--- title: The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1 — Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales · full text with trees · page 2 description: The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1, «Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales»: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: At the end of a village on the verge of the steppe dwelt two brothers, one rich and the other poor. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/) / The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1 # The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 1 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/101/) — And the serpent was the Tsar of that tsardom. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/102/) — Vast were his palaces, iron railings surrounded his courtyards, and the railings were covered with the heads of various warriors; only on the twenty huge pillars in front of the gate were there no heads. - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/103/) — As they drew nigh, deadly fear oppressed the heart of the prince, and he said to Ivan, "Mark me, Ivan! those pillars yonder are meant for \_our\_ heads!"--"That remains to be seen," replied Ivan Golik. - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/104/) — When they arrived there, the serpent at first treated them hospitably as welcome guests. - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/105/) — They were all to come in and make merry, he said, but the prince he took to his own house. - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/106/) — So they ate and drank together, and the thoughts of their hearts were joyous. - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/107/) — Now the serpent had twenty-one daughters, and he brought them to the prince, and told him which was the eldest, and which the next eldest, down to the very last one. - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/108/) — But it was the youngest daughter of all that the prince's fancy fed upon more than on any of the others. - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/109/) — Thus they diverted themselves till evening, and in the evening they made ready to go to sleep. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/110/) — But the serpent said to the prince, "Well, which of my daughters dost thou think the loveliest?" - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/111/) — "The youngest is the most beautiful," said the prince, "and her will I wed." - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/112/) — "Good!" said the serpent, "but I will not let thee have my daughter till thou hast done all my tasks. - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/113/) — If thou doest my tasks, thou shalt have my daughter; but if thou doest them not, thou shalt lose thy head, and all thy suite shall perish with thee." - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/114/) — Then he gave him his first task: "In my barn are three hundred ricks of corn; by the morning light thou shalt have threshed and sifted them so that stalk lies by stalk, chaff by chaff, and grain by grain." - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/115/) — Then the prince went to his own place to pass the night there, and bitterly he wept. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/116/) — But Ivan Golik saw that he was weeping, and said to him, "Why dost thou weep, O prince?" - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/117/) — "Why should I not weep, seeing the task that the serpent has given me is impossible?" - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/118/) — "Nay, weep not, my prince, but lie down to sleep, and by the morning light it will all be done!" - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/119/) — No sooner had Ivan Golik left the prince than he went outside and whistled for the mice. - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/120/) — Then the mice assembled round them in their hosts: "Why dost thou whistle, and what dost thou want of us, O Ivan Golik?" said they. - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/121/) — "Why should I not whistle, seeing that the serpent has bidden us thresh out his barn by the morning light, so that straw lies by straw, chaff by chaff, and grain by grain?" - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/122/) — No sooner did the mice hear this than they began scampering all about the barn! - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/123/) — There were so many of them that there was not room to move. - [124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/124/) — They set to work with a will, and long before dawn it was quite finished. - [125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/125/) — Then they went and awoke Ivan Golik. — checked by a teacher - [126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/126/) — He went and looked, and lo! all the chaff was by itself, and all the grain was by itself, and all the straw by itself! - [127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/127/) — Then Ivan bade them be quite sure that there was not a single grain remaining in a single ear of corn. - [128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/128/) — So they scampered all about, and there was not a mouse which did not look under every stalk of straw. - [129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/129/) — Then they ran up to him, and said, "Fear not! there is not a single loose grain anywhere. - [130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/130/) — And now we have requited thee thy service, Ivan Golik, farewell!" [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/25/) **2** - ← previous: [The Magic Egg](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/24/) - next →: [The Story of the Unlucky Days, part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/26/) - ↑ back to [Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg29672/)