--- title: Opening, part 21 — Russian Folk-Tales · full text with trees description: Opening, part 21, «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: The poor brother brought the rich man the horse back without a tail. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/) [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/) / [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/) / Opening, part 21 # Opening, part 21 Opening, part 21 of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev: the whole text, 115 sentences and 2605 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/page/2/) The poor brother brought the rich man the horse back without a tail.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") When he saw the animal in this condition, he would not take it; but went with the poor man before Judge Shemyák.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") The poor man went with his brother, and surmised he would fare very badly, for the sentence would be exile; the poor man is a butt for all, as he cannot give anything.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") The brothers came to a rich peasant and asked for a night’s lodging.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") The peasant gave the rich man good food and drink, but the poor man nothing.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") The poor man lay on the oven and saw how merry the other two were making; and fell down and killed the child in the cradle.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the peasant decided to go with the brothers, to bring a further indictment against the poor man.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") They went off together, the peasant and the rich brother in front, and the poor man after them.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they crossed a bridge: the poor man considered that he would hardly escape the Court with his life; so he jumped over the bridge, in order to commit suicide.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") But, under the bridge, a son was bathing his sick father, and the poor man fell plump on the old man and drowned him.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the son also went up to the Court in order to bring a plaint against the poor man.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") The rich man put in a plea to the Court that his poor brother had torn off the horse’s tail.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") In the meantime the poor man had wrapped a stone in a cloth and was threatening the judge with it behind the brother’s back, for he was thinking, “If the judge goes against me, I will kill him.”[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") The judge believed that the poor man was offering him a hundred roubles so as to prove his case, and he gave judgment that the rich man must leave the horse in the poor peasant’s possession until the tail grew again.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the peasant came and complained that the poor man had killed his son.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") Once again the poor man lifted up the same stone in a menacing way against the judge, behind the peasant’s back.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") And the judge this time felt perfectly sure of getting a hundred roubles more for the judgment.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") And he commanded the peasant to give his wife to the poor peasant until another son was born.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") “Then you can take your wife and the child back.”[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") This time it was the son’s turn.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") And he brought in a plea that the poor man had murdered his father.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") Once again the poor man took the stone out of his pocket and showed it to the judge.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the judge felt sure he would get altogether three hundred roubles in the case, and he commanded the son to go to the bridge, “and you, poor man, go there; stop under the bridge; and the son is to jump into the water plump on to you and to kill you.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Judge Shemyák sent his servant to the poor man to ask for the three hundred roubles.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the poor man showed the servant the stone with which he had threatened the judge: “If the judge had not decided in my favour I should have killed him with this stone!”[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") When the judge heard of this, he crossed himself piously and said: “Thank God I decided for the right party.”[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") The poor brother went to the rich brother to fetch the horse from him in accordance with the judge’s decision, until the tail should grow again.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") The rich man did not want to give the horse, so he gave him instead five roubles, three quarters of corn, and a milch-goat; and made peace with him for all time.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the poor man went to the peasant, and in accordance with the judgment, asked for the wife, in order that she might remain with him until another child came.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the peasant made a compromise with the poor man, gave him fifty roubles, a cow and a calf, and a mare with a foal, and four quarters of corn, and settled matters with him.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the poor man went to the son whose father he had killed, and read the judgment out to him, according to which the son was to jump on him from the bridge, so as to kill him.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the son began to consider: “If I do jump, possibly I shall kill him, possibly I shall not; anyhow I shall be done for.”[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") So he made terms with the poor man, gave him two hundred roubles and a horse, and five quarters of corn; and lived in peace with him for ever.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") A STORY OF SAINT NICHOLAS[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") In a certain city, in a certain state, there once lived a merchant Nicholas with his wife.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") From the beginning they lived happily and were wealthy.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") But their chief joy was in this: that the Lord had presented them with a son, and such a beautiful son too\![37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") Sensible and wise—and the only prayer which the mother and father addressed to God and to his holy godfather St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker, was that they should endow him with happiness and long life.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") But, as old age crept on, they, for some reason, began to become poor; and they became so poor that Nicholas, from a famous merchant, became a mere tradesman, and they only had one little shop, and in the shop there was a chest of tobacco, a few nails, and a little iron.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") And either from the fact that they were growing poorer, or that they were becoming older, the mother and father of Iván—for this was the name of Nicholas’s son—had become feeble.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") One day the father called Iván to him, and said: “Now, our beloved son, we, it seems, shall soon die; but do you not weep for us, but rather pray God.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") For we have already lived out our life; and this is as it must be.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") But you bury us properly, for I have saved up money for you for this purpose.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") One third of the money you are to spend on the funeral, the second on the Requiem Mass, and with the third buy a shop and go into trade.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") And I will give you my blessing.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") Do not give any one false measure or cheat; and if you shall grow rich, do not forget God, and to give alms to the poor, as I did time agone.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") Now, my son, farewell.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") May the Divine mercy guard you and our guilty souls.”[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") Seven days passed, and Iván buried his father, and his mother soon afterwards, and began to trade.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Soon he began to overlook the stock, and in the corner he found an image of the holy St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") So he brought the image into the \_izbá\_\[27\] and he poured water into a vessel, washed it out, cleaned it in front of the image, and soon after went to market, bought a little lamp, and lighted it in front of the image.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") On the first Sunday he called the Pope in, had a Mass said for his parents, chanted a prayer to St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker, and took the image into the shop, so that he might gaze at it constantly; and thereafter, whenever he went into the shop, he used first of all to pray before the image, and afterwards he began to trade.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") And his trade went so well that it seemed as if the Lord Himself had been sending customers.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Later on he built a second shop, and every day he gave much money in alms, and amongst others, to one old man who every day repaired to him.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") Iván was very fond of him, and when a new clerk had to be engaged for the new shop, he said to this old man: “Grandfather, I do not know thy hallowed name; I do not know, father, how to call thee; only do not be angry with me, for I have built a new shop, and I have no clerk.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") Come with me as my clerk, and I will obey you as I would have obeyed my own father.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Do be kind and do not refuse.”[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/page/2/) - ← previous: [Opening, part 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/20/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/21/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Russian Folk-Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg62509/)