“Let me go now,” the Devilkin begged.
“Not yet,” Ivan said. “I shall want to make the soldiers out of chaff so as not to waste the grain. Show me first how to turn the soldiers into a sheaf again, so that I can thrash it.”
And the Devilkin said, “Repeat the words—
My slave bids every soldier be a straw
And turn into a sheaf once more.”
Ivan repeated the Devilkin’s words, and the soldiers turned into a sheaf again.
And again the Devilkin pleaded, “Let me go.”
“Very well,” Ivan said, taking him off the prongs. “Go, in God’s name.”
At the mention of God the Devilkin plunged into the ground like a stone thrown into water, and there was nothing but the hole left.
When Ivan reached home, his other brother, Taras, and his wife were sitting at table and having supper. Taras could not pay his debts; he fled from his creditors and came home to his father. As soon as he saw Ivan he said, “Until I can make some more money, will you keep me and my wife?”
“Very well,” Ivan said. “You can live here.”