“Let me go first,” said the pike, “and then I will keep my promise.”
The fool, however, said that the pike must first perform his promise, and then he would let him go. When the pike saw he would not put him into the water, he said—
“If you wish, as I told you, that I should do all you desire, you must tell me now what your desire is.”
“I wish,” said the fool, “that my buckets should go of themselves from the river up the hill, and that without spilling any of the water.”
Then said the pike—
“Remember the words I now say, and listen to what they are: ‘At the pike’s command, and at my request, go, buckets, of yourselves up the hill.’”
The fool repeated after him—
“At the pike’s command, and at my request, go, buckets, of yourselves up the hill.”
Instantly, with the speed of thought, the buckets ran up the hill. When Emelyan saw that, he was amazed beyond expression, and he said to the pike—
“But will it always be so?”