“Never mind, Hodge; what do you want money for? Why, you still have half of a fur; what is the use of it? It will soon be summer, and you will be no longer requiring it. We will go into the inn and drink it up.”
So the peasant and Sorrow went into the inn, and they drank up the half-fur. Next day Sorrow groaned and said he had a headache, a fearful headache, owing to last night’s treat. And he enticed the peasant once more to bib wine.
“But I have no money!”
“There is no need of money. Take your sleigh and your carriage; that will be sufficient for us!”
It was not any good. The peasant could not escape Sorrow. So he took his sleigh and his carriage, drove them to the inn, and drank them with Sorrow. And in the morning Sorrow groaned yet further, and reduced the master to further drinking; and the peasant drank away his ploughshare and his plough.
One month had gone by, and he had drunk all his property away, pledged his izbá[[54]] to a neighbour, and spent all the money in the inn. Then Sorrow came to him once more. “Let us go to the inn!”
“No, Sorrow, I have no more.”
“Why, your wife has two sarafáns, one will be sufficient for her.”
So the peasant took the sarafán, drank it up; and he thought: “Now I have not anything left, neither house, nor clothes, nor anything else for myself or my wife!”
Next morning Sorrow woke up and saw that there was nothing more he could take. So he said: “Master, what is your wish? Go to your neighbour and borrow a pair of oxen and a carriage.”