[Illustration: "_Hunters, grooms, and servants rushed in all
directions_"]

This answer was faithfully delivered to the Tsar Archidei by the
envoys, and the Tsar at once desired to see the brave peasants, and
ordered them to be called before him. The seven Simeons presently
appeared and bowed. The Tsar looked at them with his bright eyes and
asked them:

"What kind of people are you whose field is so well cultivated?"

One of the seven brothers, the eldest of them, answered:

"We are all thy peasants, simpletons, without any wisdom, born of
peasant parents, all of us children of the same father and the same
mother, and all having the same name, Simeon. Our old father taught us
to pray to God, to obey thee, to pay taxes faithfully, and besides to
work and toil without rest. He also taught to each of us a trade,
for the old saying is, 'A trade is no burden, but a profit.' The old
father wished us to keep our trades for a cloudy day, but never to
forsake our own fields, and always to be contented, and plow and
harrow diligently.

"He also used to say, 'If one does not neglect the mother earth, but
thoroughly harrows and sows in due season, then she, our mother, will
reward generously, and will give plenty of bread, besides preparing
a soft place for the everlasting rest when one is old and tired of
life.'"