A Russian Tale

Once upon a time there was a Princess who was always wanting something new and strange. She would not look at the princes who came to woo her from the kingdoms round about, because, she said, they all came in the same way, in carriages which had four wheels and were drawn by four horses. “Why could not one come in a carriage with five wheels?” she exclaimed petulantly, one day, “or why come in a carriage at all?” She added: “If one came in a flying ship I would wed him!”

So the King made proclamation that whoever came to the palace in a flying ship should wed the Princess, and succeed to the kingdom. As the Princess was very beautiful and the kingdom very rich, men everywhere began to try to build ships that would fly. But that was not so easy. They could build ships that would sail—but flying was quite another thing!

On the far edge of the kingdom dwelt a widow with three sons. The two elder, hearing the proclamation, said that they wanted to go to the city and build each a flying ship. So the mother, who was very proud of these sons, and quite convinced that should the Princess see one of them it would not be necessary for him to have a flying ship, laid out their best clothes and gave each a satchel containing a lunch of white bread and jam and fruit, and wished them good luck on their journeys.

Now the third son was called Simple, because he did not do as his brothers did, and cared nothing for fine clothes and fine airs, but liked to wander off in the woods by himself. When Simple saw his brothers starting off all so grandly he said: “Give me a lunch, and I will go and build a flying ship.”

The truth was that the idea of a flying ship very much appealed to Simple, though he did not give much thought to the Princess.

But his mother said: “Go back into the woods, Simple, that is the place for you.”

But Simple persisted, and at last she gave him a satchel containing a lunch of black bread without any jam, and a flask of water.

As Simple neared the woods he met a Manikin who asked him for something to eat. Simple was ashamed to open his satchel with the black bread and water in it. “But,” he reflected, “if one is hungry black bread is better than no bread.” The Manikin certainly looked hungry, so Simple put his hand into the satchel and took out the roll of bread—and lo—it was not black at all, but white, made of the finest flour, and spread with rich, golden butter. The flask, too, when he took it out, was not as it had been when his mother put it in, but was filled with red wine.

So Simple and the Manikin sat down by the roadside and ate together. Then the Manikin asked Simple where he was going, and Simple told him that he was going to build a flying ship. He almost forgot about the Princess, but remembered, as an afterthought, and he told the Manikin that when the ship was done he would fly in it to the palace and marry the Princess.

“Well,” said the Manikin, “if you want to do that take this ax with you and the first tree that you come to strike it three times with the ax, then bow before it three times, and then kneel down with your face hidden until you are told to get up. There will be a flying ship before you. Climb into it and fly to the palace of the Princess, and if you meet anybody along the way take them along.”

So Simple took the ax and went into the wood, and the first tree that he came to he struck three times with the ax, then bowed three times before it, then knelt down and hid his face. By-and-by he felt someone touch his shoulder and he looked up, and there was a ship with wings outspread, all ready to fly. So he climbed into it and bade it fly away to the city of the Princess.

As he flew over a clearing in the woods Simple saw a man with his ear to the ground, listening.

“Ho!” he cried, “you below! What are you doing?”

“I am listening to the sounds of the world,” said the man.

“Well,” said Simple, “come up into the ship. Maybe you can hear more up here.”

So the man climbed up into the ship, and they flew on. As they passed over a field they saw a man hopping on one leg, with the other strapped up behind his ear.

“Ho!” cried Simple, “You below! Why do you hop on one leg, with the other bound up?”

“Because,” said the man, “if I were to unbind the other I would step so far that I would be at the end of the world in a minute.”

“Well,” said Simple, “come up into the ship, that will be less tiresome than hopping so far.”

So the man came up into the ship and they flew on. As they passed a clear lake of cold water they saw a man standing beside it looking so disconsolately at the water that Simple called out, “Ho, you below! Why do you look at the water so sadly?”

“Because,” said the man, “I am very thirsty.”

“Well,” called Simple, “why don’t you take a drink? There is water enough!”

“No,” said the man, “it is not right that I should drink here, for I am so thirsty that I would drink all of this at one gulp, and there would be no lake, and I would still be thirsty.”

“Well,” said Simple, “come up into the ship. Maybe we can find water enough for you somewhere.”

So the man climbed up into the ship and they flew on. As they passed over a village they met a man carrying a great basket of bread. “Ho!” cried Simple, “you below! Where are you going?”

“I am going to the baker’s at the other end of the village to buy some bread for my breakfast,” replied the man.

“But you have a big basketful of bread now,” said Simple.

“Oh,” said the man, “that is not enough for the first morsel. I shall eat that up in one bite. There are not bakers enough in this village to keep me supplied, and I am always hungry.”

“Well,” said Simple, “come up into the ship. Maybe we shall find some bread in the city.”

So the man climbed up into the ship and they flew on. As they passed over a meadow they saw a man carefully carrying a bundle of straw.

“Ho!” cried Simple, “you below! Why do you carry that straw so carefully, when there is straw all about you in the meadow?”

“But this is no ordinary straw,” said the man. “It has a magic power, and when it is scattered about it will make the hottest place as cold as ice.”

“Well,” said Simple, “bring it along and come up into the ship. It may be hot in the city.”

So the man climbed up into the ship and they flew on. As they passed over a wooded park they saw a man carrying a bundle of sticks.

“Ho!” cried Simple, “you below! Why do you carry those sticks so carefully when all the woods about you are full of sticks?”

“But these are not ordinary sticks,” said the man. “If I were to throw them on the ground they would become soldiers, armed and ready for a battle.”

“Well,” said Simple, “they are wonderful sticks indeed! Bring them up into the ship. There may be a need for soldiers in the city.”

