Folk Tales of the Russian Empire. Коллектив авторов

with all his heart, and he had been dragging out a miserable existence for them. He looked at the bread for a while, then wrapped the bread up and, with a heavy sigh, put the bundle under a bush.

      “Yeah, I’m tired, of course, but I would rather hang on, till all the work is finished, and eat before going home. Then I can do without dinner at home – my wife and children will have more to eat,” he thought and resumed his work.

      Meanwhile a Demon came out of the woods and hid behind a bush of dog rose. He saw a man and tried to figure out how to make fun of him. As soon as the man took hold of the plough – the Demon stole the bread from the bundle and ate it up. Then he hid behind the bush waiting for more – what would happen next, when the man could not find his bread in place.

      For a long time Jonah the Needy suffered from persistent hunger, finally he could not bear it any longer.

      “I am a living man,” he thought and went to the bundle. He untied it but there was nothing there, not even a crumb of bread.

      “What a wonder,” was surprised the poor man. “No one has been here yet but someone still stole the bread. He must also be a hungry man. Let him eat for his health – I won’t die of hunger for one day. For the sake of God, I should cast my bread upon the waters.”

      The man crossed himself, made a prayer and continued to plough the field until the evening.

      “It’s a bad job altogether,” the Demon muttered under his breath and gritted his teeth. “I stole his last piece of bread! Lo and behold – he did not even swear, did not ruin his soul, but kept his fingers crossed for me!”

      The Demon fell into terrible rage and sank through the ground into the belly of hell. He appeared before the Great Devil and told him everything that had happened.

      “Hell, you made a big mistake!” said the Devil. “We are demons and should do evil to all people, but we must do so with conscience, because the Almighty lays the blame on the right shoulders for atrocities. Do evil to a bad man – it serves him right, he deserves it, but to steal the last piece of bread from an honest man – that is a shameful thing! Furthermore, you had gobbled up the farmer’s bread, but bread is the gift of God – demons are not allowed to eat bread. Therefore, I impose penance on you! This very hour, go to Jonah the Needy and serve him as a labourer for seven years – for the evil you had caused him!”

      When the Demon heard the Devil’s verdict, he hunched like a wet hen, but he could do nothing!

      He pretended to be a homeless wanderer, came to Jonah the Needy and asked for a job. The man told him:

      “How can I keep a worker? I’m myself almost dying of hunger!”

      The Demon explained his idea:

      “I’m a poor man, and so are you. Let us act together and do all the work – all for one. I have no wife, no kids; I have almost a new fur coat and a nice shirt on me. I can make bast shoes from a lime tree at any time. I have no need to roam about fairs, so I don’t need any payment from you: a coin is round – it will roll out of the pocket sooner or later. I hope you will share with me just a piece of bread.”

      He was begging so hard that the man even got a little scared. Somehow or other, the Demon stayed at the farmer’s house. He began working as a farm labourer and was so busy getting his hooks on the new master that all the villagers were surprised.

      At first, the Demon set to work on the horse – all day long he was cleaning him with a new brush, feeding him with selected oats, watering him with spring water. In less than a week, the farmer could hardly recognize the horse: his sides rounded, his skin gleamed and his mane waved by the wind. The horse began to work all day long without getting tired. As soon as the labourer had brought the horse in order, he went to a cow.

      Every day he himself took the cow to graze, chose good places with lush grass, protected her from flies, watered her with pure water. When the cow returned home from the pasture, her udder was as big as a bucket. The farmer’s children began to drink plenty of milk and to eat their soup with sour cream and their bread with butter. The wife had no complaints about the man, and the children were not crying, but Jonah the Needy suddenly felt sick at heart. Neither he nor the villagers could understand where all this had come from?

      The Demon worked without ceasing: as soon as he had finished with household chores, he went to the field. In one day, he fertilized the entire field with manure, ploughed the land, and sowed wheat. The crops grew up as a thick forest and Jonah the Needy gathered in an unthinkable harvest. The villagers were looking in wonder at the poor man:

      “Have you ever seen the likes of this? He has a full granary!”

      The next year the Demon said:

      “Man, let’s plough the swamp this year. I believe that the summer will be dry. This warm weather should bring good crops!”

      The labourer began to plough the swamp, and the land dried up just after the plough, as though it was in an oven. He sowed wheat in the harrowed marsh, and crops were very good that year! At the beginning, the neighbours looked on and laughed at the bumpkin, that was throwing his grain in the dirt. But when Jonah the Needy brought the profuse harvest, they grew quiet and decided to do the same.

      The following summer, the folks rushed to plough the swamp and sow wheat, but the man was doing everything on his farm the other way round. The labourer said to his master:

      “From all appearances there should be a rainy summer. Let’s plough a sandy wasteland, and let the neighbours dig muddy ground!”

      The Demon chose the sands on rising ground where nothing had grown before. He ploughed the land and sowed the wheat. Right afterward, there fell thick rain and all the grain in the lowlands began rotting. The villagers barely reaped any of the wheat, having sown in the plains. Again Jonah the Needy did not know what to do with his harvest.

      To cut a long story short, the man became rich, he paid a wage to the labourer and lived as cool as a cucumber. But the Demon was not so delighted and thought:

      “Well, I have more than paid for the loaf of bread that I had stolen. My master lives like a fighting cock, and it’s the right time to say goodbye to him. So it would be a good thing to play a dirty trick on the man – to round the ‘evening’ off!”

      And then he said to the farmer:

      “Look, man, there is a stock of wheat here in abundance. What should we do with it?”

      “What do you mean – ‘what should we do’? We would eat for health, give alms to the poor, we could donate help to a hospital, or give loans to those who have lost crops. And let the rest be stored for a rainy day! There may come a bad year,” said Jonah the Needy.

      The Demon did not like these words, so he explained:

      “It’s gonna be a devil of a nuisance – to keep the harvest in the granary! You must stir the grain once and again – to protect it from rotting, from spoiling by mice, and so on. I’ve got an idea and, if possible, this matter will bring us considerable profit, honour, and glory.”

      “What’s the matter?” asked the man.

      “The point is very simple. People are brewing beer from barley, and we would brew something from wheat – maybe this thing will pan out,” said the Demon.

      “Well, try it yourself, if you like. It’s none of my business,” replied Jonah the Needy.

      The Demon set to work: he procured boilers and vats, ground the corn and began to boil the wheat. There he was stirring the soup, adding hops from time to time. He made a drink pure as water, bitter and strong as mustard, burning the mouth like flame. The Demon began humming and dancing with joy, named the drink moonshine, poured it into large bottles, then poured some into a glass, put it on the table and cordially invited his master:

      “Yeah, it’s