Aleksándr said:
"You have dropped it, so climb down yourself."
The cow-tender said that she did not mind fetching it herself, if he would let her down.
The elder laughed at her, and said:
"Well, let us go! You have an empty stomach now, so I shall be able to hold you up, for after dinner I could not do it."
The elder tied a stick to a rope, and the woman sat astride it, took hold of the rope, and began to climb down into the well, while the elder turned the well-wheel. The well was about twenty feet deep, and there was less than three feet of water in it. The elder let her down slowly, and kept asking:
"A little more?"
And the cow-tender cried from below:
"Just a little more!"
Suddenly the elder felt the rope give way: he called the cow-tender, but she did not answer. The elder looked into the well, and saw the cow-tender lying with her head in the water, and with her feet in the air. The elder called for help, but there was nobody near by; only the groom came. The elder told him to hold the wheel, and he himself pulled out the rope, sat down on the stick, and went down into the well.