Russian Fable
Texts For Chapbook Illustrations 1885
Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – Fables for Children By Leo Tolstoy – A Fairy-Tale – Contents
V.
That night Tarás’s devil got through with his job, and he went by agreement to help out his comrades,—to get the best of Iván the Fool. He came to the field and tried to find his comrades, but all he saw was a hole in the ground; he went to the meadows, and found a tail in the swamp, and in the rye stubbles he found another hole.
“Well,” he thought, “evidently some misfortune has befallen my comrades; I must take their place, and go for the fool.”
The devil went forth to find Iván. But Iván was through with the field, and was chopping wood in the forest.
The brothers were not comfortable living together, and they had ordered the fool to cut timber with which to build them new huts.
The devil ran to the woods, climbed into the branches, and did not let Iván fell the trees. Iván chopped the tree in the right way, so that it might fall in a clear place; he tried to make it fall, but it came down the wrong way, and fell where it had no business to fall, and got caught in the branches. Iván made himself a lever with his axe, began to turn the tree, and barely brought it down. Iván went to chop a second tree, and the same thing happened. He worked and worked at it, and brought it down. He started on a third tree, and again the same happened.
Iván had expected to cut half a hundred trunks, and before he had chopped ten it was getting dark. Iván was worn out. Vapours rose from him as though a mist were going through the woods, but he would not give up. He chopped down another tree, and his back began to ache so much that he could not work: he stuck the axe in the wood, and sat down to rest himself.
The devil saw that Iván had stopped, and was glad:
“Well,” he thought, “he has worn himself out, and he will stop soon. I will myself take a rest,” and he sat astride a bough, and was happy.
But Iván got up, pulled out his axe, swung with all his might, and hit the tree so hard from the other side that it cracked and came down with a crash. The devil had not expected it and had no time to straighten out his legs. The bough broke and caught the devil’s hand. Iván began to trim, and behold, there was a live devil. Iván was surprised.
“I declare,” he said, “you are a nasty thing! Are you here again?”
“I am not the same,” he said. “I was with your brother Tarás.”
“I do not care who you are,—you will fare the same way.” Iván swung his axe, and wanted to crush him with the back of the axe.
The devil began to beg him:
“Do not kill me,—I will do anything you please for you.”
“What can you do?”
“I can make as much money for you as you wish.”
“All right, make it for me!”
And the devil taught him how to do it.
“Take some oak leaves from this tree,” he said, “and rub them in your hands. The gold will fall to the ground.”
Iván took some leaves and rubbed them,—and the gold began to fall.
“This is nice to have,” he said, “when you are out celebrating with the boys.”
“Let me go now!” said the devil.
“All right!” Iván took his lever, and freed the devil. “God be with you,” he said, and the moment he mentioned God’s name, the devil bolted through the earth, as a stone plumps into the water, and only a hole was left.
Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – Fables for Children By Leo Tolstoy – A Fairy-Tale – Contents
Copyright holders – Public Domain Book
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