Folk-lore and Legends: Russian and Polish 8
In a little while the clerk came back, and, having called Fetinia, asked
her to bring out the duck. The woman went to the oven, but when she saw
that the duck was not there, she was terribly put out, and told the
clerk that the duck had disappeared. At that the clerk flew into a great
rage, and said—
“You have eaten the duck yourself, of course,” and he got up and walked
out of the house.
In the evening Abrosim and his son, Little Ivan, came home. When Abrosim
did not see the duck, he asked his wife where it was, and she told him
that she did not know. Then Little Ivan said to his father—
“My dear father, when I came home, in the middle of the day, for dinner,
my mother was not in, so I looked in the oven, and there found a roast
duck. I took it out and ate it all but the bones, but I do not know
whether it was our duck or a strange one.”
Then old Abrosim was in such a rage that he thrashed his wife till she
was half dead, and he turned Little Ivan out of doors.
Little Ivan began his journey. Where should he go? He determined to
follow his nose. For ten days and nights he went on. Then he came to a
town, and as he stepped to the gate he saw a great many people assembled
together. Now these folk had been taking council, their Czar being dead,
as to who should succeed him. In the end they agreed that the first
person who came in at the city gate should be made Czar. Just then in
came Little Ivan through the gate, so all the people cried out together—
“Here is our Czar!”
The chief folk took Little Ivan by the arms, conducted him to the royal
apartments, put on him the Czar’s robes, seated him on the throne, made
obeisance to him as to their Czar, and waited for his commands. Then
Little Ivan thought he must surely be asleep and dreaming all this; but
at last he knew that he must be really Czar. He was heartily pleased,
began to rule over the people, and to appoint his officers. A short time
after he called one of them, named Luga, to him, and said—
“My true friend and good knight Luga, I want you to do me a service. Go
to my own country, go to the Czar, salute him from me, and ask him to
deliver to you the shopkeeper Abrosim and his wife, so that you may
bring them to me. If he will not deliver them up to you, tell him that I
will lay waste his country with fire, and will make him himself my
prisoner.”
When the servant Luga was come into Little Ivan’s country he went to the
Czar and asked him to let Abrosim and Fetinia go away with him. The Czar
was unwilling to let Abrosim go, for he wanted to keep the rich merchant
in his own country. He knew, however, that Ivan’s kingdom was very large
and populous, and being therefore afraid, he let Abrosim and Fetinia
depart. Luga received them from the Czar, and conducted them to his own
native country.
When he brought them to Little Ivan, the Czar said to his father—
“Yes, father, you turned me away from your house, and I therefore bring
you to mine. Come, live with me, you and my mother, till the end of your
days.”
Abrosim and Fetinia rejoiced exceedingly to find that their son was
become Czar, and they lived with him many years, until they died.
Little Ivan ruled for thirty years in good health, and was very happy,
and all his people loved him sincerely to the last hour of his life.
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EMELYAN THE FOOL.
IN a certain village there once lived a peasant who had three sons, of
whom two were sensible, but the third was a fool, and his name was
Emelyan. When the peasant had lived for a long time, and was grown very
old, he called his three sons to him, and said to them—
“My dear children, I feel that I have not very long to live, so I give
you the house and cattle, which you will divide, share and share alike,
among you. I also leave you, in money, a hundred roubles apiece.”
Soon after the old man died, and his sons, after they had buried him,
lived on happy and contented.
Some time after Emelyan’s brothers took it into their heads to remove
into the city, and carry on trade with the three hundred roubles which
their father had left them. So they said to Emelyan—
“Hark ye, fool! we are going to the city, and we will take your hundred
roubles with us, and if we prosper in trade we will buy you a red coat,
red boots, and a red cap. Do you, however, stay at home here, and when
your sisters-in-law desire you to do anything, do as they bid you.”
The fool, who had a great longing for a red coat, a red cap, and red
boots, answered at once that he would do whatever his sisters-in-law
told him. So his brothers went off to the city, and Emelyan stayed at
home.
One day, when the winter was come and the cold was great, his
sisters-in-law told him to go out and fetch in water, but Emelyan
remained lying on the stove, and said—
“Ay, and who, then, are you?”
“How now, fool!” said his sisters-in-law, “we are what you see. You know
how cold it is, and that it is a man’s business to go.”
“I am lazy,” replied he.
“How!” cried they. “You are lazy! You will want to eat, and how can we
cook if we have no water? Very well, then, we will tell our husbands not
to give him anything when they have bought the fine red coat and all for
him.”
The fool heard what they said, and, as he was very desirous to get the
red coat and cap, he saw that he must go. So he got down from by the
stove, and began to put on his shoes and stockings, and to dress
himself. When he was ready he took the buckets and the axe, and went
down to the river, which ran near their village. When he arrived there,
he cut an enormous hole in the ice. He then drew water in the buckets,
and, setting them on the ice, he stood by the hole, looking into the
water. As he looked he saw a large pike swimming about in the open
water. Fool as Emelyan was he felt a wish to catch this pike. So he
stole on softly and cautiously to the edge of the hole, and, making a
sudden grasp at the pike, he caught him, and pulled him out of the
water. Putting him in his bosom, he was hurrying home, when the pike
cried out—
“Ho, fool! why have you caught me?”
“To take you home,” answered he, “to get my sisters-in-law to cook you.”
“Ho, fool!” said the pike; “do not take me home, but let me go again
into the water, and I will make a rich man of you.”
Emelyan, however, would not consent, and was going on homewards. When
the pike clearly saw that the fool was not inclined to let him go, he
said—
“Hark ye, fool! let me go, and I will do for you everything you do not
like to do for yourself. You will only have to wish, and it will be
done.”
When the fool heard that he rejoiced very much, for, as he was
uncommonly lazy, he thought to himself—
“If the pike does everything that I have no mind to do, all will be done
without my having any occasion to work.”
So he said to the pike—
“I will let you go in the water if you will do all you promise.”
“Let me go first,” said the pike, “and then I will keep my promise.”
The fool, however, said that the pike must first perform his promise,
and then he would let him go. When the pike saw he would not put him
into the water, he said—
“If you wish, as I told you, that I should do all you desire, you must
tell me now what your desire is.”
“I wish,” said the fool, “that my buckets should go of themselves from
the river up the hill, and that without spilling any of the water.”
Then said the pike—
“Remember the words I now say, and listen to what they are: ‘At the
pike’s command, and at my request, go, buckets, of yourselves up the
hill.’”
The fool repeated after him—
“At the pike’s command, and at my request, go, buckets, of yourselves up
the hill.”
Instantly, with the speed of thought, the buckets ran up the hill. When
Emelyan saw that, he was amazed beyond __EXPRESSION__, and he said to the
pike—
“But will it always be so?”
“Everything you desire will be done,” said the pike; “but do not forget,
I say, the words I have taught you.”
Emelyan then put the pike into the water, and followed his buckets home.
The neighbours were all amazed when they saw the buckets, and said to
one another—
“This fool makes the buckets come of themselves up from the river, and
he follows them himself at his leisure.”
But Emelyan took no notice of them, and went on home. The buckets were
by this time in the house, and standing in their place on the
foot-bench, and Emelyan himself lay down on the stove.
After some time his sisters-in-law said to him again—
“Emelyan, what are you loitering there for? Get up and cut wood.”
But the fool said—
“Ay! and you! who are you, then?”
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