RUSSIAN GARLAND
had vanished. Thereat the man was angry with her, and said: "I'll answer for it you have eaten the duck yourself!" And so saying he left the house in a pet.
At night Abrosim and his son Ivanushka came home, and, looking in vain for the duck, he asked his wife what had become of her. Fetinia replied that she knew nothing of the duck; but Ivanushka said: "My father and benefactor, when I came home to dinner, my mother was not there; so, looking into the oven, and seeing a roast duck, I took it out and ate it up; but, indeed, I know not whether it was our duck or a strange one."
Then Abrosim flew into a rage with his wife, and beat her till she was half-dead, and hunted his son out of the house.
Little Ivan betook himself to the road, and walked on and on, following the way his eyes led him. And he journeyed for ten days and ten nights, until at length he came to a great city; and as he was entering the gates, he saw a crowd of people assembled, holding a moot; for their Tsar was dead, and they did not know whom to choose to rule over them. Then they agreed that whoever first passed through the city gates should be elected Tsar.
Now just at this time it happened that Little
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