Page:RussianFolkTales Afanasev 368pgs.djvu/71

Rh and became neither a king nor a king's son, but simply a fool.

The boys went out of the wood on the broad road, and went whither their eyes gazed—maybe far, maybe short, they went. Soon the road divided into two, and a column stood there, and on the column it was written:

So the brothers considered this inscription, and decided to go in different directions; the elder went to the right and the younger to the left.

The elder went on and on, and soon came to an unknown capital city. He also saw a mass of people, only they were all mourning and sad. So he begged shelter of a poor old widow. "Will you protect," he said, "a foreigner from the dark night?"

"I should be very glad to have you," she said, "but I cannot put you anywhere, I am so closely packed."

"Do let me in, bábushka; I am such a simple youth, just as you are; you can find me some small space, some kind of nook for the night."

So the old woman admitted him, and they began to speak.

"Why, bábushka" the stranger asked, "is there such a throng in the city, why are rooms so dear, and why are the people all mourning and melancholy?"

"Well, our king has just died, and the boyárs have sent the town-crier out to announce that old and young are to assemble, and each of them is to have a candle, and with the candles they are to go into the cathedral, and whosesoever's candle lights of itself is to be king."

So in the morning the boy got up, washed, prayed to God, said the grace for the bread and salt and the soft bed which his hostess had given him, and went into the