202 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

my son ; when I come hither to-morrow morning and
ask whose field this is, say that it is not the poor
man’s, but the rich man’s.”

Then he well covered up his son with straw, and
departed to his own house.

In the morning all the people assembled together
and went to the field, and the rich man cried: “ Speak,
O God! whose field is this, the rich man’s or the poor
man’s?”

“The rich man’s, the rich man’s,” cried a voice from
the midst of the field.

But the Lord Himself was amongst the people
gathered together there, and He said: “ Listen not to
that voice, for the field is verily the poor man’s.”

Then the Lord told all the people how the matter
went, and then He said to the son of the rich man:

“ Stay where thou art, and sit beneath the earth all
thy days, so long as the sun is in the sky.”

So the rich man’s son became a mole on the spot,
and that is why the mole always flies the light of day.