Russian Fairy Tales | Page 8

The time came for going
home.
"Come and see me off, Marusia!" says the stranger.

She went out into the street, and while she was taking leave of him she
quietly dropped the noose over one of his buttons. He went his way, but
she remained where she was, unrolling the ball. When she had unrolled
the whole of it, she ran after the thread to find out where her betrothed
lived. At first the thread followed the road, then it stretched across
hedges and ditches, and led Marusia towards the church and right up to
the porch. Marusia tried the door; it was locked. She went round the
church, found a ladder, set it against a window, and climbed up it to see
what was going on inside. Having got into the church, she looked--and
saw her betrothed standing beside a grave and devouring a dead
body--for a corpse had been left for that night in the church.
She wanted to get down the ladder quietly, but her fright prevented her
from taking proper heed, and she made a little noise. Then she ran
home--almost beside herself, fancying all the time she was being
pursued. She was all but dead before she got in. Next morning her
mother asked her:
"Well, Marusia! did you see the youth?"
"I saw him, mother," she replied. But what else she had seen she did
not tell.
In the morning Marusia was sitting, considering whether she would go
to the gathering or not.
"Go," said her mother. "Amuse yourself while you're young!"
So she went to the gathering; the Fiend[20] was there already. Games,
fun, dancing, began anew; the girls knew nothing of what had happened.
When they began to separate and go homewards:
"Come, Marusia!" says the Evil One, "see me off."
She was afraid, and didn't stir. Then all the other girls opened out upon
her.
"What are you thinking about? Have you grown so bashful, forsooth?

Go and see the good lad off."
There was no help for it. Out she went, not knowing what would come
of it. As soon as they got into the streets he began questioning her:
"You were in the church last night?"
"No."
"And saw what I was doing there?"
"No."
"Very well! To-morrow your father will die!"
Having said this, he disappeared.
Marusia returned home grave and sad. When she woke up in the
morning, her father lay dead!
They wept and wailed over him, and laid him in the coffin. In the
evening her mother went off to the priest's, but Marusia remained at
home. At last she became afraid of being alone in the house. "Suppose I
go to my friends," she thought. So she went, and found the Evil One
there.
"Good evening, Marusia! why arn't you merry?"
"How can I be merry? My father is dead!"
"Oh! poor thing!"
They all grieved for her. Even the Accursed One himself grieved; just
as if it hadn't all been his own doing. By and by they began saying
farewell and going home.
"Marusia," says he, "see me off."
She didn't want to.

"What are you thinking of, child?" insist the girls. "What are you afraid
of? Go and see him off."
So she went to see him off. They passed out into the street.
"Tell me, Marusia," says he, "were you in the church?"
"No."
"Did you see what I was doing?"
"No."
"Very well! To-morrow your mother will die."
He spoke and disappeared. Marusia returned home sadder than ever.
The night went by; next morning, when she awoke, her mother lay dead!
She cried all day long; but when the sun set, and it grew dark around,
Marusia became afraid of being left alone; so she went to her
companions.
"Why, whatever's the matter with you? you're clean out of
countenance!"[21] say the girls.
"How am I likely to be cheerful? Yesterday my father died, and to-day
my mother."
"Poor thing! Poor unhappy girl!" they all exclaim sympathizingly.
Well, the time came to say good-bye. "See me off, Marusia," says the
Fiend. So she went out to see him off.
"Tell me; were you in the church?"
"No."
"And saw what I was doing?"
"No."

"Very well! To-morrow evening you will die yourself!"
Marusia spent the night with her friends; in the morning she got up and
considered what she should do. She bethought herself that she had a
grandmother--an old, very old woman, who had become blind from
length of years. "Suppose I go and ask her advice," she said, and then
went off to her grandmother's.
"Good-day, granny!" says she.
"Good-day, granddaughter! What news is there with you? How are
your father and mother?"
"They are dead, granny," replied the girl, and then told her all that had
happened.
The old woman