The three brothers were reigning.
The elder brother, Semén the Warrior, lived well. With his straw
soldiers he got him real soldiers. He commanded his people to furnish a
soldier to each ten homes, and every such soldier had to be tall of
stature, and white of body, and clean of face. And he gathered a great
many such soldiers and taught them all what to do. And if any one acted
contrary to his will, he at once sent his soldiers against that person,
and did as he pleased. And all began to be afraid of him.
He had an easy life. Whatever he wished for, or his eyes fell upon, was
his. He would send out his soldiers, and they would take away and bring
to him whatever he needed.
Tarás the Paunch, too, lived well. The money which he had received from
Iván he had not spent, but he had increased it greatly. He, too, had
good order in his kingdom. The money he kept in coffers, and exacted
more money from the people. He exacted money from each soul for walking
past, and driving past, and for bast shoes, and leg-rags, and
shoe-laces. And no matter what he wished, he had; for money they brought
him everything, and they went to work for him, because everybody needs
money.
Nor did Iván the Fool live badly. As soon as he had buried his
father-in-law, he took off his royal garments and gave them to his wife
to put away in the coffer. He put on his old hempen shirt and trousers,
and his bast shoes, and began to work.
"I do not feel well," he said. "My belly is growing larger, and I cannot
eat, nor sleep."
He brought his parents and the dumb girl, and began to work again.
People said to him:
"But you are a king!"
"All right," he said, "but a king, too, has to eat."
The minister came to him, and said:
"We have no money with which to pay salaries."
"All right," he said, "if you have none, pay no salaries!"
"But they will stop serving you."
"All right," he said, "Let them stop serving! They will have more time
for work. Let them haul manure. They have not hauled any for a long
time."
People came to Iván to have a case tried. One said:
"He stole money from me."
But Iván replied:
"All right, evidently he needed it."
All saw that Iván was a fool. His wife said to him:
"They say about you that you are a fool."
"All right," he said.
Iván's wife, too, was a fool, and she thought and thought.
"Why should I go against my husband?" she said. "The thread belongs
where the needle is."
She took off her regal garments, put them in a coffer, and went to the
dumb girl to learn to work. She learned, and began to help her husband.
All the wise men left Iván's kingdom, and only the fools were left.
Nobody had any money. They lived and worked and fed themselves and all
good people.