"I presume," he exclaimed, "that good workers are owners of this
place, honest plowmen and diligent sowers. If only all fields in
my tsarstvo were equally cultivated, my people need never know what
hunger means, and there would even be plenty to send beyond the sea to
be exchanged for silver and gold."

Then the Tsar Archidei gave orders to inquire who the owners of the
field were, and what were their names. Hunters, grooms, and servants
rushed in all directions, and discovered seven brave fellows, all of
them fair, red-cheeked, and very handsome. They were dining according
to the peasant fashion, which means that they were eating rye bread
with onions, and drinking clear water. Their blouses were red, with a
golden galloon around the neck, and they were so much alike that one
could hardly be recognized from another.

The royal messengers approached.

"Whose field is this?" they asked; "this field with golden wheat?"

The seven brave peasants answered cheerfully:

"This is our field; we plowed it, and we also have sown the golden
wheat."

"And what kind of people are you?"

"We are the Tsar Archidei Aggeivitch's peasants, farmers, and we are
brothers, sons of one father and mother. The name for all of us is
Simeon, so you understand we are seven Simeons."