with their cleverness. And what happened to them I do not know, for
they were never heard of again.

The Fool of the World saw them set off, with their fine parcels of
food, and their fine clothes, and their bottles of corn brandy.

"I'd like to go too," says he, "and eat good meat, with soft white
rolls, and drink corn brandy, and marry the Tzar's daughter."

"Stupid fellow," says his mother, "what's the good of your going? Why,
if you were to stir from the house you would walk into the arms of a
bear; and if not that, then the wolves would eat you before you had
finished staring at them."

But the Fool of the World would not be held back by words.

"I am going," says he. "I am going. I am going. I am going."

He went on saying this over and over again, till the old woman his
mother saw there was nothing to be done, and was glad to get him out
of the house so as to be quit of the sound of his voice. So she put
some food in a bag for him to eat by the way. She put in the bag some
crusts of dry black bread and a flask of water. She did not even
bother to go as far as the footpath to see him on his way. She saw the
last of him at the door of the hut, and he had not taken two steps
before she had gone back into the hut to see to more important
business.

No matter. The Fool of the World set off with his bag over his
shoulder, singing as he went, for he was off to seek his fortune and