Page:Slavonic Fairy Tales.djvu/290

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All About Twopence.
269

"Yes, woe is me! This is his house, and here he lies dead in it."

Then the confederate said, "Heaven have mercy upon his soul! He was my confederate. We have worked and transacted business together, and since I have found him in such a state, it is only right that I should stop and accompany him to his grave, and throw a handful of earth over his coffin."

The woman told him that he would have to wait a long time for the funeral, and that he had better go away. But he answered,—

"Heaven forbid! How could I leave my former confederate like this? I will wait, be it even three days, until he is buried."

When the woman whispered this to her husband in the hut, he told her to go to the clergyman, tell him that he was dead, and have him removed to the church in the cemetery; then, perhaps, his confederate would go away. The woman went to the clergyman and told him of her husband's death. The clergyman came up with some of his men, who put the pretended dead on a bier, carried him off and left him in the middle of the church, so that he might spend the night there according to custom, and then on the following day receive the benediction and be buried. When the clergyman with the other people were about to leave the church, the confederate said that he