Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/318

302 "Why, your wife has two sarafáns, one will be sufficient for her."

So the peasant took the sarafán, drank it up; and he thought: "Now I have not anything left, neither house, nor clothes, nor anything else for myself or my wife!"

Next morning Sorrow woke up and saw that there was nothing more he could take. So he said: "Master, what is your wish? Go to your neighbour and borrow a pair of oxen and a carriage." So the peasant went to his neighbour and said, "Can you lend me a car and a pair of oxen for a short time, and I will do a week's work for them?"

"What do you want with them?"

"To fetch wood out of the forest."

"Well, then, take them, but don't overload them."

"Oh, of course not, uncle!"

So the peasant took the oxen, went with Sorrow into the carriage, and drove into the field.

"Do you know the big stone in this field?" Sorrow asked.

"Oh, yes!"

"Well, then, drive up to it."

So they arrived at the stone and dismounted. Sorrow bade the peasant lift up the stone, and he aided him in the work. Under the stone there was a hollow filled with gold.

"Now, what do you see?" said Sorrow. "Load it all up quickly on to the coach."

So the peasant set to work sharply, loaded all the gold up, to the very last ducats. And when he noticed there was not anything left, he said, "Sorrow, is there no more gold there?" "I don't see any."

"Down there in the corner I see something glittering."