THE VOICES AT THE WINDOW. 41

of kvas; and the hut was warm, and the bed therein
was white—everything just as the nobleman had
desired it. So they all entered after him, and said
grace, and had supper, and laid them down to sleep.
They all slept, all but one, but to him slumber
would not come. About midnight he heard a strange
nolse, and something came to the window and said:
“Oh, thou son of a dog! thou didst say: ‘If we had
but a warm hut, and a white bed, and soft bread and
sour kvas, we should have nought to complain of, but
would tell tales and feion fables till dawn’; but now
thou hast forgotten thy fine promise! Wherefore
this shall befall thee on thy way home. Thou shalt
fall in with an apple-tree full of apples, and thou
shalt desire to taste of them, and when thou hast
tasted thereof thou shalt burst. And if any of these
thy huntsmen hear this thing and tell thee of it, that
man shall become stone to the knee!” All this that
huntsman heard, and he thought, “ Woe is me!”
And about the second cockcrow something else
came to the window and said: “Oh, thou son of a
dog! thou didst say: ‘If we had but a warm hut, and
a white bed, and soft bread and sour kvas, we should
have nought to complain of, but would tell tales and
feign fables till dawn’; but now thou hast forgotten
thy fine promises! Wherefore this shall befall thee
on thy way home. Thou shalt come upon a spring by