eat him up for an ungrateful vagabond! Here, you beggars!"
(addressing the poor relations,) "take your turn, and let me see
whether you are men."

Only one of the frightened parasites had the courage to obey. On
reaching the brink, he shut his eyes in mortal fear, and made a
leap at random. The next moment he lay on the edge of the ice with
one leg broken against a fragment of rock.

This capped the climax of the Prince's wrath. He fell into a state
bordering on despair, tore his hair, gnashed his teeth, and wept
bitterly.

"They will be the death of me!" was his lament. "Not a man among
them! It wasn't so in the old times. Such beautiful reisaks as
I have seen! But the people are becoming women,--hares,--
chickens,--skunks! Villains, will you force me to kill you?
You have dishonored and disgraced me; I am ashamed to look my
neighbors in the face. Was ever a man so treated?"

The serfs hung down their heads, feeling somehow responsible for
their master's misery. Some of them wept, out of a stupid sympathy
with his tears.

All at once he sprang down from the cask, crying in a gay,
triumphant tone,--

"I have it! Bring me Crop-Ear. He's the fellow for a reisak,--
he can make three, one after another."