"Indeed? Why did you not tell me so long ago?" he said. "I will make as many for you as you please. Luckily the girl and I have threshed a lot of straw."
Iván took his brother to the threshing-floor, and said:
"Look here! I will make them for you, but you take them away, or else, if we have to feed them, they will ruin the village in one day."
Semén the Warrior promised that he would take the soldiers away, and Iván began to make them. He struck a sheaf against the floor, there was a company; he struck another, there was a second, and he made such a lot of them that they took up the whole field.
"Well, will that do?"
Semén was happy, and said:
"It will do. Thank you, Iván."
"All right," he said. "If you need more, come to me, and I will make you more. There is plenty of straw to-day."
Semén the Warrior at once attended to the army, collected it as was proper, and went forth to fight.
No sooner had Semén the Warrior left, than Tarás the Paunch came. He, too, had heard of the evening's affair, and he began to beg his brother: