Russian Fairy Tales | Page 9

listened, and said:--
"Oh dear me! my poor unhappy child! Go quickly to the priest, and ask
him this favor--that if you die, your body shall not be taken out of the
house through the doorway, but that the ground shall be dug away from
under the threshold, and that you shall be dragged out through that
opening. And also beg that you may be buried at a crossway, at a spot
where four roads meet."
Marusia went to the priest, wept bitterly, and made him promise to do
everything according to her grandmother's instructions. Then she
returned home, bought a coffin, lay down in it, and straightway
expired.
Well, they told the priest, and he buried, first her father and mother, and
then Marusia herself. Her body was passed underneath the threshold
and buried at a crossway.
Soon afterwards a seigneur's son happened to drive past Marusia's
grave. On that grave he saw growing a wondrous flower, such a one as
he had never seen before. Said the young seigneur to his servant:--

"Go and pluck up that flower by the roots. We'll take it home and put it
in a flower-pot. Perhaps it will blossom there."
Well, they dug up the flower, took it home, put it in a glazed flower-pot,
and set it in a window. The flower began to grow larger and more
beautiful. One night the servant hadn't gone to sleep somehow, and he
happened to be looking at the window, when he saw a wondrous thing
take place. All of a sudden the flower began to tremble, then it fell from
its stem to the ground, and turned into a lovely maiden. The flower was
beautiful, but the maiden was more beautiful still. She wandered from
room to room, got herself various things to eat and drink, ate and drank,
then stamped upon the ground and became a flower as before, mounted
to the window, and resumed her place upon the stem. Next day the
servant told the young seigneur of the wonders which he had seen
during the night.
"Ah, brother!" said the youth, "why didn't you wake me? To-night we'll
both keep watch together."
The night came; they slept not, but watched. Exactly at twelve o'clock
the blossom began to shake, flew from place to place, and then fell to
the ground, and the beautiful maiden appeared, got herself things to eat
and drink, and sat down to supper. The young seigneur rushed forward
and seized her by her white hands. Impossible was it for him
sufficiently to look at her, to gaze on her beauty!
Next morning he said to his father and mother, "Please allow me to get
married. I've found myself a bride."
His parents gave their consent. As for Marusia, she said:
"Only on this condition will I marry you--that for four years I need not
go to church."
"Very good," said he.
Well, they were married, and they lived together one year, two years,
and had a son. But one day they had visitors at their house, who

enjoyed themselves, and drank, and began bragging about their wives.
This one's wife was handsome; that one's was handsomer still.
"You may say what you like," says the host, "but a handsomer wife
than mine does not exist in the whole world!"
"Handsome, yes!" reply the guests, "but a heathen."
"How so?"
"Why, she never goes to church."
Her husband found these observations distasteful. He waited till
Sunday, and then told his wife to get dressed for church.
"I don't care what you may say," says he. "Go and get ready directly."
Well, they got ready, and went to church. The husband went in--didn't
see anything particular. But when she looked round--there was the
Fiend sitting at a window.
"Ha! here you are, at last!" he cried. "Remember old times. Were you
in the church that night?"
"No."
"And did you see what I was doing there?"
"No."
"Very well! To-morrow both your husband and your son will die."
Marusia rushed straight out of the church and away to her grandmother.
The old woman gave her two phials, the one full of holy water, the
other of the water of life, and told her what she was to do. Next day
both Marusia's husband and her son died. Then the Fiend came flying
to her and asked:--
"Tell me; were you in the church?"

"I was."
"And did you see what I was doing?"
"You were eating a corpse."
She spoke, and splashed the holy water over him; in a moment he
turned into mere dust and ashes, which blew to the winds. Afterwards
she sprinkled her husband and her boy with the water of life:
straightway they revived. And from that time forward they knew
neither sorrow nor separation, but they