Emelyan, the Fool

When he was dressed, he took the buckets and the axe and went down to the river hard by. And when he came to the river he began to cut a large hole in the ice. Then he drew water in the buckets, and setting them on the ice, he stood by the hole, looking into the water. And as the fool was looking, he saw a large pike swimming about. However stupid Emelyan was, he felt a wish to catch this pike; so he stole cautiously and softly to the edge of the hole, and making a sudden grasp at the pike he caught him, and pulled him out of the water. Then, putting him in his bosom, he was hastening home with him, when the pike cried out: “Ho, fool! why have you caught me?” He answered: “To take you home and get my sisters-in-law to cook you.” “Nay, fool! do not take me home, but throw me back into the water and I will make a rich man of you.” But the fool would not consent, and jogged on his way home. When the pike saw that the fool was not for letting him go, he said to him: “Hark ye, fool! put me back in the water and I will do for you everything you do not like to do yourself; you will only have to wish and it shall be done.”

On hearing this the fool rejoiced beyond measure for, as he was uncommonly lazy, he thought to himself: “If the pike does everything I have no mind to do, all will be done without my being troubled to work.” So he said to the pike: “I will throw you back into the water if you do all you promise.” The pike said: “Let me go first and then I will keep my promise.” But the fool answered: “Nay, nay, you must first perform your promise, and then I will let you go.” When the pike saw that Emelyan would not put him into the water he said: “If you wish me to do all you desire, you must first tell me what your desire is.” “I wish,” said the fool, “that my buckets should go of themselves from the river up the hill to the village without spilling any of the water.” Then said the pike: “Listen now, and remember the words I say to you: At the pike’s command, and at my desire, go, buckets, of yourselves up the hill!