So the peasant put the pike back into the water, went to his hut, sat down at the table and said:
"At the pike's good pleasure,
By God's good measure—
let the table be covered and my dinner ready."
Then from somewhere or other all sorts of dishes and drinks appeared on the table, enough to please a Tsar, and a Tsar would not have been ashamed of it. So the poor man crossed himself, said "Glory be to Thee, O Lord! now I can break the fast." So he went to the church, attended Matins and Mass, turned back and again broke his fast, ate and drank as well, went outside the door and sat at the counter.
Just about then the Princess had an idea that she would go abroad in the streets, and she went with her attendants and maids of honour, and for the sake of the holy festival went to give alms to the poor; she gave to them all but forgot the poor peasant. Then he said to himself:
"At the pike's good pleasure,
Of God's good treasure—
let the Tsarévna bear a child." And at the word that very instant the Tsarévna became pregnant, and in ten months she bore a son.
Then the Tsar began to ask her, "Do acknowledge with whom you have been guilty."
Then the Tsarévna wept and swore in every way that she had been guilty with nobody. "I do not know myself," she said, "why the Lord has chastised me."
The Tsar asked, but found nothing out.
Soon a boy was born who grew not by days but by hours; and at the end of a week he could already talk. So the Tsar summoned all the boyárs and the senators from every part of the kingdom to show them the
