Page:Once a Week Volume 7.djvu/414

406 The fellow, imagining that it was his brother, got up to help him, saying:

“A pretty baby you, who cannot untie a horse.”

Tim, however, pretending that he could not hold the horse, moved away, and led him very far from the road. Then leaving him to seek his brother who was in vain pursuit of the horse, he ran to where the swine lay, and, seizing hold of of her, placed her upon his horse and carried her off. As soon as he got home he tied her by the leg to the hand-mill which stood in the middle of the kitchen, round which he strewed a quantity of rye. Forthwith the swine fell to eating the rye, and, by moving round, set the mill a grinding. Tim then flung himself upon his bed, and without any care resigned himself to sleep.

In the meanwhile the thieves met each other.

One said, “Where’s the horse?”

The other answered, that he had never caught a glimpse of it.

“Then why did you call me to help you to untie it?” said the first.

“You are mad!” replied the other; “I never spoke a word.”

“Well, then,” said his comrade, “it is plain that fellow Tim has played us a trick. Let us go and see whether the swine is where we left her.”

But, after seeking her for a long time in vain, they concluded that their brother-in-law had carried her back with him home, whereupon they set off for Tim’s house with all speed.

On arriving at the court-yard, they went to the kitchen, and one of them said:

“Brother, I am afraid we have lost our two hundred roubles. The old beldame, Tim’s mother, is awake and up. Don’t you hear her getting the mill in order? She is going to grind. However, I will go to my sister, and ask her, as I did before, where the swine is hid; perhaps it is not in the kitchen.”

So he climbed up upon the roof as he had done before, and waking his sister said:

“Wife, where is the swine?”

“You must be asleep,” she replied; “have you forgotten that she is tied to the hand-mill in the kitchen?”

The thief, having learnt where the swine was, ran to the kitchen, and seizing his booty, hastened away with his brother, saying:

“Master Tim has taught us a lesson; he will not deceive us again.”

Shortly after this Tim awoke, and jumping up, ran to look after the swine. But on entering the kitchen, he perceived that she had been stolen a second time. Nothing now remained for him to do but to run and overtake the thieves, and discover some means of deceiving them again. He ran without any burden on his back, and besides, was all the fresher for having rested, consequently he had no difficulty in overtaking the tired thieves, who were carrying the swine between them. He went softly behind them till they came to the wood.

As soon as they had entered it one of the thieves said to his comrade:

“Let us rest awhile here.”

But the other replied:

“No, brother; if Tim overtakes us here, he will trick us again by some means or other. But some way farther on you remember there is an empty cottage, near the road, there we can rest without danger.”

“Very good,” said his comrade, “we will stop there.”

Tim, hearing what they said, turned aside, and, getting before them, daubed his face with clay; then, running as fast as he could to the cottage, he sat down within the ruined petsch, holding in his hand a brick. He had not waited five minutes when they entered the cottage and cast the swine down upon the floor.

“Now, brother,” said one, “we have nearly finished the business, let us smoke a pipe of tobacco.”

“Capital!” replied the other, taking out his flint and steel; but though he struck and struck, he could not make the tinder take light. “Here’s a pretty affair,” said he, “the tinder got damp as I ran amidst the dew of the wood, endeavouring to overtake that rascal Tim.”

“Go to the mouth of the petsch,” said the other, “perhaps a spark will take hold of the soot.”

The other went up to the petsch and began again to strike. In the meantime Tim, looking full at him, gnashed his teeth violently. The thief, hearing something gnashing, struck harder than before, and, looking into the petsch by the light of the sparks, instantly fell to the ground, for seeing the face of Tim he took him for the devil, and was so terrified that he could only utter with a broken voice:

“Oh, brother!—the devil!—the devil!”

Thereupon, Tim knocked violently upon the petsch, and hurled the brick at the other thief, who made for the door, but, striking his forehead against the lintel, he fell senseless. Tim then seizing one of their sticks began to belabour his brothers-in-law so lustily that they soon recovered their recollection and betook themselves to flight. Their legs trembled so with the fright they were in that they stumbled more than once; but Tim assisted them on their way by pelting them with bricks. Having driven them off, he took the swine and carried her home, where he arrived just as the day was beginning to break.

The first word which the thieves said on recovering their breath was about the wager with their brother-in-law.

“Now,” said they, “as the devil has run away with the swine, Tim cannot produce her, so we will force him to come and live with us again.”

Thereupon they set off straight for the house, because it was already getting light; but on their arrival they found that they had lost their wager, and that it was not the devil who had routed them in the deserted cottage, but their brother-in-law.

“Oh, you precious rascal!” said they, “you nearly killed us with terror.”

“There’s no help, brothers,” he replied, “you were thinking of taking two hundred roubles from me, but now you have to pay them to me.”

After some demur, he received the money from them, and began to live in a highly respectable manner.