the merchant's son. She returned to her guests and said in soft and wheedling tones: "Thou hast not guessed my riddles and done my tasks of thine own self alone, Tsarevich, but thy favourite servant Ivan has helped thee. I should like to look at the good youth. Bring him to me quickly."--"I have not one servant but twelve servants, Tsarevna."--"Then bring him hither whose name is Ivan!"--"They are all called Ivan."--"Then let them all come," said she, but she thought to herself: "I'll pick out the guilty party, I know." The Tsarevich sent for his servants, and the twelve youths appeared at court. They were all of one face and one stature; their voices were all alike, and there was not a hair's difference between them. "Which among you is the biggest?" And they all cried with a loud voice: "I am the biggest, I am the biggest!"--"Well," thought Helena, "I can't catch you this way, but I'll manage it somehow." And she bade them bring eleven common drinking-cups, but the twelfth of pure gold; she filled the drinking-cups full with good wine, and gave them to the good youths to drink. But not one of them would look at the common cups, and all stretched out their hands towards the golden cup, so in struggling for it they only made a great clamour, and all the wine was spilled. The Tsarevna perceived that her artifice had failed, so she invited all the servants of the Tsarevich to pass the night at the palace. All the evening she gave them as much as they could eat and drink, and then she gave them soft downy beds to lie upon. And when all the good youths were sound asleep, then the thrice-wise Helena came to them in their bedroom, looked into her magic book, and immediately discovered which of them was Ivan the merchant's son. Then she drew out her penknife and cut off the lock of hair over his left temple, and she thought to herself: "By that mark I shall know you in the morning and have you punished." But in the morning, Ivan the merchant's son awoke before them all, clapped his hand to his head, and saw that he was shorn of his lock. He immediately rose from his bed and awoke all his comrades: "Quick, my brothers! take your knives and shear off your locks." In an hour's time they were summoned to the presence of the thrice-wise Helena. The Tsarevna looked and saw that all of them had their locks shorn off. Full of rage, she seized her magic book, pitched it into the fire, called the Tsarevich to her, and said to him: "I'll be thy wife, make ready for the wedding!" And the Tsarevich sent for his good youths, and said to Ivan: "Go to my sister and bid her make ready everything for the wedding." Ivan went to the Tsarevna, told her of her brother, and gave her his command. "I thank thee, thou good youth and faithful servant, for thy services," said the Tsarevich's sister to Ivan, "but say now, how shall I reward thee?"--"How shalt thou reward me?" answered Ivan the merchant's son; "why, bid them put me again in my old dungeon." And do what the Tsarevna would to persuade him, he insisted upon it.

The Tsarevich and his bride arrived, and the Boyars, the Grandees, and the festal guests came out to meet them, wished them health and happiness, and presented them with bread and salt, and there were so many people pressed together that you could have walked on their heads. "But where is my faithful servant Ivan?" asked the Tsarevich; "how is it I do not see him here?" The Tsarevna answered him: "Thou thyself hadst him put into a dungeon because of a certain dream."--"What! surely this is never the same person!"--"It's the very same; I only let him out for a time to go and help thee." The Tsarevich bade them bring Ivan to him, threw himself on his neck, burst into tears, and begged him not to think evil of him. "But dost thou know, O Tsarevich," said Ivan, "that I did not tell thee this dream of mine because I saw beforehand in my slumbers all that has now happened to thee. Judge now thyself and tell me, wouldst thou not have thought me half mad if I had told thee all?" And the Tsarevich rewarded Ivan, and made him the greatest in the realm after himself; but Ivan wrote to his father and his brother, and they all lived together and had no end of good things, and lived happily ever after.

TWO OUT OF THE KNAPSACK.

There was once an old man whose wife was exceedingly quarrelsome. The old man had no rest from her day or night; she nagged and nagged at him at every little trifle, but if the old man ventured to gainsay her in anything, she immediately caught up a broomstick, or something else, and chased him out of the kitchen. The old man had only one consolation; he would leave his old woman and go into the fields to set snares and bird-traps, hang them up on the branches of all the trees, and entice into his snares every bird that God has made, and so he would bring home a great booty, and give his old woman enough to last her for a whole day, or even two, and then he would for once enjoy a day in peace.

One day he went out into the fields and set his snares, and caught in them a crane. "What a stroke of luck!" thought the old man; "when I take home this crane to my old woman and we kill and roast it, she won't row me for a long time." But the crane guessed his thoughts, and said to him with a human voice: "Don't take me home and kill me, but let me go and live at liberty as before; thou shalt be dearer to me than my own father, and I will be as good as a son to thee." The old man was amazed at these words and let the crane go.

