THRESHING-TIME
It was the joyous threshing-time. The summer's work was over. The
harvest had been good, and from all the fields the high-piled carts
were bringing the sheaves to the threshing-floors. On these high levels
busy flails were flying, making a quick music that chimed well with
the sweet, melancholy threshing-song of the girls who were gathering
the wind-swept grain into bags. When the threshing was all done the
little boy's eldest sister would be married, for autumn is the time
for marriages, when vegetables and pork are plenty and there is money
to buy brandy from the Jew.
The grandmother had gone out with the little boy to see the threshing
and to hear the threshing-song. She had sung that same song in her
young days, and so had her great-grandmother before her. On the way
back to the house a cow-herd woman met them--not their own, but that
of a neighbor--and told them that her old master, the bolshak, or
head of the family, was dead. The grandmother looked terror-stricken,
and hastily exclaimed:
"May the Saviour's cross be with thee!"
The cow-herd woman went on her way to spread the news.
"Why did you say that, grandmother?" asked the little boy.
"To scare away the death angel," replied the grandmother. "Never
forget to say that when any one tells you of a death; otherwise it
may come to your own house next."
The grandmother seemed sad when she reached home. She had known the
old man when she was a girl. He had been a stern and severe bolshak
in his family, keeping all his married sons at home and making them
work hard for him, not at all like her son, the starosta, who was
so kind to his children. Nevertheless, it made her sad that he was
dead. She sat quiet, distaff and spindle lying idly in her lap.
"Grandmother," said the little boy, "would it comfort you to tell me
a story?"
"Indeed it would," said the grandmother. "Come now, sit on that stool
and hold this yarn for me, and I will tell you about
"THE THREE EELS."
Once upon a time there was a fisherman who on three successive days
made out to catch only an eel a day. When he found only one eel in
his net on the third day he cried out angrily:
"What's the use of fishing when one gets nothing more than one eel
day after day?"
Immediately the tongue of one of the eels was loosed, and he said,
"Wretched man, you little know what a precious catch you have
had! You have fished up great good luck for yourself. Only now do as
I advise you: Kill one of us three and divide him into four parts;
give one piece to your wife to eat, the second to the mother-dog,
the third to the mare, and bury the fourth in the ground just above
your house. Soon your wife will bring twins into the world, the dog
two pups, the mare two full-blooded stallions, and above your house
will spring up two golden swords."
The fisherman followed the Eel's advice, and indeed in the course of
time everything happened as the Eel had predicted--his wife bore twins,
the dog two pups, the mare two full-blooded stallions, and above his
house two golden swords sprang up.
When the sons grew large and had passed a certain number of years,
one of them said to his father, "Father, I perceive that you are a poor
man and cannot keep us any longer; so let me take a horse, a dog, and
a sword, and go forth into the world. I am young and need experience;
and where my head may rest, there also will my food be found."
When he had thus spoken he turned to his brother with the words,
"Brother, God keep you! I go to seek my fortune. Do you stay at home,
work, make, and save, and honor our father. Take this vial of water
and give good heed to it, for if the water in it becomes dark it will
be a sure sign that I have perished."
Thus he spoke and went to seek his fortune.
In the course of his wanderings he came to a great city, where the
King's daughter saw him as he was taking a walk about the town. She
at once fell desperately in love with him, and begged her father to
invite him to the house. This he did. When the youth entered the
King's apartments, and the maiden saw the sword, the dog, and the
horse near by, she found everything on and about him so fine that
it seemed to her nothing in the whole world could be finer. She
fell more madly in love with him than ever, and said to her father,
"Father, I want to marry that youth!"
The King was very well pleased, the young man had nothing against it,
so the bargain was concluded and the marriage celebrated according
to form and custom.
One evening, as the youth stood at the window with his wife, he noticed
in the distance a large mountain which was all a light blaze. He asked
his wife what was the cause of this, and she answered, "Oh, sir, do not
ask me! That is a magic mountain that spits lightnings by day and at
night stands wreathed in flames, and whoever goes there to see what is
the matter is instantly struck dumb and remains enchanted on the spot."
He paid no heed to her words, but mounted his horse, girded on his
sword, called his dog, and rode to the mountain. When he reached it
he met an old woman perched on a rock, holding in one hand a staff
and in the other a little weed. As soon as he saw her he asked her
why the mountain had these peculiarities, and she told him to ride
along and he would soon find out.
He did so, and the old woman conducted him to a court hedged in
with the bones of heroes, and around in the court were countless men
standing stark and stiff, all enchanted. He had hardly stepped into
this court when he, too, as also his horse and his dog, grew rigid
and changed to stone on the spot where they stood.
At the same moment the water in the brother's bottle at home grew dark,
and the brother announced to the father and mother that his brother,
their son, was dead and that he must go abroad and seek him.
So he travelled from place to place and from city to city, until luck
took him to that very town and to the King's palace. At sight of him
the King rushed to his daughter with the good news, "Your husband
has returned!"
She ran down to meet him, and thought he was her husband, for the two
brothers were as much alike as the two halves of a cut apple. She
thought it was the same horse, the same dog, and the same sword;
and father and daughter rushed joyfully to meet him. They kissed
and caressed him, the King thinking that it was his son-in-law,
the daughter thinking that it was her husband.
The youth was at first quite bewildered by these signs of affection,
but it occurred to him that they were for his brother, and so he
feigned to be her husband and the King's son-in-law.
When night came they retired, but he laid his drawn sword in the
bed between them. The woman wondered at this, but he said he could
not sleep, and arose and went to the window. At sight of the magic
mountain he said, "Tell me, my dear little wife, why is that mountain
in flames?"
"For Heaven's sake," answered she, "did I not tell you that other
evening of the peculiarities of that mountain?"
"What do you mean?" he asked her again, and she answered, "Every one
who goes there is enchanted and turned to stone. I was in great fear
during your absence that you had gone there."
When he heard this he guessed the trouble, and in his anxiety he could
hardly wait for daybreak. As soon as it was light he mounted his horse,
girded on his sword, called to his dog, and rode to the mountain. When
he saw the old woman he drew his sword from the scabbard, spurred
on his horse, and set the dog upon her without saying a word. The
old woman fell back in a fury and called out to him not to cut her
down. He answered, "Then give me back my brother!" Hereupon the old
woman led his brother out and restored to him speech and soul.
When the brothers had greeted each other, and asked after each other's
health, they turned back homeward. But on the way the one who had
been enchanted said, "O brother, come! Let us turn back and deliver
those men from perdition--those who are enchanted as I was."
No sooner said than done. They turn around, seize the old woman,
snatch from her the little weed, and begin to strike the enchanted men
with it, until by degrees all of them begin to speak and move. When
all those enchanted ones had been called back into life they killed
the old witch. The twin brothers went back to the King's palace and
all the others to their houses.
I have heard a lie, I have told a lie, and God give you joy!
"Why do you say that, grandmother?" asked the little boy.
"That is the way it ends," said the grandmother.