Sorrow

Once upon a time, in a poor village, there lived two brothers who were peasants. One was rich and the other was poor. The rich brother moved to town, built himself a fine house, and became a merchant. The poor brother often had no bread, and his children, each smaller than the last, would cry and beg for food. From morning to night, the poor peasant struggled like a fish on ice, but it was no use.

One day, he said to his wife, "I will go to town and ask my brother for help."

So he went to the rich man and said, "Brother, help me in my sorrow, for my wife and children are at home without bread and are starving."

The rich man replied, "If you work for me for a week, I will help you."

What could the poor fellow do?

He set to work: he cleaned the yard, groomed the horses, carried water, and chopped wood. When the week was over, the rich man gave him a loaf of bread. "There, you have your reward for your pains."

The poor man thanked him, bowed, and turned to go home.

But the rich brother said, "Stay! Come with your wife tomorrow and be my guests. Tomorrow is my name-day."

"Oh, brother, how can I? Merchants who wear boots and furs will be there, and I only have bast shoes and a gray coat."

"Never mind! Come anyway; I will make room for you."

"Good brother, I will come."

The poor man went home, gave his wife the loaf, and said, "Listen, wife. Tomorrow we are to be guests."

"Who asked us?"

"My brother. It is his name-day."

"All right, let us go."

The next day they got up and went to town. They came to the rich man's door, greeted him, and sat down on a bench. There were many guests at the table, and the host entertained them all magnificently. But he forgot about his poor brother and his wife and gave them nothing. They sat and could only watch the others eating and drinking. When the meal was over, the guests rose and bowed their thanks to the master and mistress. The poor man also stood up from his bench and bowed deeply to his brother. Then the guests went home drunk and merry, singing songs loudly.

The poor man went home with an empty stomach. "We, too, must sing a song!" he said to his wife.

"Oh, you fool, the others sing because they have had good food and drink. Why should we sing?"

"Well, after all, I was a guest at my brother's name-day, and I am ashamed to go back so silently. If I sing, they will think I was served just as well."

"Sing if you want, but I will not!"

The peasant began to sing, and he heard two voices. He stopped and asked his wife, "Are you helping me sing with a thin voice?"

"What are you thinking? I did no such thing."

"Then what was it?"

"I don't know," she said. "Keep singing; I will listen." So he sang alone again, and again he heard two voices. He stopped and said, "Sorrow, are you helping me sing?"

And Sorrow answered, "Yes, I am helping you."

"Now, Sorrow, we will go on together."

"Yes, I will always be with you."

The peasant went home, but Sorrow called him into the inn.

He said, "I have no money."

"Never mind, Hodge; what do you want money for? You still have half of a fur coat; what use is it? Summer will come soon, and you won't need it. Let's go to the inn and drink it up."

So the peasant and Sorrow went to the inn and drank up the half-fur. The next day Sorrow groaned and said he had a terrible headache from last night's drink. And he enticed the peasant to drink wine again.

"But I have no money!"

"You don't need money. Take your sleigh and your carriage; that will be enough for us!"

The peasant could not escape Sorrow. So he took his sleigh and carriage, drove them to the inn, and drank them away with Sorrow. In the morning Sorrow groaned even more and made the peasant drink more. The peasant drank away his ploughshare and his plough.

After a month, he had drunk all his property away, pledged his house to a neighbor, and spent all the money in the inn. Then Sorrow came to him again. "Let us go to the inn!"

"No, Sorrow, I have nothing left."

"Why, your wife has two sarafans; one will be enough for her."

So the peasant took the sarafan and drank it up. He thought, "Now I have nothing left: no house, no clothes, nothing for me or my wife!"

The next morning Sorrow woke up and saw there was nothing more to take. So he said, "Master, what do you wish? Go to your neighbor and borrow a pair of oxen and a cart."

The peasant went to his neighbor and said, "Can you lend me a cart and a pair of oxen for a short time, and I will work for you for a week?"

"What do you need them for?"

"To fetch wood from the forest."

"Well, take them, but don't overload them."

"Of course not, uncle!"

The peasant took the oxen, and he and Sorrow went into the cart and drove into the field.

"Do you know the big stone in this field?" asked Sorrow.

"Oh, yes!"

"Well, drive up to it."

They arrived at the stone and got down. Sorrow told the peasant to lift the stone, and he helped him.

Under the stone there was a hollow filled with gold.

"Now, what do you see?" said Sorrow. "Load it all quickly onto the cart."

The peasant worked quickly and loaded all the gold, down to the last ducat. When he saw there was nothing left, he said, "Sorrow, is there no more gold there?"

"I don't see any."

"Down in the corner, I see something glittering."

"No, I can't see anything."

"Get down into the pit, and you will see it."

So Sorrow went down into the pit, and as soon as he was inside, the peasant cast the stone back on top. "Things will go better now," said the peasant, "for if I took you back with me, Sorrow, you would drink up all this money!"

The peasant went home and poured the gold out in the cellar. He took the oxen back to his neighbor and began to set up his household again. He bought a wood, built a large house, and became twice as rich as his brother. Soon he rode to town to invite his brother and sister-in-law to his own name-day.

"Whatever do you mean?" said the rich brother. "You have nothing to eat, and you are giving feasts!"

"I had nothing before, but now I am as well off as you are."

"All right, I will come."

The next day, the rich man and his wife went to the name-day, and they saw that the poor starveling had a big new house, finer than many merchants' houses. The peasant gave them a rich dinner with all kinds of food and drink.

Then the rich man asked his brother, "Tell me, how did you become so rich?"

The peasant told him the whole truth: how Sorrow had followed him, how he and Sorrow had gone to the inn and drunk away everything until he had only his soul left, and then how Sorrow had shown him the treasure in the field, and he had freed himself from Sorrow.

The rich man became envious and thought, "I will go to the field and lift up the stone. Sorrow will tear my brother apart, so he can't brag about his riches in front of me."

So he left his wife and drove to the field, to the big stone. He pushed it aside and bent down to see what was underneath. No sooner had he bent down than Sorrow sprang up and sat on his shoulders.

"O!" cried Sorrow. "You wanted to leave me here under the earth? Now I will never leave you."

"Listen, Sorrow: I was not the one who locked you up here!"

"Who then, if not you?"

"My brother. I came to set you free."

"No, you are lying and deceiving me again. This time it won't work."

So Sorrow sat fast on the merchant's shoulders. He brought Sorrow home with him, and his household went from bad to worse. Sorrow began early every morning enticing the merchant into the tavern, day after day, and much of his property was drunk away.

"This life is absolutely unbearable!" thought the merchant. "I did Sorrow too good a service. I must free myself from him. But how?" He thought and thought. Then he went into his courtyard, cut two oak wedges, took a new wheel, and knocked one wedge into the axle. He went up to Sorrow. "Now, Sorrow, must you lie about like that?"

"What should I do? What else is there to do?"

"Come into the courtyard; let's play hide-and-seek."

This suited Sorrow perfectly. First the merchant hid, and Sorrow found him at once.

Then it was Sorrow's turn to hide. "You won't find me so easily: I can hide in any crack."

"What!" said the merchant. "You could never get into this wheel, much less a crack!"

"What! I can't get into the wheel? Just watch how I hide myself in it!"

So Sorrow crept into the wheel, and the merchant took the other oak wedge and drove it into the hub from the other side, trapping Sorrow inside. Then he threw the wheel, with Sorrow inside, into the river. Sorrow drowned, and the merchant lived as before.

And that is the end of the tale.