Yelovik

There once lived a merchant. He was so rich that no one could possibly be richer. He traveled from place to place, trading goods. One day, the merchant thought to himself: "I've bought up everything nearby. I should go to distant lands to trade." He loaded his mule with a cargo of gold and silver, took some food for the road, and set off.

He was traveling through a forest. The forest was dense and dark, with fir trees reaching up to the sky. It was getting dark. What should the merchant do? He could climb a tree himself, but there was no way to get the mule up there. It became completely dark, so dark that you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face. The merchant thought and thought—should he spend the night in the forest, climb a tree, or keep going? He decided to try to get out of the forest. He whipped his mule and trudged on. They wandered for a long time but finally made it out of the forest...

The merchant looked around and saw a narrow path with fences on either side. He walked along the fence. At the end of the path, he saw a little wooden hut made of branches and twigs, surrounded by forest.

The merchant approached the hut and called out:

"Hey, master of the house!"

An old man in rags came out.

"What do you want?"

"Do a good deed and let me stay the night."

"There's barely enough room for the two of us here," said the old man. "Where am I supposed to put a third? And my wife is sick—I can't disturb her."

What could the merchant do? There was nowhere else to go—no villages or houses around. He begged the old man, but the old man wouldn't budge. Finally, the merchant gave him five gold coins and managed to persuade him.

"There's no room in the house," said the old man. "But you could sleep on the balcony."

"Just let me stay there. I'll sleep anywhere. I just don't want to spend the night outside."

The merchant unloaded his mule, gave it some straw, and went into the house. The old man's wife was pregnant and about to give birth. They had dinner, celebrated the New Year, and went to bed. The merchant went outside, took his cloak off the mule, and settled down to sleep on the balcony.

Before dawn, the old man ran out and shouted to the merchant:

"Give me the gun! My wife has given birth!"

The merchant pulled the gun from under his pillow and fired, nearly blowing everything apart.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" asked the merchant.

"A boy," said the old man. He took the gun and, in his joy, fired it himself.

The old man went back inside, but the merchant had a long journey ahead of him the next day, so he decided to sleep a little more. Just as he dozed off, two doves flew in and began arguing about how to write the newborn's fate in the Book of Destiny. One dove said:

"His fate will be this: when he turns twelve, he will either fall from a tree and die or drown in water."

The other dove said:

"No, his fate will be this: all the wealth of this merchant lying here will belong to him."

They argued and argued, but the second dove prevailed, and they wrote that the boy's fate would be this: all the merchant's wealth, his property, gold, and silver, would pass into the hands of the newborn.

The doves finished their conversation and disappeared. The merchant had heard everything. In the morning, he got up, went into the house, and was greeted by the old man, as was proper for a guest on New Year's Day. But the merchant grew sad—so sad that he didn't even speak. He was about to leave when he said to the old man:

"I have a request for you. If you grant it, I'll give you half of all the gold and silver I'm carrying—enough to last you a lifetime."

"What could you possibly ask for that would be worth so much gold?" said the old man.

They talked and argued, but in the end, the merchant gave half of his gold to the old man, took the child, wrapped him in his cloak, and left. The old man and his wife argued for a long time, and she scolded him for selling the child, but it was too late.

The merchant traveled on, and the forest grew denser—the trees taller, so tall their tops seemed to touch the sky. The merchant took out a sack, placed the child inside, tied it up, and hoisted it to the top of the tallest fir tree, securing it tightly. "Here," thought the merchant, "if nothing else happens, at least the eagles will peck him to death." He climbed down, looked up one last time, and went on his way.

A day passed, then another. One day, the king went hunting with his entire army. They entered that forest. One hunter fell behind, wandered deeper into the forest, looked up, and saw a sack hanging from the very top of a fir tree. He wanted to shoot it down, but something stopped him. The hunter ran to the king and reported:

"Your Majesty! In such-and-such a place in the forest, on the very top of a tree, there's a sack hanging, and it sounds like someone is crying inside."

The king immediately sent men to investigate. They climbed the tree, took down the sack, and carefully lowered it. They untied it and found a crying baby inside. The king ordered the child to be taken to his palace.

The hunt ended, and everyone gathered at the king's palace. They brought home all the game they had caught in the forest. The king kept the child and named him Yelovik (meaning "of the fir tree").

Time passed. The boy turned twelve. He grew up clever and became the king's right-hand man.

One day, the merchant arrived in that kingdom on business. Night fell near the palace, and the merchant asked the courtiers for permission to stay the night. They let him stay and treated him with honor. The merchant saw a boy walking around, and everyone called out to him:

"Yelovik, go here! Yelovik, go there!"

The merchant grew thoughtful and sad. Then he asked:

"Why do you call him Yelovik?"

One of the king's advisors laughed and said:

"One day, our king went hunting in the forest. One of his hunters saw a sack hanging from the very top of a tree. He immediately ran to us and reported it. The king sent men to take down the sack, and they found a baby inside. They brought him to the palace and raised him. They named him Yelovik in memory of that fir tree."

The merchant realized this was the same child he had bought from the old man in the hut and left in the sack on the fir tree. He thought and thought and came up with a plan: "I'll send him home with a letter and order him to be killed. That will be the end of him."

The merchant asked the advisor if it would be possible to send the boy on an errand to his home. The advisor agreed.

The merchant wrote a letter: "When this young man arrives, cut off his head immediately."

He gave the letter to Yelovik and sent him on his way.

Yelovik set off. As he walked, he met an old man.

"Hello, young man. Where are you going?" asked the old man.

"I'm going to the merchant's house to deliver this letter."

The old man took the letter, tore it open, and read it. "Something's not right," he thought. Feeling sorry for the young man, he decided to save him.

"Here's what we'll do," said the old man. "I'll write you another letter, and you'll take it to the merchant's wife."

The old man took out a pencil and wrote: "When this young man arrives, marry him to my daughter immediately."

Yelovik took the letter and went to the merchant's house. When he arrived, the merchant's wife met him. He handed her the letter.

She read it, ran out to buy wedding clothes, and married Yelovik to her daughter. The merchant's daughter and Yelovik fell deeply in love and became inseparable.

Much time passed. The merchant thought, "Surely, Yelovik's head has been cut off by now," and returned home. As he approached, he saw Yelovik walking in the garden with his daughter. His heart sank, but he didn't show it. He greeted both his daughter and Yelovik warmly. His wife ran to him, excited: "I did as you asked and married them right away."

What could he do? The merchant seethed with anger. That evening, he went to the servants who were burning lime in the kiln and said:

"Tonight, I'll send a man to you. When he arrives, grab him and throw him into the kiln without delay."

He returned home and told his wife:

"Don't let anyone go near the lime kiln tonight, or they'll be thrown in and burned. Only Yelovik will go there."

Yelovik's wife overheard this and told her husband:

"Tonight, your father will send you to the lime kiln. Don't go, or you'll be burned. Instead, go out and walk around the yard for a couple of hours, then come back."

An hour later, the merchant came to Yelovik and said:

"Go to the lime kiln for a moment and tell them to burn twenty poods of lime by tomorrow."

Yelovik got dressed and went out—but instead of going to the kiln, he followed his wife's advice and walked around the yard, waiting.

The merchant thought, "Surely, Yelovik has been burned in the kiln by now," and went to check.

As he approached the kiln, the servants thought, "This must be the man the master told us to burn," and they grabbed the merchant and threw him into the kiln. Yelovik walked around for a couple of hours and then returned to his wife.

The merchant burned to death, and all his wealth passed to the poor man's son, Yelovik. He lived happily ever after with his wife.

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Yelovik

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