And Ivan lived at home, supporting his father and mother and working in
the fields with his deaf and dumb sister.
One day Ivan’s yard-dog fell sick. He grew mangy, and was near dying.
Ivan pitied it. He took a piece of bread from his sister, put it in his
cap, carried it out and threw it to the dog. The creases in his cap
parted and out rolled one of the little roots with the bread. The dog
ate it up. As soon as it had swallowed the root it began to jump about
and bark and play and wag its tail. It was quite well again.
The father and mother were amazed.
“How did you cure the dog?” they asked.
And Ivan said, “I had two little roots that could cure any pain, and the
dog swallowed one.”
It happened at the time that the King’s daughter fell ill, and the King
proclaimed to every town and village that he would reward any man who
could cure her, and that if he were an unmarried man he should have her
for his wife. The news came to Ivan’s village.
And the father and mother summoned Ivan and said to him, “Have you heard
of the King’s promise? You told us you had a little root that could cure
any sickness; go, cure the King’s daughter, you will then be happy for
life.”
“Very well,” Ivan said, “I will go.”
And Ivan prepared himself for the journey, and they dressed him in his
best clothes. When he came out on the doorstep he saw a beggar-woman
with a crippled hand.
“I heard that you can cure the sick,” she said. “Cure my hand, for I
cannot even put on my own shoes.”
“Very well,” Ivan said. And he took the little root out of his cap, gave
it to the beggar-woman and told her to swallow it. As soon as she
swallowed it, she recovered, and began to wave her hand.
The father and mother came out to bid good-bye to Ivan, and they heard
that he had given away his last root and had nothing left with which to
cure the King’s daughter, and they began to scold him.
“You pity a beggar-woman, yet have no pity for the King’s daughter,”
they reproached him.
But Ivan was sorry for the King’s daughter. He harnessed the mare, threw
some straw into the cart and got in.
“Where are you going to, you fool?”
“To cure the King’s daughter.”
“But you have nothing to cure her with now.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, and drove away.
He came to the King’s palace, and as soon as he stepped over the
threshold the King’s daughter got well.
The King was overjoyed. He ordered Ivan to be brought to him, and
dressed him in fine clothes.
“You must be my son-in-law,” he said.
“Very well,” Ivan said.
And Ivan married the princess. Her father died soon after, and Ivan
became King.
All three brothers were now kings.