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Rh as he saw the helpless babe hurled into the depths, called after him mockingly: "There, thou beggarly brat! Thou art right welcome now to possess my wealth and to dispose of it as thou wilt!"

On the third day thereafter, as it happened, a company of tradesmen came driving along that same road, bringing to Marko the Rich a sum of money which they owed him. When they came opposite the ravine they thought they heard the cry of a child. They stopped their sledges while they listened attentively and one of them sent his driver to search, and the man, climbing down the steep precipice, at the bottom, among the gloomy rocks, found the babe, wrapped in the fox-furs, alive and unhurt. He carried the child to his master and the tradesman brought it to the town and to the house of Marko the Rich.

The merchant, seeing the babe, began to question them and when they had told how they had found him, knew at once that it was the little Wassily, his godchild. He took the infant in his arms and after holding it a while, handed it to his daughter, saying: "There, Anasthasia, there is something for thee to nurse and to play with." He began then to regale his guests with all manner of delicious foods and wines, and when they had feasted and