218 COSSACK FAIRY TALES.

Then all the brothers came together, and the old man
told them what God had done for him. All their
faces brightened as they looked at the casket, and they
thought to themselves: “If we keep him we shall
Then the four brothers could not
make too much of their dear old father. They took

Pd

have the money.

care of him and the old man was happy, but he took
heed to the counsel of the nobleman, and never let the
casket out of his hand. “ After my death you shall
have everything, but I won't give it you now, for who
knows what may happen? I have seen already how
you treated your old father when he had nothing. It
shall all be yours, I say, only wait; and when I die,
take it and divide it as I have said.” So the brothers
tended their father, and the old man lived in clover,
and was somebody. He had his own way and did
nothing.

So the old man was no longer ill-treated by his
children, but lived among them like an emperor in his
own empire, but no sooner did he die than his children
made what haste they could to lay hands upon the
casket. All the people were called together and bore
witness that they had treated their father well since
he came back to them, so it was adjudged that they
should divide the treasure amongst them. But first
they took the old man’s body to church and the casket
along with it. They buried him as God commands.