But when he returned home with empty hands, the old woman nagged at him so frightfully that he dared not go into the house, but passed the night in the courtyard beneath the staircase. Very early in the morning he went out into the fields, and was just about to lay his snares when he saw the crane of the evening before coming towards him, holding in its long beak a sort of knapsack. "Yesterday," said the crane, "thou didst set me free, and to-day I bring thee a little gift. Say 'thanks' for it. Just look at it!" It placed the knapsack on the ground and cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" And whence I know not, but out of the knapsack leaped two youths, brought oaken tables, covered them with dishes, and on them was flesh and fowl of every description. The old man ate his fill of such delicacies as it had never been his luck to see all his life even from afar; he ate and drank without stopping, and would only rise from the table when the crane cried: "Two into the knapsack!" And the tables with all the flesh and fowl were as if they had never been. "Take this knapsack," said the crane, "and give it to thy old woman." The old man thanked him and went home. But all at once the desire seized him to brag about his booty to his godmother. So he went to his godmother, inquired after the healths of herself and her three daughters, and said: "Give me a little supper, according as God has blessed thee!" The godmother put before him what was on the stove, curtseyed, and bade him fall to. But the godson turned up his nose and said to the godmother: "Thine is sorry fare! Why I have as good as that when I'm on the road. I'll stand treat to thee."--"Very well, do so." The old man immediately brought out his knapsack, placed it on the ground, and the moment he cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" two youths, whence they came I know not, leaped out of the knapsack, placed the oaken tables, covered them with carved dishes, and placed upon them all sorts of flesh and fowl, such as the godmother had never seen from the day of her birth. The godmother and her daughters ate and drank their fill, and her thoughts were not good; she meant to deprive her godson of his knapsack by subtlety. And she began flattering her godson, and said to him: "My dear little dovey godson, thou art tired to-day, wilt thou not stop and have a bath? We have everything handy to warm the bath-room for thee." The godson did not say no to a bath, hung up his knapsack in the hut, and went into the bath-room to bathe. But the godmother immediately bade her daughters sew together in hot haste just such another knapsack as the old man's, and when they had finished it, she foisted her knapsack on the old man, and took his knapsack for herself. The old man noticed nothing, and went home cheerily-cheerful; he sang songs and whistled all the way, and no sooner did he get home than he cried to his old woman: "Wife, wife, congratulate me upon the gift which I have got from the son of the crane!" The old woman looked at him and thought: "You've been drinking somewhere to-day, I know; I'll give you a lesson!" The old man when he got into the hut immediately placed his knapsack in the middle of the floor and cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" But out of the knapsack came nobody at all. A second time he cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" And again there was nobody. The old woman when she saw this let loose the full flood of her abuse upon him, flew at him like a whirlwind, caught up a wet mop on her way, and it was as much as he could do to escape from her and dash out of the hut.

The poor fellow fell a-weeping, and went to the self-same spot in the fields, thinking: "Perhaps I may meet the crane and get another such knapsack from him!" And indeed the crane was there, and was waiting for the old man with just such another knapsack. "Here is just such another knapsack, and it will be of as good service as the former one." The old man bowed to the very girdle and ran off home at full speed. But on the way a doubt occurred to him: "If now this knapsack be not quite the same as the other one, I shall get into a mess again with my old woman--and this time I shall not be able to hide my head from her even under the ground. Come along then: 'Two out of the knapsack!'" Immediately two young men leaped out of the knapsack with long sticks in their hands and began to belabour him, crying: "Don't go to thy godmother; don't be fooled by honeyed words!" And they kept on beating the old man till he bethought himself to say: "Two into the knapsack!" Then the young men hid themselves in the knapsack. "Well," thought the old man, "I cracked up the other knapsack to my godmother like a fool, but I shall not be a fool if I crack up this to her also. I wonder if she would like to filch this one from me also? She'd thank me on the other side of her mouth." So he went quite cheerily to his godmother, hung up the knapsack on the wall, and said: "Pray, heat me a bath, godmother."--"With pleasure, godson." The old man got into the bath and had a good wash, staying as long as he could. The godmother called her daughters, placed them behind the table, and said: "Two out of the knapsack." And out of the knapsack leaped the young men with the long sticks and began beating the godmother and crying: "Give the old man back his knapsack." The godmother sent her eldest daughter to the old man and said: "Call our godson out of the bath; say that these two are beating me to death." But the godson replied out of the bath: "I have not finished bathing yet!" The godmother sent her youngest daughter, but the godson replied out of the bath: "I have not washed my head yet!" But the two youths kept beating the godmother all the time and saying: "Give back the old man's knapsack!" The godmother's patience was quite tired out, and she bade her daughters bring the stolen knapsack, and throw it to the old man in the bath-room. Then the old man got out of his bath and cried: "Two into the knapsack!" And the young men with the long sticks were no more.

