Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar/Senka the Little
SENKA THE LITTLE.
Many years ago, in a certain kingdom, there was a small village, in which lived a man whose brother had died a little while before, leaving behind him a son called Senka the Little, who was an arrant thief. Though his father had placed him in many a school and many a place of business, Senka would learn and do nothing.
"Why do you not try and learn?" his father and mother would ask him. "Do you wish to remain a fool all your life?"
"If you wish to see me earn my bread and salt," Senka would reply; "you must let me go somewhere to learn the art of theft properly. I will look at no other science. I shall do nothing but steal; I have no talent for anything else."
So Senka the Little stayed at home doing nothing until his father died, and then he did not stop to think, but went straight to his uncle, his father's brother, saying,—
"Come, uncle, I want to learn the art of theft now. While you do the stealing, I will look on and see how you do it, and also help you when necessary."
"All right, come along!" said the uncle; and they started off on their journey.
They went on and on until they came to a marshy place, where they saw a wild duck sitting among some reeds, where she had made herself a nest.
"Let us catch that duck!" said the uncle, as he began to creep stealthily up to her. But he did not succeed; he had driven her off her nest in vain. Meanwhile Senka the Little crept on behind his uncle, and contrived to cut off the soles of that worthy's shoes unobserved.
"Well, Senka," laughed the uncle, when he found what his nephew had done, "I thought I was cunning enough, but you beat me out and out."
They went on farther, and very soon saw in the distance three mujiks coming along towards them, leading a bull to market.
"How can we best get that bull, little uncle?" asked Senka.
"Why, you stupid, it is not night? How can any one steal so large a thing in broad daylight?"
"Never mind, uncle, I intend to do it, be it night or day."
"What!" exclaimed the uncle. "Do you actually think that you can be more clever and cunning than I."
"Well, we shall see."
Senka the Little then took off his right boot, and, throwing it into the middle of the road, hid himself and his uncle behind some bushes on the road-side.
The mujiks came up.
"Stop, my brothers!" cried one. "Look here! What a splendid boot this is; quite new, too."
"Yes, it's new enough; but what can we do with it? If there had been a pair of them it would have been different; we might have taken them. But what is the use of one? You can't walk about with one leg in a boot and the other in a straw shoe."
They thought, and hesitated, and at last walked away, leaving the boot in the road. Senka at once rushed forward, drew on the boot, and then, pulling off the left one, he ran as hard as ever he could behind the bushes until he got some yards in front of the mujiks. He then stopped, and threw the left boot into the road, so that the men could not see what he had done.
"Stop, brothers!" cried one of the mujiks, coming up to the boot. "Here is the other boot! Either the man who lost them was a great idiot, or else he had so many boots that he did not mind losing a pair or so. Now, brothers, for a race! Let us all three run back to the place where we left the other boot, and whoever gets there first shall have them for himself."
They tied the bull up to a tree, and then ran back after the other boot. This was just what Senka the Little had expected; so he rushed out from behind the bushes, put on the boot—which the mujiks had left behind them—and then, untying the bull, drove it on to a marsh, where he cut off its head, and placed it in such a way that any one might have thought that the bull had sunk into the damp ground. This done, he hid the other part of the animal behind the bushes, and waited.
When the mujiks found that their running had all been in vain, and that the first boot had disappeared, they returned to the place where they had left the bull; but what was their surprise to find that the animal was not there. They looked and looked, and at last came to the marsh, where they found the head looking out of the ground.
"Just see where the devil has enticed him to!" said one of the men, pointing at the head. "The animal has sunk right into the mud. We must try our best to pull him out."
They had some very thick ropes with them, so they took one, and threw it round the bull's horns. They then all three set to work to pull the rope. They had hardly given one little pull when down they all went on their backs.
"How unfortunate!" exclaimed the men, getting up, and seeing the head without the body. "The bull was evidently very deep in the mud, for, see, we have only succeeded in tearing off his head."
However, nothing was to be done; so the mujiks went home empty-handed.
As soon as they had gone Senka the Little called his uncle, and they both skinned the bull, cut the flesh up, and then began to divide it between them.
"Are we to divide the body equally?" asked the uncle. "I think I ought to have more than you, Senka, for I am older than you."
But Senka was offended. He snatched up the bull's skin, and left his uncle. He went behind some bushes, and, taking two rather thick branches, began thrashing and thrashing the skin, crying out meanwhile at the top of his voice,—
"Let me go! let me go, little father! It was not I alone who stole the bull; my uncle helped me."
When the uncle heard this he thought to himself "Well, Senka is catching it now," and ran home in a fright, thinking that he might catch it also.
The moment his uncle had gone, Senka ran to the village for a horse and cart, and placing all the meat in the vehicle, drove off to market, where he sold it, and got a great deal of money for it.
Next day Senka the Little came to his uncle, and asked him to accompany him to the king's treasury,
"Come," he said, "let us go on with our lesson! You steal, while I watch and see how you do it."
