Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/252

236 "Why, my good horse, do you weep? Why your counsel do you keep?"

Then the foal answered, "Why should I not weep, my master, Iván the merchant's son? I hear a very great misfortune—that your stepmother wishes to ruin you. Look when you go into the room and sit down at the table: your mother will bring you a draught in the glass. Do you not drink it, but pour it out of the window: you will yourself see what will happen outside."

Iván the merchant's son did as he was bidden and as soon as ever he had thrown the draught out of the window it began to rend the earth; and again he never said a single word to his stepmother; so she still thought that he was in the dark. On the third day he went to the shop, and the stepmother again went to the soothsayer. The old woman gave her an enchanted shirt. In the evening, as he was going out of the shop, the merchant's son went up to the foal, and he saw that there stood his good horse on tip-toes and in tears. So he struck him by the bridle and said, "Why do you weep, my good horse? Why your counsel do you keep?"

Then the foal answered him, "Why should I not weep? Do I not know that your stepmother is wishing to destroy you? Listen to what I say. When you go home your stepmother will send you to the bath, and she will send the boy to you with a shirt. Do not put on the shirt yourself, but put it on the boy, and you will see yourself what will come of it."

So the merchant's son went up to his attic, and his stepmother came and said to him, "Would you not like to have a steam bath? The bath is now ready."

"Very well," said Iván, and he went into the bath, and very soon after the boy brought him a shirt. As soon as ever the merchant's son put it on the boy he that