Then the old man took both the knapsacks and went home. He approached the house and again began crying: "Congratulate me, wife, on the gifts I have got from the son of the crane!" The old woman flared up at once and got her broom ready. But the old man when he came in, cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" and immediately the tables appeared before the old woman, and the two young men placed on the tables flesh and fowl in abundance. The old woman ate and drank her fill, and became quite mild and tender. "Well, dear little hubby, I'll thwack thee no more." But the old man after dinner took this knapsack and put it away, and unexpectedly got out the other, and placed it on the bench in the hut. The old woman wanted to see for herself how the old man's knapsack set to work, so she cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" Immediately the two young men with the long sticks popped out, and fell to beating the old woman, crying all the time: "Don't beat thy old man! Don't curse thy old man!" The old woman screeched with all her might, and called to her old man to help her. The old man took pity on her, came into the hut, and said: "Two into the knapsack!" and the two disappeared into the knapsack.

From henceforth the old man and the old woman lived together in such peace and quietness that the old man is always praising his old woman to the skies, and so this story ends.

THE STORY OF MARKO THE RICH AND VASILY THE LUCKLESS.

Not in our time, but a long time ago, in a certain realm, lived a very rich merchant, Marko by name, and surnamed the Rich. Cruel and hard was he by nature, greedy of lucre and unmerciful to the poor. Whenever the lowly and the needy came begging beneath his window he sent his servants to drive them away, and let loose his dogs upon them. There was only one thing in the world he loved, and that was his daughter, the thrice-fair Anastasia. To her only he was not hard, and though she was only five years old, he never gainsaid her one of her wishes, and gave her all her heart's desire.

And once on a cold frosty day, three gray-haired men came under the window and asked an alms. Marko saw them, and ordered the dogs to be let loose. The thrice-fair Anastasia heard of it, and implored her father and said: "My own dear father, for my sake don't drive them away, but let them pass the night in the cattle-stall." The father consented, and bade them let the poor old beggar-men into the cattle-stall for the night. As soon as every one was asleep Anastasia rose up, made her way on tiptoe to the stall, climbed up into the loft, and looked at the beggars. The old beggar-men were crouching together in the middle of the stall, leaning on their crutch-staves with their wrinkled hands, and over their hands flowed their gray beards, and they were talking softly among themselves. One of the old men, the oldest of them all, looked at the others and said: "What news from the wide world?" The second one immediately replied: "In the village Pogoryeloe, [61] in the house of Ivan the Luckless, a seventh son is born; what shall we call him, and with what inheritance shall we bless him?" And the third old man, after meditating a little, said: "We'll call him Vasily, and we'll enrich him with the riches of Marko the Rich, under whose roof we are now passing the night." When they had thus said they prepared to depart, bowed low to the holy ikons, and with soft footsteps prepared to depart from the stall. Anastasia heard all this, went straight to her father, and told him the words of the old men.

Marko the Rich thought deeply over it. He thought and thought, and he went to the village Pogoryeloe. "I'll find out for certain," thought he, "whether such a babe really has been born there." He went straight to the priest and told him all about it. "Yes," replied the priest, "yesterday we had a babe born here, the son of our poorest serf; I christened him Vasily, and luckless he certainly is; he is the seventh son in the family, and the eldest son of the family is only seven years old; the sons of this poor peasant are wee, wee little things; there is next to nothing to eat and drink there; and such hunger and want is in the house that there's none in the village who will even stand sponsor." At this news the heart of Marko the Rich began to ache. Marko thought of the unhappy youngster, declared he would be godfather, asked the priest's wife to be godmother, and bade them make ready a rich table; and they brought the little fellow, christened him, and sat down and feasted.

At the banquet Marko the Rich spoke friendly words to Ivan the Luckless, and said to him: "Gossip, thou art a poor man, and cannot afford to bring up thy son; give him to me; I will bring him up among well-to-do people, and I will give into thy hand at once for thine own maintenance one thousand rubles." The poor man thought the matter over, and then shook hands upon it. Marko gave gifts to his fellow-sponsor, took the child, wrapped him in fox furs, put him in his carriage, and drove homewards. They had got some ten versts from the village when Marko stopped the horses, took up the child, went to the brink of a great precipice, whirled the child over his head, and pitched it down the precipice, exclaiming: "There you go, and now take possession of my goods if you can!"

