Part 6

The next day the little fox again came running to court. The Tsar asked her: "Where, then, is our destined son-in-law?" The little fox replied: "He bade me bow low before you and say that to-day he cannot manage to come anyhow!"--"How so?" "Well, he is frightfully busy; he is getting together all his things to come to you, and just now he is counting up his treasures. So now he begs you to lend him a corn-measure, he must measure his silver money; his corn-measures are all choke-full of gold." The Tsar, without more ado, gave the fox the corn-measure, but he said to himself: "Well done, fox! This is something like a son-in-law that has fallen to our lot. He actually measures his gold and silver with corn-measures!" The next day the fox again came running to court and returned the Tsar his corn-measure (but she had stuck little silver pieces all about the corners of it), and said: "Your destined son-in-law, Kuz'ma Skorobogaty, bade me bow low to you and say that to-day he'll be with you with all his riches." The Tsar was delighted, and bade them have everything ready for the reception of the precious guest. But the little fox set off for Kuz'ma's hut, and there, for the last two days, Kuz'ma had been lying on the stove--hungry, oh! so hungry, and waiting. The fox said to him: "Why dost thou lie down like that? I have got thee a bride from Tsar Ogon and the Tsaritsa Molnya. Let us come to them as guests and celebrate the wedding!"--"Why, fox! art thou out of thy wits? How can I go when I haven't even clothes to cover me?"--"Go! saddle thy nag, I say! and don't bother thy head about that!" Kuz'ma brought out his sorry jade from beneath the shed, covered it with a mat, put on the reins, jumped on its back, and set off after the fox at a light trot. They were already drawing near to the palace, when they came across a little bridge directly in their path. "Jump off thy horse!" said the fox to Kuz'ma, "and saw through the buttresses of this bridge." So little Kuz'ma fell a-sawing with all his might, and sawed through the buttresses of the bridge. Down came the bridge with a crash. "Now, strip thyself naked, throw thy horse and all thy clothes into the water, and roll about in the sand, and wait for me!" That's what the fox said; and then off she ran to the Tsar and the Tsaritsa, and cried to them from afar: "Hi, dear little father! Such an accident! Help, help!"--"What's the matter, dear little foxy?" asked the Tsar.--"Why, this; the bridges in your tsardom are not strong enough. Your destined son-in-law was coming to you with all his riches, and this precious bridge broke down beneath the weight of them, and all his wealth and all his people have fallen in, and he himself is lying on the bridge more dead than alive!" The Tsar made a great to-do, and shrieked at his servants, and cried: "Haste ye, haste ye! as quickly as ye can, and take of my royal robes for Kuz'ma Skorobogaty, and save him from mortal harm!" And the envoys of the Tsar ran as fast as they could to the bridge, and there they saw little Kuz'ma rolling about in the sand. They picked him up, washed and dried him all over, arrayed him in the royal robes, curled his hair, and led him respectfully to the palace. The Tsar, full of joy that his destined son-in-law had been delivered from such peril, bade them ring all the bells, fire all the guns, and celebrate the wedding at once. So they crowned Kuz'ma as the groom of the Tsarevna, and he dwelt with his father-in-law, and sang songs all day; and the fox was held in high honour at court till life at court ceased to bore her, and she had no longer any desire to return to the woods.

THE TSAREVNA LOVELINESS-INEXHAUSTIBLE.

A long time ago, far from our days, in a certain tsardom in a certain Empire lived a famous Tsar Afron Afronovich, and he had three youthful sons: the eldest the Tsarevich Dimitry, the second the Tsarevich Vasily, and the youngest the Tsarevich Ivan. The sons of Afron were all grown up; the youngest had reached his seventeenth year, while Tsar Afron himself had left sixty years behind him. And once, as Tsar Afron fell a-thinking and looked at his sons, his heart grew sad: "Look now!" thought he, "life is a good thing to these youths, and they rejoice in God's fair world; but, as for me, I feel old age drawing nigh, and divers diseases begin to afflict me, and the wide world has now but little delight for me. How will it be with me henceforth? How shall I escape old age?" Thus he thought and thought, and so he fell asleep. And a vision appeared to the Tsar. Somewhere or other beyond lands thrice-nine, in the Empire of Thrice-ten, dwelt the Tsarevna Loveliness-Inexhaustible, the daughter of three mothers, the granddaughter of three grandmothers, the sister of nine brothers; and under the pillow of this Tsarevna was preserved a flask of living-water, and whoever drank of this water instantly became thirty years younger. No sooner did the Tsar Afron awake from his sleep, than he called together his children and the wise men of his realm, and said to them: "Interpret me this dream, ye my sages and cunning counsellors. What shall I do, and how can I discover this Tsarevna?" The sages were silent. The cunning counsellors stroked their long gray beards, looked up and down, scratched their heads, and thus they answered the Tsar Afron: "Oh, Sovereign Tsar! though we have not seen this thing with our eyes, yet our ears have heard of this Tsarevna Loveliness-Inexhaustible; but how to find her, and which way to get at her, that we know not." No sooner did the three Tsarevichs hear this, when with one voice they thus implored their father the Tsar: "Dear father Tsar! give us thy blessing, and send us to the four corners of the earth, that we may see people and show ourselves and discover the Tsarevna Loveliness-Inexhaustible." The father agreed, gave them provision for the journey, took leave of them tenderly, and sent them off to the four corners of the earth. When the two elder brothers got beyond the city gates they turned to the right, but the youngest brother, the Tsarevich Ivan, turned to the left. The elder brothers had got only a hundred miles and no more from home, when they met an old man, and he asked them: "Whither are ye going, young men? Is your journey far?"--But the Tsareviches replied: "Take yourself off, old rogue! What business is it of yours?" The old man said nothing but went on his way. The Tsareviches went on and on, all that day and the next and a whole week, and they came to such a wilderness that they could see neither earth nor sky, nor any living being, nor any habitation; and in the deepest depth of this wilderness they met another old man, even older than the first. "Hail, good youths!" said he to the Tsareviches. "Are ye truants and rest, or are ye in quest?"--"Why, we are in quest of something, of course. We are going in search of the Tsarevna Loveliness-Inexhaustible, with her flask of living-water!"--"Nay, my good youths!" said the aged stranger, "'twere better ye did not try to get thither."--"And why, pray?"--"I'll tell you. Three rivers cross this road--rivers large and broad. On these rivers are three ferries. At the first ferry they'll cut off your right arm, at the second your left, but at the third they'll cut off your head!" The brother Tsareviches were sore distressed, their giddy pates hung down below their sturdy shoulders, and they thought to themselves: "Ought we not to have some regard for our father's head and our own heads also? 'Twill be much better to return home alive and well, and wait for fine weather by the sea." And they turned back; and when they were a twenty-four hours' journey from home, they resolved to rest in the fields; and they spread their tents, with the golden tent-poles, let their horses out to graze, and said: "Here we'll stop and await our brother, and while away the time in idleness."