His wife sees that he is wearied from this hunting, and says: “Listen, my dear. I am sorry for thee. Every God-given day thou dost wander through forests and swamps, comest home wet and worn, and profit to us not a whit. What sort of a life is this? But I know something so that thou wilt not be without gain. Get of roubles two hundred, and we will correct the whole business.”
Fedot rushed around to his friends, got a rouble from one, and two from another, till he had just two hundred. “Now,” said his wife, “buy different kinds of silk for this money.”
He bought the silk; she took it, and said: “Be not troubled; pray to God and lie down to sleep: the morning is wiser than the evening.”
He lay down and fell asleep; his wife went out on the porch, opened her magic book, and two unknown youths appeared at once. “What dost thou wish? Command us.”
“Take this silk, and in one single hour make a piece of such wonderful tapestry as has not been seen in the world; let the whole kingdom be embroidered on it, with towns, villages, rivers, and lakes.”
They went to work, and not only in an hour, but in ten minutes they had the tapestry finished,—a wonder for all. They gave it to the sharpshooter’s wife, and vanished in an instant just as if they never had been. In the morning she gave the tapestry to her husband. “Here,” said she, “take this to the merchants’ rows, sell it, but see that thou ask no price of thy own; take what they give.”
Fedot went to the merchants’ rows; a trader saw him, came up, and asked: “Well, my good man, is this article for sale?”
“It is.”
“What’s the price?”
“Thou art a dealer, name the price.”