Tolstoi for the young: Select tales from Tolstoi

V

That night, having disposed of Taras, the third little Devilkin came to help his mates plague Ivan, as they had agreed. He came to the ploughed field and looked and looked, but could see no one; he only found the hole. Then he went to the meadow and found a piece of tail in the swamp, and in the rye-stubble field he found another hole.

“I see some misfortune has happened to my mates. I must take their places and tackle the Fool.”

“You horrid little wretch! You here again!”

“Whoever you may be, you shall share the same fate.” And Ivan raised the axe to bring it down on its head, but the Devilkin began to plead.

“What can you do?”

“Very well,” Ivan said; “make it, then.”

“This is well,” he said; “on holidays it will amuse the children.”

“Take some leaves from this oak and rub them in your hands and gold will fall to the ground.”

“Let me go,” the Devilkin begged.

“I don’t mind,” Ivan said, and taking up his axe, he freed the Devilkin of the branch. “Go, in God’s name.”

“I can make as much money as you like.”

“I am not the same one,” the Devilkin said. “I belong to your brother Taras.”

“Don’t kill me,” he said, “and I’ll do whatever you want me to.”

When the Devilkin realized that Ivan had ceased to work, he rejoiced. “He is worn out at last,” he thought; “now I can rest too.” And he sat himself astride on a branch, exulting.

The brothers found it too crowded to live together in their father’s house and they ordered Ivan to fell timber to build themselves new houses.

The Devilkin set out to find Ivan.

The Devilkin rushed into the wood and crept into the knots of the trees to prevent Ivan from felling them.

Ivan took the leaves and rubbed them in his hand and gold rained down.

Ivan rose, took out his axe, flourished it aloft, and brought it down so heavily that the tree came down with a crash. The Devilkin had no time to disentangle his legs; the branch broke and pinned down his paw.

Ivan had finished his work in the fields and had gone into the copse to cut wood.

Ivan had cut a tree in the right way so that it should fall on to a clear space, but the tree seemed to be possessed, and fell over where it was not wanted, and got entangled among the branches. Ivan lopped them off with his bill-hook and at last, with great difficulty, brought down the tree. He began to fell another and the same thing was repeated. He struggled and struggled and succeeded only after great exertion. He began on a third and the same thing happened. Ivan had intended to fell fifty trees at least, and he had not managed more than ten, and night was coming on. Ivan was exhausted, and the steam rose from him and floated through the wood like a mist; yet still he would not give up. He felled another tree and his back began to ache so that he could not go on. He stuck his axe into the trunk of a tree and sat down to rest.

Ivan began to clear the tree and behold! there was a live Devilkin. Ivan was amazed.

And the Devilkin taught him what to do.

At the mention of God the Devilkin plunged into the ground like a stone thrown into water and there was nothing but the hole left.