RUSSIAN GARLAND
her husband and said: "Old Greybeard, what basket is this you have brought me? Likely enough it has served us once and for all; and what good is it now if it gives us nothing more? Go back to the Wind and beg him to give us back our flour, or I'll beat you to death."
So the poor man went back to the Winds. When he came to the old woman, their mother, he fell to complaining of his wife. The old woman told him to wait for her son, who would soon come home.
Not long after came the South Wind, and the countryman began to complain of his wife. Then the Wind answered: "I am sorry, old man, that you have such a wicked wife; but I will assist you, and she shall not beat you any more. Take this cask, and when you get home and your wife is going to beat you, place yourself behind the cask and cry: 'Five! out of the cask and thrash my wife!' and when they have given her a good beating, then say: 'Five! back to the cask!' Then the peasant made a low bow to the Wind, and went his way.
When he came home he said: There, I have brought you here a cask instead of the basket." At this the good woman flew into a rage and said: "A cask, indeed! What shall I do with it? Why
122
