Page:The Russian Garland of Fairy Tales.djvu/144

 for your flour." So the countryman made his bow to the South Wind, thanked him for the basket, and went his way home.

When the man came home, he gave the basket to his wife, saying: "Here, wife, is a basket for you, which contains everything you can wish for—only ask it." So the good woman took the basket, and said: "Basket, give me good flour for bread!" And instantly the basket gave her as much as ever she could desire. Then she asked again for this thing and that, and the basket gave her everything in the twinkling of an eye.

A few days after, it happened that a nobleman passed by the countryman's cottage; and when the good woman saw him, she said to her husband; "Go and invite this lord to be our guest; if you don't bring him here, I will beat you half dead."

The countryman dreaded a beating from his wife. So he went and invited the nobleman to dinner. Meanwhile the good woman took all kinds of food and drink out of the basket, spread the table, and then sat down patiently at the window, laying her hands in her lap, awaiting the arrival of her husband and their guest. The nobleman was astonished at receiving such an invitation and laughed, and would not go home with the man; but instead, he ordered his servants who attended