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
III.
Iván ploughed up all the fallow field, and only one strip was left. His belly ached, and yet he had to plough. He straightened out the lines, turned over the plough, and went to the field. He had just made one furrow, and was coming back, when something pulled at the plough as though it had caught in a root. It was the devil that had twined his legs about the plough-head and was holding it fast.
“What in the world is that?” thought Iván. “There were no roots here before, but now there are.”
Iván stuck his hand down in the furrow, and felt something soft. He grabbed it and pulled it out. It was as black as a root, but something was moving on it. He took a glance at it, and, behold, it was a live devil.
“I declare,” he said, “it is a nasty thing!” And Iván swung him and was about to strike him against the plough-handle; but the devil began to scream.
“Do not beat me,” he said, “and I will do for you anything you wish.”
“What will you do for me?”
“Say what you want!”
Iván scratched himself.
“My belly aches,—can you cure me?”
“I can,” he said.
“Very well, cure me!”
The devil bent down to the furrow, scratched awhile in it, pulled out a few roots,—three of them in a bunch,—and gave them to Iván.
“Here,” he said, “is a root, which, if you swallow, will make your ache go away at once.”
Iván took the roots, tore them up, and swallowed one. His belly-ache stopped at once.
Then the devil began to beg again:
“Let me go, now, and I will slip through the earth, and will not come up again.”
“All right,” he said, “God be with you!”
And the moment Iván mentioned God’s name, the devil bolted through the earth, as a stone plumps into the water, and only a hole was left. Iván put the remaining two roots in his cap, and started to finish his work. He ploughed up the strip, turned over the plough, and went home. He unhitched the horse, came to the house, and there found his eldest brother, Semén the Warrior, with his wife, eating supper. His estate had been taken from him, and he had with difficulty escaped from prison and come to his father’s to live.
Semén saw Iván, and, “I have come to live with you,” he said. “Feed me and my wife until I find a new place!”
“All right,” he said, “stay here!”
Iván wanted to sit down on a bench, but the lady did not like the smell of Iván. So she said to her husband:
“I cannot eat supper with a stinking peasant.”
“All right,” he said, “I have to go anyway to pasture the mare for the night.”
Iván took some bread and his caftan, and went out to herd his mare.
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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