week. In the first place I made him grow thin. He afterward became so covetous that he wanted to possess everything he saw, and he spent all the money he had in the purchase of immense quantities of goods. When his capital was gone he still continued to buy with borrowed money, and has become involved in such difficulties that he cannot free himself. At the end of one week the date for the payment of his notes will have expired, and, his goods being seized upon, he will become a bankrupt; and he also will return to his father.'
At the conclusion of this narrative they inquired of the third devil how things had fared between him and Ivan.
'Well,' said he, 'my report is not so encouraging. The first thing I did was to spit into his jug of quass [a sour drink made from rye], which made him sick at his stomach. He afterward went to plow his summer-fallow, but I made the soil so hard that the plow could scarcely penetrate it. I thought the Fool would not succeed, but he started to work nevertheless. Moaning with pain, he still continued to labor. I broke one plow, but he replaced it with another, fixing it securely, and resumed work. Going beneath the surface of the ground I took hold of the plowshares, but did not succeed in stopping Ivan. He pressed so hard, and the colter was so sharp, that my hands were cut; and despite my utmost efforts, he went over all but a small portion of the field.'
He concluded with: 'Come, brothers, and help me, for if we do not conquer him our whole enterprise will be a failure. If the Fool is permitted successfully to conduct his farming, they will have no need, for he will support his brothers.'
CHAPTER III.
Ivan having succeeded in plowing all but a small portion of his land, he returned the next day to finish it. The pain in his stomach continued, but he felt that he must go on with his work. He tried to start his plow, but it would not move; it seemed to have struck a hard root. It was the small devil in the ground who had wound his feet around the plowshares and held them.
'This is strange,' thought Ivan. 'There were never any roots here before, and this is surely one.'
Ivan put his hand in the ground, and, feeling something soft, grasped and pulled it out. It was like a root in appearance, but seemed to possess life. Holding it up he saw that it was a little devil. Disgusted, he exclaimed, 'See the nasty thing,' and he proceeded to strike it a blow, intending to kill it, when the young devil cried out:
'Do not kill me, and I will grant your every wish.'
'What can you do for me?'
'Tell me what it is you most wish for,' the little devil replied.
Ivan, peasant-fashion, scratched the back of his head as he thought, and finally he said:
'I am dreadfully sick at my stomach. Can you cure me?'
'I can,' the little devil said.
'Then do so.'
The little devil bent toward the earth and began searching for roots, and when he found them he gave them to Ivan, saying: 'If you will swallow some of these you will be immediately cured of whatsoever disease you are afflicted with.'
Ivan did as directed, and obtained instant relief.
'I beg of you to let me go now,' the little devil pleaded; 'I will pass into the earth, never to return.'
'Very well; you may go, and God bless you;' and as Ivan pronounced the name of God, the small devil disappeared into the earth like a flash, and only a slight opening in the ground remained.
Ivan placed in his hat what roots he had left, and proceeded to plow. Soon finishing his work, he turned his plow over and returned home.
When he reached the house he found his brother Simeon and his wife seated at the supper-table. His estate had been confiscated, and he himself had barely escaped execution by making his way out of prison, and having nothing to live upon had come back to his father for support.
Turning to Ivan he said: 'I came to ask you to care for us until I can find something to do.'
'Very well,' Ivan replied; 'you may remain with us.'
Just as Ivan was about to sit down to the table Simeon's wife made a wry face, indicating that she did not like the smell of Ivan's sheep-skin coat; and turning to her husband she said, 'I shall not sit at the table with a moujik [peasant] who smells like that.'
Simeon the soldier turned to his brother and said: 'My lady objects to the smell of your clothes. You may eat in the porch.'
Ivan said: 'Very well, it is all the same to me. I will soon have to go and feed my horse any way.'
Ivan took some bread in one hand, and his kaftan (coat) in the other, and left the room.
CHAPTER IV.
The small devil finished with Simeon that night, and according to agreement went to the assistance of his comrade who had charge of Ivan, that he might help to conquer the Fool. He went to the field and searched everywhere, but could find nothing but the hole through which the small devil had disappeared.
'Well, this is strange,' he said; 'something must have happened to my companion, and I will have to take his place and continue the work he began. The Fool is through with his plowing, so I must look about me for some other means of compassing his destruction. I must overflow his meadow and prevent him from cutting the grass.'
The little devil accordingly overflowed the meadow with muddy water, and, when Ivan went at dawn next morning with his scythe set and sharpened and tried to mow the grass, he found that it resisted all his efforts and would not yield to the implement as usual.
Many times Ivan tried to cut the grass, but always without success. At last, becoming weary of the effort, he decided to return home and have his scythe again sharpened, and also to procure a quantity of bread, saying: 'I will come back here and will not leave until I have mown all the meadow, even if it should take a whole week.'
Hearing this, the little devil became thoughtful, saying: 'That Ivan is a koolak [hard case], and I must think of some other way of conquering him.'
Ivan soon returned with his sharpened scythe and started to mow.
The small devil hid himself in the grass, and as the point of the scythe came down he buried it in the earth and made it almost impossible for Ivan to move the implement. He, however, succeeded in mowing all but one small spot in the swamp, where again the small devil hid himself, saying: 'Even if he should cut my hands I will prevent him from accomplishing his work.'
When Ivan came to the swamp he found that the grass was not very thick. Still, the scythe would not work, which made him so angry that he worked with all his might, and one blow more powerful than the others cut off a portion of the small devil's tail, who had hidden himself there.
Despite the little devil's efforts he succeeded in finishing his work, when he returned home and ordered his sister to gather up the grass while he went to another field to cut rye. But the devil preceded him there, and fixed the rye in such a manner that it was almost impossible for Ivan to cut it; however, after continuous hard labor he succeeded, and when he was through with the rye he said to himself: 'Now I will start to mow oats.'
On hearing this, the little devil thought to himself: 'I could not prevent him from mowing the rye, but I will surely stop him from mowing the oats when the morning comes.'
Early next day, when the devil came to the field, he found that the oats had been already mowed. Ivan did it during the night, so as to avoid the loss that might have resulted from the grain being too ripe and dry. Seeing that Ivan again had escaped him, the little devil became greatly enraged, saying:
