. . .Thereupon they added, “Very well, when our husbands come home with the red caftan and cap they promised him, we will tell them to give him nothing.”

When the fool heard this he thought it best to go, for he wished very much to get the red caftan and cap.  So getting down from the petsch he began to put on his stockings and boots, and to dress himself; and when he was quite dressed, he took with him a couple of pails and a hatchet, and went to the river: for the village in which they lived stood very near the river.  When he had come to the stream, he began to hew away p. 11at the ice, and when he had made a very big hole, he filled his pails with water, and placing them on the ice, he stood beside the hole, and looked.  Now as the fool stood and looked he saw a very large pike swimming in the hole.  Fool as Emelian was, he nevertheless wished to catch the pike.  He therefore advanced softly, and coming near to it, seized it suddenly with his . . . Read More