Page:Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar.djvu/292

276 "Well, Senka is catching it now," and ran home in a fright, thinking that he might catch it also.

The moment his uncle had gone, Senka ran to the village for a horse and cart, and placing all the meat in the vehicle, drove off to market, where he sold it, and got a great deal of money for it.

Next day Senka the Little came to his uncle, and asked him to accompany him to the king's treasury,

"Come," he said, "let us go on with our lesson! You steal, while I watch and see how you do it."

Away they went in the middle of the night, and arrived at the king's treasury; but how were they to get in, for there were watchmen all round? They must try and be artful again, Senka the Little managed, somehow or another, to creep into a dark comer unobserved, followed by his uncle. In this way they got into the treasury without any trouble of any kind, and at once began filling their pockets. It would be perfectly impossible to say how much gold and silver they contrived to take home with them. This sort of thing rather amused them; they liked it, especially Senka, who went every night into the treasury and stole the money.

One day the king went in to see whether all was right in the royal treasury, and of course saw at once that something was wrong. A great deal of his money was missing, and he immediately called a council, and asked what had better be done—how they could best catch the thief or thieves. At last they decided to put a very large vat filled with tar just by the hole through which the thief must have