THE QUICK RUNNER.
In a very distant kingdom, a long, long time ago, there were a number of impassable swamps and bogs to be found, round which went a circuitous road. Now this road was so long that it took three years at the least to complete the circuit, and that with very fast riding; but at a slower pace it took five and more!
Near this road there lived a poor old man with his three sons; the first was named Ivan; the second, Vasselie, and the third, Simeon-the-Youthful.
One day it struck the old man that it would be a very grand thing to cleanse the swamps and the bogs, and make a straight road and build little bridges here and there, so that foot-travellers might pass through in three weeks, and those on horseback in three days and nights, travelling without a break. So he set to work with his sons, and after some time everything was ready. They bridged the worst part of the swamps and bogs by means of branches of the elder-tree, and so completed their straight road across. This done, the old man returned to his little hut, and after the lapse of a few days, he said to his eldest son, Ivan,—
"Go, my dear son, and hide yourself behind one of the little bridges, and listen to what the people say about us; whether they abuse us or praise us."
