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148 But the people working in the fields, although they heard his cries, turned a deaf ear to his entreaties. They said angrily,—

"And let him drown you, you wicked boy!"

The miserable, struggling Yanechek was dragged deeper and deeper. At last he was overwhelmed by the water, and on the top of it there appeared a little man in a green dress, who called out to the people in the fields, whilst a diabolical smile played upon his face,—

"It shall be so! It shall be so!"

Shepherdess Dorothy waited for her son Yanechek that whole day and night in vain. Early next morning, as she ran round the bank of the pool in search of her mischievous but much-loved son, she saw his hat, waistcoat, and shirt lying on the ground, and thus learnt with intense grief how it was she had waited in vain so long. She would have thrown herself into the cold, still water after him in her despair, if her neighbours had not prevented her. Weeping bitterly the poor widow collected the remains of the dress of her unhappy boy, and by degrees the love of the mother's heart gave her courage instead of despair, and desire of revenge instead of vain lamentation. For nine days she plaited a rope out of nine pieces of bast, and with this strongly-woven cord she hid herself among some bushes near the pool to wait for the Water Demon.