Away they went in the middle of the night, and arrived at the king's treasury; but how were they to get in, for there were watchmen all round? They must try and be artful again, Senka the Little managed, somehow or another, to creep into a dark comer unobserved, followed by his uncle. In this way they got into the treasury without any trouble of any kind, and at once began filling their pockets. It would be perfectly impossible to say how much gold and silver they contrived to take home with them. This sort of thing rather amused them; they liked it, especially Senka, who went every night into the treasury and stole the money.
One day the king went in to see whether all was right in the royal treasury, and of course saw at once that something was wrong. A great deal of his money was missing, and he immediately called a council, and asked what had better be done—how they could best catch the thief or thieves. At last they decided to put a very large vat filled with tar just by the hole through which the thief must have entered. No sooner said than done. All day long they heated the tar, and kept pouring it into a very large vat.
In the evening Senka the Little called for his uncle, and they both went to the treasury, as usual. When they reached their destination, Senka the Little sent his uncle on in front.
"Go on first," he said, "and I shall follow."
The unfortunate uncle obeyed; he crawled through the hole and tumbled right into the vat of hot tar.
"Good heavens!" he yelled at the top of his voice, "my death has come to me at last. I am right in the middle of a hot bath of tar."
Senka at once seized his relative by the legs, thinking he would be able to pull him out; but no. He pulled and pulled, but all in vain; nothing could be done. "Well," he said, to himself, "if they find him here they will see his face, and, by the help of that, are sure to find me, for there is a strong likeness between us."
So saying, Senka unscrewed his uncle's head, and took it home to his aunt, to whom he told a long story of how her husband had been lost, and that nothing but his head was left in remembrance.
In the morning the guards came to the king, and told him that the thief had been caught, but he was headless. The king was greatly astonished, and ordered a cart, with three horses and little bells, to be got ready to drive the dead body about all over the town: in that way they might perhaps be able to find some of the man's relations. If any one was seen to weep over the dead body, the same should at once be seized and put into fetters; those were the king's orders.
"Little aunt," said Senka, "do you want to weep over the body of your departed husband?"
"Of course I should, my dear. A husband is a husband, you know, whatever he may do or say. Yes, I should very much like to weep over him."
"Well, then, listen to me. Take a new pitcher, fill it with milk, and go out into the streets to meet the cart with the dead body of your husband. When you see it, manage to stumble somehow, drop the pitcher so that it will smash, and then cry to your heart's content."
The aunt took a new pitcher, filled it with milk, and went her way. She did not go far before she saw the cart with the three horses, and her dead husband lying on it. As soon as the vehicle came up to her she managed to stumble, and drop the pitcher, which broke into several little pieces, while the milk flowed out in all directions. She at once commenced to weep bitterly, and murmuring to herself,—
"Oh, my life! my life! How can I ever live without thee?"
In another moment a number of soldiers came running up to her from all sides, and began asking her,—
"Tell us, you old woman, what are you crying for and why are you saying those words? Have you recognized the dead body? Is he your husband, or your brother, or—your lover?"
"Ah! my dear little fathers, how can I help crying? You see yourselves in what trouble I am; I have broken my new pitcher and spilt the milk!" And she again began to cry.
"What an old idiot! You must have very little to cry about in general!" said the soldiers, and went on farther.
On the following day the soldiers came to the king, telling him that they had seen no one cry over the dead body, though they had driven all over the town. The only person who did weep was a stupid old woman; but that was not at sight of the body, but because she happened to smash her pitcher and spill the milk.
"Why did you not seize her?" asked the king. "I dare say she did know something about the thief."
The king again called a council, and began asking how they had best catch the other thief, for he was sure that there had been another. At last, after thinking and thinking, the council decided to place a cask of wine in a certain meadow, strew some money round it, and put a man behind the bushes to watch. The thief, of course, would at once come to steal the money—how could he help it? He would then see the cask, and immediately drink the wine until he became drunk; then it would be very easy to catch him!
In the night Senka the Little started off to see what he could do in the way of stealing. He had to pass through the meadow, where, to his surprise, he saw some money strewn about. He at once began filling his pockets, when he smelt the wine.
"Come," he thought, "this is splendid. Let me taste the wine."
He did. It was beautiful; he had never tasted better.
"A drop more won't hurt."
He drank and drank until he became so drunk that he was unable to leave his place, but fell fast asleep by the side of the cask. The watchman meanwhile had long since noticed him.
"Ah! my friend," he thought, "you are caught now! This is the end of your amusements in this world; you will soon be sitting in Siberia!"
He approached Senka the Little and shaved off half of his beard, so that in case the thief left the place while he went to tell the authorities there would be something to recognize him by.
"I shall go now and tell them."
By the time the watchman arrived at the palace morning began to dawn, and Senka awoke and recovered from his fit of intoxication, and pulled his beard as he yawned, when he suddenly felt that half of it was gone. "What was he to do?" he thought and thought.
At last an idea struck him. He got up, and went along the high road, and commenced pulling every man he met by the beard until he tore half of it off, so that no one could possibly recognize the thief! In this way Senka got out of his difficulty. He let his beard grow again, and began living happily, stealing right and left. He would have lived even longer, if he had not been caught the other day and hung.