Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicholas

Long ago, there lived a peasant who faithfully kept the feast day of St. Nicholas, but he never honored the day of St. Elijah the Prophet. In fact, he even worked on Elijah's day. He would sing a hymn of thanks to Nicholas and burn a candle in his honor, but he never gave a single thought to the Prophet Elijah.

One day, Elijah and Nicholas were walking through this peasant's fields, looking around and admiring the crops. The ears of grain were so large and full that it warmed one's heart to see them.

"What a fine harvest this will be!" said Nicholas. "Yes, and he's a fine fellow, a good and brave peasant, pious; he remembers God and reveres the holy saints. Whatever he sets his hand to will prosper."

"Ha, let's see about that, brother," Elijah objected. "Will he have so much left over? I'll let my lightning flash and my hail beat down his field; then your peasant will learn his lesson and respect my name-day."

So they argued and quarreled, and finally agreed to go their separate ways.

St. Nicholas at once went to the peasant and said: "Go and sell all your standing corn to the priest of St. Elijah's church. Not a single blade will be left; it will be destroyed by hail."

The peasant rushed to the priest and said: "Oh, Father, won't you buy all my standing corn? I'll sell you my whole field; I'm so short of money. Take it and give me cash. Do buy it, Father; I'll sell it cheap."

They haggled and bargained, and at last they agreed. The peasant took the money and went home.

Time passed, not much nor little; a heavy thundercloud gathered, and with terrible lightning and hail, it battered the peasant's field, cutting through the crops like a scythe, and left not a single blade standing.

The next day, Elijah and Nicholas were passing by, and Elijah said: "Look how I've blasted the peasant's field!"

"The peasant's field? No, my brother, no; you've done your work thoroughly, but it belongs to the priest of St. Elijah, not to the peasant."

"What? That priest?"

"Oh, yes; about a week ago the peasant sold the field to the priest and got hard cash for it! And the priest is crying over his lost money."

"That won't do," said Elijah. "I will restore the field; it will be as good as it was before."

They finished their conversation and went on their way.

Then St. Nicholas went to the peasant again. "Go and see the priest," he said, "and buy back your field; you won't lose by it."

The peasant went to the priest. "The Lord has grievously afflicted you," he said, "and has smitten your field with hail, as smooth as a board. Let's share the cost; I will take back my field and return half the money to ease your loss."

Oh, how glad the priest was to agree! They shook hands on it at once.

Meanwhile, somehow or other, the peasant's field recovered; new shoots sprang up from the old roots, the rain poured down and nourished the earth. Wonderful fresh corn grew up, lofty and thick, not a weed to be seen, and the ears were so full that they bowed down to the earth. The little sun warmed them, the rye ripened, and it waved like a field of gold. The peasant bound sheaf after sheaf, built rick after rick, carted it away, and stacked it.

Just then Elijah and St. Nicholas were once more passing by. Elijah looked cheerfully at the field and said: "Just look, Nicholas, what a blessing I have brought! This is my reward to the priest, and he'll never forget it all his life."

"The priest? No, brother; it is a great boon, but this is the peasant's field; the priest hasn't a rod of it!"

"Wha-at?"

"It's true. After the field had been battered by hail, the peasant went to the priest and bought it back for half the price."

"Stop a moment," said the Prophet Elijah, "I'll take all the goodness out of it; from all the peasant's ricks he shall not thresh more than six gallons at a time."

"This looks bad," thought St. Nicholas, and he immediately went to the peasant and said: "See to it; when you start threshing, never take more than a sheaf at a time onto the threshing floor."

So the peasant began threshing, and he got six gallons from every sheaf. All his granaries and lofts were filled with rye, and still much was left over. He built new storehouses and filled them to the brim.

One day Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicholas were passing by his courtyard, and Elijah glanced up and said: "Why has he built these new granaries? How can he fill them all?"

"They're full up," St. Nicholas replied.

"How did he get so much grain?"

"Oh! Each sheaf yielded him six gallons, and as soon as he started threshing, he brought them in sheaf by sheaf."

"Oh, my brother Nicholas," Elijah guessed, "you must have told him what to do!"

"Well, I thought it all out and was going to say..."

"What are you after? It's all your work. Never mind; your peasant shall still have a reminder of me."

"What will you do?"

"I shall not tell you this time!"

"Well, if evil is to come, it will come."

Nicholas thought, and again went to the peasant, told him to buy two tapers, one big and one small, and gave him instructions.

The next day, Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicholas were out together in the guise of wanderers, and the peasant happened to meet them, carrying two wax candles—one big that cost a rouble, and one little that cost a kopek.

"Where are you going, peasant?" St. Nicholas said.

"Oh, I am going to light the rouble taper to the Prophet Elijah; he has been so charitable to me. My field was ravaged by hail, so he intervened, dear Father, and gave me a crop twice as good."

"For whom is the farthing dip?"

"Oh, for St. Nicholas!" the peasant said, and went on his way.

"There you are, Elijah," said St. Nicholas: "you said I gave everything to the peasant; now you see what the truth is."

And with that the dispute ended: Elijah the Prophet was reconciled, and he ceased persecuting the peasant with hailstorms, so that the peasant lived a merry life from that day and honored both name-days equally.