University of Virginia Library

9.
CHAPTER IX.

THE brothers lived and reigned. Simeon,
the eldest brother, with his straw soldiers took
captive the genuine soldiers and trained all
alike. He was feared by every one.

Tarras-Briukhan, the other brother, did not
squander the gold he obtained from Ivan, but
instead greatly increased his wealth, and at the
same time lived well. He kept his money in
large trunks, and, while having more than he
knew what to do with, still continued to collect
money from his subjects. The people had to
work for the money to pay the taxes which Tarras
levied on them, and life was made burdensome
to them.

Ivan the Fool did not enjoy his wealth and
power to the same extent as did his brothers.

As soon as his father-in-law, the late Czar, was

buried, he discarded the Imperial robes which
had fallen to him and told his wife to put them
away, as he had no further use for them. Hav-
ing cast aside the insignia of his rank, he once
more donned his peasant garb and started to
work as of old.

"I felt lonesome," he said, "and began to
grow enormously stout, and yet I had no appetite,
and neither could I sleep."

Ivan sent for his father, mother, and dumb
sister, and brought them to live with him, and
they worked with him at whatever he chose
to do.

The people soon learned that Ivan was a
fool. His wife one day said to him, "The
people say you are a fool, Ivan."

"Well, let them think so if they wish," he
replied.

His wife pondered this reply for some time,
and at last decided that if Ivan was a fool she
also was one, and that it would be useless to go
contrary to her husband, thinking affectionately

of the old proverb that "where the needle goes
there goes the thread also." She therefore cast
aside her magnificent robes, and, putting them
into the trunk with Ivan's, dressed herself in
cheap clothing and joined her dumb sister-in-
law, with the intention of learning to work.

She succeeded so well that she soon became a
great help to Ivan.

Seeing that Ivan was a fool, all the wise men
left the kingdom and only the fools remained.

They had no money, their wealth consisting
only of the products of their labor. But they
lived peacefully together, supported themselves
in comfort, and had plenty to spare for the
needy and afflicted.