So the man climbed up into the ship and they flew on. Soon they came to the city, where the word soon went about that a ship was flying over, and men and women came out into the streets and on to the roofs of the houses to see what it might be like. And the King came out on his balcony and saw Simple and his strange crew flying straight toward the palace.

“Now, now,” said the King, “what sort of a fellow is this? I cannot have him marry my daughter. He has not a knight in his train—and as for him—!” the King had no words in which to express his thought.

The Princess, too, looking out and seeing the flying ship with Simple in the bow and the other strange folk behind him, repented of her rash word, and said: “You must give this fellow some impossible task to do, so that he will fail, for it is certain that I cannot wed him.”

So the King sent for his courtiers, and bade them wait upon the man in the flying ship and say to him that before his daughter could be given in marriage a flask of water must be brought this day from a spring at the end of the world.

The man with the wonderful hearing had his ear to the deck of the ship, and he heard this order, and reported it to Simple, who lamented, and said: “How can I bring a flask of water from the end of the world? It may take me a year to go there and back—perhaps even the rest of my life.”

But the man with the bound leg said: “You forget that I am here. When the summons comes I will take the flask and go for the water.”

So when the messenger came Simple answered quietly that the order would be obeyed at once.

The man with the bound leg unfastened his leg from behind his ear and started off to the end of the world, and when he came there he filled the flask and came back with it, and Simple went with it to the palace, arriving just as the King and the Princess were finishing their dinner.

“That is all very well,” said the King, “but we cannot have this fellow wed the Princess. We will prepare a feast, and tell him that it must be eaten at once. Let forty oxen be killed, and five hundred loaves be prepared and five hundred cakes be baked, and all of these must this fellow and his followers eat.”

The man with the wonderful hearing having his ear to the deck of the ship reported this conversation to Simple, who lamented and said: “How can we eat forty oxen, and five hundred loaves and five hundred cakes! It will take us a year to eat so much, or maybe all of the rest of our lives.”

“Oh,” said the hungry man, who had long since eaten the few loaves from his basket, “you forget that I am here. Perhaps now for the first time in my life I shall have enough to eat.”

So when the feast was served they all sat down to it, and ate as they wished; then the hungry man ate the remainder of the forty oxen and the five hundred loaves and the five hundred cakes and there was not a crumb left. When he had quite finished he said that he could have eaten at least two more oxen and another hundred cakes, but that he was not quite so hungry as he had been.

When the King’s messengers told him that the feast was all eaten that same night he said: “That is all very well, but we cannot have this fellow wed the Princess. We will prepare a drinking, and serve five hundred flagons of wine, and tell him that it must all be drunken that same night, or he cannot wed the Princess. Let the flagons of wine be prepared and served to him, and all of them must this fellow and his followers drink.”

The man with the wonderful hearing having his ear to the deck of the ship reported this to Simple, who lamented and said: “How can we drink five hundred flagons of wine? It will take us a year to do so, or maybe all of the rest of our lives.”

But the thirsty man said, “You forget that I am here. Perhaps now for the first time in my life I shall have enough to drink.”

So when the wine was served they all gathered around the table and drank as much as they wanted of it; then the thirsty man picked up flagon after flagon and drank them off until all were empty. And at the end he said that he could have drunken at least fifty flagons more, but that he was not so thirsty as he had been.

When the messengers of the King reported that the wine was all drunken, the King said: “Now are we put to it, for we cannot have this fellow wed the Princess.” So he sent his messengers to the ship bidding Simple come to the palace and make ready for the wedding, and prepared a bath for him. And when Simple entered the room for the bath he found that it was heated so hot that the walls burned his hands when he touched them, and the floors were like red-hot iron. But the man with the straw had come in behind him, warned by the man with the wonderful hearing, and seeing what was afoot, scattered his straw all about the bathroom, and at once it became as cold as one could wish, and, the door having been locked, Simple climbed up on the stove and went to sleep, and there they found him in the morning, wrapped in a blanket.

When this was reported to the King he was very angry, and he said, “This fellow is evidently very smart, but for all of that we cannot have him wed the Princess. I will give him an impossible task. Go you to him,” he said to the messenger, “and tell him that he must come to me at to-morrow’s sunrise with an army fitting the rank of one who would wed the Princess.”

When the man with the wonderful hearing reported this to Simple he was in despair, and lamented and said: “Now at last am I beaten, though, after all, I have a flying ship, even if I do not wed the Princess. It will take me a year to raise an army, perhaps it would take all the rest of my life.”

But the man with the sticks said: “You forget that I am here. Now all of these others have proven that they could help you to win the Princess, let me at least do my share.”

So at dawn they flew out over the parade ground, and the man with the sticks threw them down upon the ground, and immediately there sprung up soldiers, in platoons and regiments, with armor, and captains and colonels and generals to command them. And the King and his courtiers had never seen such an army, and the Princess, standing on the balcony beside her father, as they rode by the palace, seeing Simple riding at the head of the band, with the generals paying him homage, said: “This man must be a very great prince indeed, and, now that I look at him he is not so uncomely, after all.”

And Simple, riding at the head of his army, looking up at the balcony and seeing the Princess there said to himself: “A flying ship is all very well, but the Princess is very beautiful, and to wed her will be the most wonderful thing in the world.”

So Simple and the Princess were married, and the crew of the flying ship were at the wedding, and all of the captains and the colonels and the generals of his army, and never had there been such a wedding in the kingdom. And by and by the King died, and Simple became the King, and the Princess became the Queen, and they lived happily ever after.