Shortly after that some merchants from beyond the sea chanced to be travelling by the self-same road; these merchants brought with them twelve thousand rubles which they owed to Marko the Rich. They passed along by the side of the precipice, and they heard within the precipice the crying of a child. They stopped their horses, went to the precipice, and looked amongst the snowdrifts of the green meadows, and on a meadow a little child was sitting and playing with flowers. The merchants took up the child, wrapped him round with furs, and went on their way. They came to the house of Marko the Rich, and told him of their strange discovery. Marko immediately guessed that the matter concerned his own little serf boy, and he said to the merchants: "I should very much like to look at your foundling; if you will give him to me out and out I'll forgive you your debt to me." The merchants agreed, gave the child to Marko, and departed. But Marko that same night took the child, put it in a little cask, tarred it all over, and threw it into the sea.

The cask sailed and sailed along, and at last it came to a monastery. The monks happened to be on the shore just then; they were spreading out their fishing-nets to dry, and all at once they heard the crying of a child. They guessed that the crying came from the cask, and they immediately seized the cask, broke it open, and there was the child. They took the child to the abbot, and as soon as the abbot heard that the child had been cast upon the shore in a cask, he decided that the youngster's name should be Vasily, and that he should be surnamed the Luckless. And henceforth Vasily lived in the monastery till he was sixteen years old, and he grew up fair of face, soft of heart, and strong in mind. The abbot loved him because he learned his letters so quickly that he was able to read and sing in the church better than all the others, and because he was deft and skilful in affairs. And the abbot made him sacristan.

And it happened that once Marko the Rich was travelling on business, and came to this very monastery. The monks treated him with honour as a rich guest. The abbot commanded the sacristan to run and open the church; the sacristan ran at once, lit the candles, and remained in the choir, and read and sang. And Marko the Rich asked the abbot if the young man had dwelt there long, and the abbot told him all about it. Marko began to think, and it struck him that this could be no other than his serf-boy. And he said to the abbot: "Would that I could lay my hands upon such a smart young fellow as your sacristan, I would place all my treasures beneath his care; I would make him the chief overseer of all my goods, and you know yourselves what goods are mine." The abbot began to make excuses, but Marko promised the monastery a donation of ten thousand rubles. The abbot wavered; he began to consult the brothers, and the brothers said to him: "Why should we stand in Vasily's way? let Marko the Rich take him and make him his overseer." So they deliberated, and agreed to send away Vasily the Luckless with Marko the Rich.

But Marko sent Vasily home in a ship, and wrote to his wife this letter: "When the bearer of this letter reaches thee, go with him at once to our soap-works, and when thou dost pass the great boiling cauldron, shove him in. If thou dost not do this I will punish thee severely, for this youth is my prime enemy and evil-doer." Vasily duly arrived in port and went on his way, and there met him in the road three poor old men, and they asked him: "Whither art thou going, Vasily the Luckless?"--"Why, to the house of Marko the Rich, I have a letter for his wife."--"Show us the letter," said the old men. Vasily took out the letter and gave it them. The old men breathed on the letter and said: "Go now, and give the letter to the wife of Marko the Rich--God will not forsake thee."

Vasily came to the house of Marko the Rich and gave the letter to his wife. The wife read Marko's letter, and called her daughter, for she could not believe her own eyes, but in the letter was written as plain as plain could be: "Wife, the next day after thou dost receive this my letter, marry my daughter, Anastasia, to the bearer, and do so without delay. If thou doest it not thou shalt answer to me for it." Anastasia looked at Vasily, and Vasily stared at her. And they dressed Vasily in rich attire, and the next day they wedded him to Anastasia.

Marko the Rich came home from the sea, and his wife with his daughter and son-in-law met him on the quay. Marko looked at Vasily, fell into a furious passion with his wife, and said to her: "How darest thou wed our daughter away without my consent?" But the wife replied: "I dared not disobey thy strict command!" and she gave the threatening letter to her husband. Marko read the letter, and saw that the handwriting was his own if the intention was not, and he thought to himself: "Good! thrice hast thou escaped ruin at my hands, but now I will send thee where not even the ravens shall pick thy bones."

Marko lived for a month with his son-in-law and treated him and his daughter most kindly; from his face nobody could have thought that he nourished evil thoughts against him in his heart. One day Marko called Vasily to him and said to him: "Go to the land of Thrice-nine, in the Empire of Thrice-ten, to Tsar Zmy [62]; twelve years ago he built a palace on my land. Thou therefore take rent from him for all the twelve years, and get news from him concerning my twelve ships, which have been wrecked about his kingdom for the last three years, and have left no trace behind them." Vasily dared not gainsay his father-in-law, but prepared for his journey, took leave of his young wife, took a sack of sweetmeats as provision by the way, and set out.